NationStates Jolt Archive

(This thread is closed. Please keep OOC remarks in the OOC Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=529400).)

Metropolis was still occasionally called the City of Tomorrow, a reference to its old protector. Gotham was still the Dark Knight's Estate, and the rumors of “the Batman” still circulated amongst nervous criminals. It was, some said, a mark of how important the old protectors had been to the people. True, that was over a century ago, and that pantheon had dropped out of the limelight. The next generation had stepped in, and some said even carried on further than their predecessors. But that had ended in the Fall.

The exact details of what had happened were still obscure, mostly because those that had been there were consumed by it. It was known that elemental manipulators had begun it. They had attacked the NJLU, and it was learned that their target had been a grudge against Omino. The battle raged to the area outside of Los Angeles. Some of the conspiracy theorists said that unstable pearlet had been deployed, while others claimed it had been one of the other heroes. Either way, the elementals were defeated, but general theory held that Omino’s internal power source had been destabilized by his efforts. The heroes had tried to contain it, but they failed.

The scientists later stated that it had been a nuclear anomaly, but whatever the specifics, L.A. had been hit. Traces of the heroes were never found, and in the rush to get aid to the city, the how’s and why’s fell by the wayside. By the time somebody got around to suggesting a search and recovery for the NJLU, it had become a divisive issue. Some blamed the heroes, stating that they had created this mess through their own carelessness. Others wanted to honor what they called their sacrifice. Burial, though, was useless, and so memorial services were held.

The political fallout had actually produced something. The government refused to register metahumans, sighting precedents about the right to privacy for those that didn’t use their abilities publicly. However, Congress did authorize a task force; one to keep an eye on metahuman affairs to prevent these types of events from coming to a head again. This agency decided to instead create their own team, one composed of metahumans to be kept in reserve, trained to neutralize and pacify situations that got “out of hand.” This team never came to fruition, as it became apparent that the Fall had knocked out latent metahuman powers. This, combined with either the deaths or disappearance of those that had developed their powers, put a temporary hiatus on the agency’s activity.

It is to this world then, a generation later and without any publicized metahuman presence that people find themselves. And to this world that a few metahumans, either secluded, holding latent powers, or simply staying under the radar, find themselves discovering and using their abilities in a world that has learned to go on without them.

Roger Markus Hartigan didn’t draw much attention to himself, mostly because he didn’t try to avoid it. He didn’t slouch. He didn’t wear an overcoat with the broad collar turned up to hide his face. He didn’t even have a hat. Disembarking from the monorail system, he looked like a man going to the gym, and given that it was Concourse Drive, he didn’t appear out of place.

He was stopped at the club entrance by a rather burly and somewhat out of shape door man. “Hey buddy, this club is private. You got your name on here, or is somebody expecting you?”

“I’m Number 25.”

The man looked at the list, then back at Roger. Roger, however, was looking past him, towards a table where another, much smaller man was handing out lanyards with white plastic numbers on them. He had just hadn’t out 23, and there was obviously one guy about to get 24. When the door man saw what Roger was looking at, he looked doubtfully back at Roger. “You know, you don’t look like somebody who should be doing this kind of stuff. You ain’t exactly an Armani model, but you sure ain’t ugly like some of these guys get to be. You honestly want to mess up that hero mug? ‘Cause if you do, some of our patrons are plastic surgeons, and they could help you out.”

“Thanks, but I’ll take my chances,” said Roger, as he moved to the table.

“What’s your style, and your ring name?” asked the attendant.

“I’m a mixed style fighter, and the name’s ‘the Caucasian Bruce Lee’,” said Roger.

“That’s crap. I want something better. How about ‘Caucasian Dragon?’ Or better yet, just go with ‘White Dragon.’ It’s got a decent ring to it. Besides, you want your announcer to actually remember it.”

“Fine, ‘White Dragon’ it is,” replied Roger.

“You’re number 25, and you’ll probably be up within the hour. Changing rooms are down the hall, marked ‘Changing Rooms.’ Good luck, kid.”

“Thanks.”

Roger got changed, and then went to the waiting room, where he managed to ge this stretching in before he was called. He heard the fight with number 23 ending, so he decided to go out, only to hear the announcer call out for two new contestants.

“Will numbers 24 and 25 please make their way to the ring. This is a call for fighters 24 and 25.” Roger saw his opponent enter. He was big, about 6’4” and easily over the 250 mark. As his opponent went to his ring, Roger handed his card number over to the gate man.

“White Dragon, eh? You’re gonna need it for this guy.”

As Roger entered, the gate was closed, and the ring master began his introductions. “Ladies and Gentlemen of this club, this will be an amateur no holds barred match. This is the first fight for both contestants tonight. In this corner, a returning fighter, so far undefeated with eight wins, Grizzly Bear!!!” The club was high quality enough to not sport wild shouting, but there was clapping for the man.

“And his opponent tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you a newcomer to our club, in his first ever match, the White Dragon!” The clapping was less, but at least it was there. “We are taking bets for the next three minutes. Choose your fighter and place them now.” While some of the spectators got up to make their wagers, a referee came in to check each fighter for weapons. He ran his fingers through each man’s hair and gave them the pat down, before telling each one the rules. There weren’t many, just a general ban on fish-hooking and landing blows after either the referee or one of the competitors had called for the match. When he had finished, the announcer called both fighters to the center of the cage, and then rang the bell to start the fight.

Roger started with his right forward, indicating that he was a southpaw. He was actually ambidextrous, and would switch when his opponent got tired. Grizzly struck first, and for a while the two of them just exchanged light blows, meant to test each other’s arms. Roger could feel the weight within the blows. The guy was strong, but Roger was stronger. Deciding to engage, he stepped in and delivered a feinting cross. Grizzly let his arms go up, exposing his abdomen to Roger’s punches. He got two in before Grizzly backed away, and then he closed again.

This time Grizzly brought his knee up to meet Roger, but as he did, Roger’s own knee knocked out the one leg Grizzly had left. Finding his other leg in an arm lock, he went down, hard. As he tired to get up, Roger took his arm and flipped him back to the ground. Grizzly rolled away, and regained his footing, before slamming his weight into Roger. White Dragon was knocked back, but he stayed up. Using his bigger size, Grizzly tried again, only to have an unbelievably hard elbow thrown into his neck. As he reeled, the dragon grabbed him, and hoisting him by the body, threw him back to the ground. Grizzly managed to get a hold as he was thrown, bringing Roger down as well. The two grappled, but Grizzly managed to recover and grab Roger, hurling him in a reciprocated manner.

As Grizzly tried to get the submission, Roger got to his feet, and began to punch Grizzly repeatedly. At first it appeared as though Roger was tiring himself needlessly, though Grizzly began to falter as Roger kept swinging. Roger began landing body shots, and more and more of them made contact. Roger landed an uppercut that sent Grizzly down. The ref stepped in, and after checking Grizzly, called the match. Roger noticed, as he left the ring, that he received a lot more applause leaving than he had going in.

I've come to like living at night, you have more places to be less noticed in. It also makes for better hunting. And while hunting is such a come down from days not that long past, it is...safer.

Oh how I hate that word, just as sometimes I hate myself. But I like living more, and to stay alive one needed funds, and for such as I hunting is about the only to obtain said funds. I'd become good at hunting, good at staying safe, staying alone. I think I missed that the most, the ready companionship of other Hero's-to-be, our enmass nights out after classes ended for the day at the Academy. The whole class would descend on the Pizza Palace, or Dizzy Louies and be racus till the turtles came home. The free drinks and food were our just deserts for we were Hero's in training, soon to be sworn in as protectors of our nation. 'Oh those were the days' I can't help but mourn. But the past is the past. Now I just have to stay...safe.

I take a deep breath and ignored the stench of the illlit alleyway, the pungent aromas that rise from dumpsters that look as if they had been placed there back in the last century, far back in the last century at that.
I am littel more than a darker shadow among a multitude of others. I'd listened long enough to know that the group of young adults on the other side of the dumpsters were criminals, here to deal with one another in relative privacy.

The privacy truly is relative, for I am here and before any are aware of my presence I am among them. There are only four and their shock and surprize keep them from reacting to me effectively in the initial moments. The closest one I telekinese into the dumpster, which crumples dramatically as his partner recieves a kubotan to the temple. He sways for a second then goes down, breathing ending before he fully hits the ground. I love useing the kubotan, one properly applied punch and most anyone will go down, and no one looks twice at what a woman carries her keys on.

However the other two have better reactions than I'd hoped and they have turned to run. I look past them and 'Port. I feel a flash of exhaustion but there is no time for that. I lash out with my telekensis once again and this time both are close together enough for me to affect simultaneously. They meet the brick wall with enough force that they die without realizing it.

I don't waste a second mourning their passing. I'd trailed them for a few days and witnessed their activities myself. Just overhearing other's conversations or the boasting they indulged in when among their 'gang' wasn't enough for me. If I was going to kill there would be a very valid reason for it. I didn't like killing but I also didn't plan on leaving any witnesses or grudge carriers behind.

The bodies went into the sewer, clothing stripped from them to be disposed of else where. Fortunately I didn't have to touch the bodies muchly. I was tiring fast but I had enough zip left to hold them up with my telekensis while I stripped them. There were things living down in the depths of the sewers - there were multiple levels of maze like, hellish underground - that would make a quick feast of them. Rats the size medium dogs to mention only one of the many types of scavengers that dwelt there, and worse. I hadn't explored any more than absolutely necessary. And I was never comfortable while I was down there.

The cocaine I pour into the nearest old bucket I found, half full with algea fouled water and wiggling mosquito larva. The guns they carry but never got to use go into my backpack. The garbage bag containing the drug runners clothes are stuffed into a nearby hospital's medical waste incinerator. Their staff is very lax and leaves the gate unlocked most of the time. It's easy to slip in and toss the bag in among the other trash bags inside the mamoth incinerator. They fire it up just after midnight each morning. Instant disposal of evidence.

I don'tt bother to count the money, but the heft of the case it's in lets me know that I now have funds to live on for several months, if I am careful. I head to the YWCA. You could still get a shower there for a minimal charge and I smell faintly of the sewers. The hot water at 'home' is erratic and I don't feel like chancing it. I am exhausted but not to the point of not caring about my appearance. I needed to feel that I look presentable.

I may no longer be a Hero, but I am still Rio Navada, even if I am the only one in this miserable city that knows who I am and what I once was.

Julian yawned as he pulled himself out of off bed after finishing watching an episode of Spongebob where the little yellow dude had developed a fear of krabby patties originating in sleep deprivation. He made his way to the computer, flicked the on switch and waited for it to boot-up. Once online he pulled up a couple files before opening a media program to watch an episode of ecchi anime and after watching the psuedo-sexual humour of the Japanese television show began surfing a couple of forum and chat programs.

Reading the various internet insanities as well as the listening to his e-pals ranting about the big, and much more numerously small, GCies including some that were quite old such as the moon landing, JFK, dental work and floride in the water. Of somewhat more interest were the ones concerning the 'Metas' and the alleged goverment interest. His most wingnutty correspondent who went by the handle of OTGUM- had mentioned that he'd seen some goverment files concerning a variety of young people who'd been attracting goverment attention including one that had very unusual eyes and another with odd hair. Leaving a few replies, he headed off to school.

Running the very usual gauntlet of teasing, and tormenting, including a first-class wedgie, in front of the cute and popular girls of the school. Laying on the ground as after his underwear had been ripped almost in half the runningback had dropped him and his head had cracked on the ground. Coming around a few seconds later, he noticed a crowd had gathered around the stairwell. It seemed that Danny had fallen to the ground breaking his leg just a few days before the big game.

The accident was the talk of the school as any number of witnesses would have sworn that Danny had been a few meters away and been 'shoved' down the stairs. Julian had a little bit of a mental smile, thought also feeling a bit sorry for the bully, at the karmic justice, while much deeper inside was a much more wicked smile at the injury and trauma done to the aspiring sports star who's future would have been all but assured had he been able to play in the championship game.

What none of those who'd been present realized was that while Julian had believed himself stunned and unconsious, a part of him had been awake and responsible for the 'accident'.

After the day's schooling was finished he headed home he spotting a thug making off with an older lady's purse. Using his abilities to trip up the man he caught the purse and returned it to the lady, little noticing the two vans, the one belonging to the Drainage, Humanure and Sewers LTD as well as the delivery fan belonging to the Carribean, Asian and Arabic foods resturant. Quickly finishing his homework, he flipped on the TV and stereo for some entertainment.

"Welcome back to K-LON Rdio, the only rock station in Palm Desert. It's Josh here, hoping you enjoyed those last few songs. We had some real classics in there. Anyway, it's about that hour. I'll be leaving. Nick is up next. Later."

Josh did all the nescessary things one does when you leave the radio. He got up and stretched. He was a bit tired today. He could still hear some songs playing in his head, but by this point he was used to it. He didn't know what was going on exactly, but he could pick up radio signals. By this point he could turn it off when he wanted, so he did.

He got in his car and put his head back. He needed a rest. He had been up all night training. First he had been to a shooting range to practice with his six shooter revolver. Nick, his best friend, had modified it, so it was a completely unique. Josh always had it concealed with him, just in case, and Nick managed to installed a chip that would keep it from setting of metal detectors, whch Nick also always kept with him.

After that, Josh began praticing his powers in an abandoned lot. He could now completely control the radio waves, and even managed to hear radio waves, and project them. He was working on gamma rays. He was starting to get the hang of it, but it would still be awhile before he could completely use them. Why he was doing the he wasn't sure. He just was.

Josh woke up and drove home. He crashed on the couch and lit a cigarrete. He took a variety of drugs, but wasn't addicted to any, except for possibly alcohal, but even that wasn't an addiction. He was, however, addicted to the ladies. Josh was a ladies man, but also a bachelor. Whether this was his choice or the fact he could never find the right girl was beyond him. Josh put the cigarrete out. He was to tired. He went to bed. There were some messages on his machine, but he was to tired to check. He would do it later.

As Roger left, a man waiting in the hallway started walking next to him. "That was a good fight, sport. How old are you?"

"If you must know, I'm 26. Why?"

"I thought you looked young. I was right. You don't have much experience at this, do you?"

"You mean bare knuckles fighting? No. I train, mostly in Tae Kwon Do and Judo, but I wanted to see what a fighthall would feel like. Why, you looking to sign me? You look like a fighter's promoter, or manager, whatever you guys call yourselves." Roger didn't slow his pace as he neared the exit.

"Sort of. Did you know that you single handedly put back technological advancement into psionic manipulation at least thirty years? I have to admit, I was pissed about losing my scanner, but you, you're impressive." The man was talking like a child that had just been told it was his birthday.

"What are you talking about?" Roger asked.

"We have, well had, I guess. We had a scanner that could mimic certain telepathic traits. The thing was a total accident, and unfortunately the steps to recreate were classified and then destroyed in the hopes that we soon wouldn't need it. It could pick out blips, unique psychic signatures. You showed up like a beacon on it. Only when we tried to mind scan you to see what made it so, the thing shorted out. Congratulations, kid. You're a walking flash-bang to psychics, and probably immune to their contact as well."

"You know," said Roger, with genuine sincerity in his voice, "For a while, I didn't pin you down as a crazy. Now, I'm starting to second guess that. If you're trying to get a fighter, and you tell me that you had some sort of cage-fighter-detection-device, I'm not buying it. Find somebody else. I don't want you to promote me." As Roger turned away, he heard the man's feet rotate, then step. This guy is trying to pick a fight with me.

Roger spun, and caught the knife against his fore arm. It cut a little, but not too deeply. Roger brought his fists down on the radial nerves. The other dude lost the knife, as his hands unclenched uncontrollably. As he bought one hand back, Roger broke his nose, then hit him hard enough in the solar plexus to knock the wind from him. Roger picked up the knife, and forcing the other man to his knees, held the knife to his neck.

"Listen to me, very, very carefully. I don't know who you are. But you attacked me. That means that I don't feel guilty about what I did. And if you die, it's not on my conscious. But I'm going to let you go. First, it's the right thing to do. Second, I don't want to have to deal with the mess. Lastly, I've never killed a man, and I don't intend to start with you. But if you ever see me again, you had better turn the other way. If you dare try this shit again on me, I will kill you, and I won't have any compunctions about it. Here's your damn knife back." Roger wiped the handle with his shirt, and tossed it on the ground.

By the time he had left, the man had gotten up, and made it to a bench, where another person sat down. "Did you get anything, sir?" the newcomer asked.

"Yeah. The guy heals fast. That explains his endurance at the fight. I cut him, and then I saw the skin seal itself back up. He's got strength, too. It felt like he had lead in his fists."

"In a manner, he does, sir. The scanner picked up metal in his body. A lot of it. He's our first hit in years. Do we pursue?"

The first man didn't respond until a minute had gone by. "No. We flag his name, see what we learn from the blood sample he gave us, and see where that takes us. Though based on the overload to the mental scanner, I'd say his mentality makes him unsuitable. We'd lose control of him. For now, though, just flag his file."

***********************************************

The doorbell to Julian's place rang. Outside the door, two men in suits waited for the resident to respond.

A middle aged man who was somewhat dirty and fairly muscular, and had the look of a professional steel worker answered the door beer in hand. "Who are you and what do you want?"

It feels good getting clean and putting on clean clothes. And at the YWCA no one disturbs your locker, so the money case and back pack were as I'd left them. I paid the attendant and left, yawning broadly. Slipping my ancient Ipod shuffle from my jacket pocket I stuff the working one of the earbuds in my lfet ear. Bowies "Golden Years" had me signing along under my breath. I've been told I have a half way decent voice, but hadn't bothered to take any vocal electives beyond the required Public Speaking 101. I had been in a hurry to graduate early. That probably saved my life. The mobs had ringed the Academy with electrified fencing and then fire bombed the dorms. To the best of my knowledge no one survived.

Whom are the victors in the role call of the dead?

I shake my head and thrust those thoughts away as "Born to be Wild" comes on next and I let my stride fall into the rythm. That carries me all the way 'home' and into the unused warehouse I've partially converted to a living space. Electricity and hot water come from the laundromat next door. The Chineese who run it are certain that the apparently abandoned warehouse is haunted. I take great delight in reinforcing that small notion.

Despite my tiredness I still have some nervous energy that the shower hasn't washed away. I have a set of speakers for the Shuffle and shortly I am doing a more than creditable 'line dance' to Garth Brook's "Pappa Loved Mamma" - the old tunes were great for dancing too, even if you danced alone. I'd taken ballet, tap, jazz and belly dancing as well as club dancing as some of my electives. And now, going with the flow of music lets me leave my present behind and is great excersize.

Now if only I had some one to dance with.

Nicholai stared out of the small window, observing the dirty industrial city.
"Gotham." He spat, as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth. He always remembered the first day he had arrived here. Descending off that rusty and near-derelict monorail, walking along the filthy streets, where the beggars were as common as rats. It took all his efforts not to be sick as he made his way to his new apartment. And even that wasn't exactly grade A.

His eyes slid to the bookcase which concealled the door to the 'his room'. Cliche, maybe, but effective. Those objects were important to Nicholai, especially in this wretched city. Gotham. He looked towards his room mate, sleeping quietly on the bed. He looked exactly as he described himself on the website; blond, toned, a good bone structure....beautiful.
NO! Nicholai shaked his head violently, as if he was trying to shake off a clinging spiderweb. No time for that! I didn't come here to fraternise! The only reason I met him on that 'site' was for a cover story!

Suddenyl, Nicholai's mobile began to vibrate. He quickly picked it up and opened it, careful not to wake Sam. It was Sergei.
"What have I said about calling this line?!" Nicholai hissed, before toning down his voice into a whisper. "The Police could be tracking you."
"Don't worry. I'm as clean as Heaven right now." Sergei retorted casually. "Anyway, I thought you'd want to know that 'Mercy Angel' just arrived." Nicholai smiled slightly. Finally, his Beretta had arrived.
"Where do you want to meet?"
"The usual place. Five minutes."
"Done." Nicholai flipped the phone shut, not bothering to say goodbye. He pulled on a coat to cover up his Kevlar, snatched his keys, looked at Sam for a few seconds, then raced out the door.

OOC- woot for steppenwolf Tanaara!

IC- LA....

The city had been nearly destroyed by the angel Sacer. He descended upon the city, and unleashed his might. Buildings fell, streets collapsed into the underground, landmarks were destroyed. People ran in fear, trying to escape Sacer.

"I did not. I tried to welcome him."

Adam Carey looked out his window at the city. It had been awhile since the attack. There had been reconstruction attempts, but for the most part the city was still damaged, Weak. Ripe for conquest.

Adam lived in LA his whole life. And the one thing he knew about the city was he hated it. It was a wasteland, devoid of any meaning or substance. Then he discovered his powers. He trained to master them, and by the point Sacer came, he had mastered them.

When Sacer came, Adam attempted to welcome the conquer, even aid him. However, the angel's power was mighty. Adam didn't know if the angel noticed him or not, because Adam couldn't get close to him. He used all his powers to not be destroyed when the angel went by him. As soon as it passed, he balcked out.

That was awhile ago. He hoped LA would be gone, but it was still here. The government had hoped to restore it, but there was nothing to restore. Adam was always thinking of a way to destroy the city entirely, but nothing ever came. He needed help. Others like him. They could just be crazy, it didn't matter. If he had a plan and others, he could erase LA from the Earth. But where to go? Perhaps Gotham.

Julian's place:

"Sir, we're from the power company. Unfortunately, a few people in the area have been getting some blackouts, knocked out computers, and battery devices that simply stop working. We're taking readings of the whole building. It's not dangerous, but it appears as though there might be rodents or insects getting at the electrical relays. If it's alright with you, we'd just like to step inside to see if your home has been affected. It will only take a few moments." One of them had a small device that had two attennae, almost like a tuning fork, sticking out from the top.

"May we come in, sir?"

I only dance through two short tunes. I'm not wanting to work up a sweat, just burn off the last of the nervous energy...or is it guilt? That's not something I look at too closely these days.

Dinner, downed hastily with little pleasure by the single dim bulb that is all I dare use, is a gopac of rammen. I mix up another one and make some soft clicking sounds with my tongue. From the shadows that fill the vast and cobwebby corners of the abandoned warrehouse slink those even more unwanted than I. The trio of dog, cat and rat are an odd comradship but they are comfortable together, and I envy them. I set the food down and back away, respectfull of their only slowly easing wariness. Humans haven't treated them well that is obvious, and they are slow to trust me.

I'm yawning continuously now and thinking eagerly of sleep, though another thing I don't look at too closely is wether it is an escape, one of the few I will allow myself. Sometimes I wish I could get drunk, dive into a bottle and lose myself. I tried that, and failed at that too. Sometimes I wonder if my life just isn't one enormous failure.

Checking the perimeter of the building is standard proceedure, and one I dare not ignore, no matter how tired I am. Weariness makes my steps slow and heavy but I manage. The money case is hidden away, in a place that it takes one with my abilities to find, and that's the last erg of energy I have tonight. I'd been told that powers develop over time and that with steady use and continual training they'll grow, but sometimes it just seems futile.

"Fine." He growled at both the interruption and the 'Corperate Man'. James was a product of seventies parenting and thus had a fair amount of dislike for those who got classed as 'Suits'.

Letting the two in, he returned to the couch to watch TV.

The two men walked the inside perimeter of the place, and then the flooring of the kitchen and living room. There was some low level crackling, but nothing blipped. When they saw Julian, they smiled, but didn't stop. One bent to examine a couple different outlets, allowing the other to use him as a block while he pointed the device at both occupants. His partner looked up once, only to see him shake his head.

As the two exited, they stopped at the door. "Thank you for your time. It looks like you seem to be alright. The crews are coming out in a couple of days, but if anything does happen, just call up the main office. Have a nice day sir."

They got into a car, and drove two blocks to the north. Then one made a call on his cell phone, picked up by another man waiting in a truck in the same neighborhood. "The kid wasn't the spike at the school. Levels too close to baseline to indicate that type of potential. Do we lnow what happened yet?"

The voice on the other end spoke a while, then disconnected. "Well," the second asked, waiting.

"Apparently some bully was fell down the stairs when the meter spiked. Funny thing was, that jock was at least three yards away from the stairwell the second before. And he had just given our boy a wedgie."

"It's motive."

"But neither means, nor opportunity. Others were between the kid and the bully, and like we saw, he didn't give us anything more than a little blip. Besides, that wasn't his only victim. We'll check tomorrow, see if we can get another person." The other man nodded, and they drove off.

Gotham Family feared lost in Plane Crash

Nathan Kyle of Kyle Realty and his wife and daugher are feared dead as their private plane crashed in the remote region of India last week. Nathan and Jennifer Kyle took an overseas vacation to celebrate their adopted daughter's recent High School Graduation as well as her birthday.

The last reported message indicated some instrumentation problems just before the plane dropped off of the radar...

---

Bodies recovered from Plane Crash

India: the remains of a plane that was lost 4 months earlier was found. the bodies of the crew and two adults were recovered... missing is the third listed passenger, a teenager, the daughter of Realty Mogal Nathan Kyle. Haruka, who turned 19 shortly before the ill fated trip may, infact, still be alive. Investigators at the crash site informed US officals that there is evidence that someone did infact walk away from the crash. Officals have begun searching the heavily wooded area for any signs of her survival.

Haruka Kyle was adopted by the Late Nathan and Jennifer when they visted Japan in the mid 80's...

---

Heir to Kyle Fortune Found.

India: after a month of intense searching, the Heiress to the Kyle name was found. Searchers found the young woman in the jungle, and brought her safely to Delhi where she stayed at the US Embassy. she has been medically cleared and will be flying home to the States.

Her seemingly fit and unharmed status brought many questions as to how she survived for almost six months in the jungles of India without being detected nor seriously harmed...

---

Kyle Heiress returns home.

Gotham - Lost child Haruka Kyle returned home today. Reluctant to speak to reporters about her ordeal, she simply stated that "It's good to be home" before being driven off by her family's staff.

Nathan Kyle, a son of Gotham gave so much to this city, including several housing projects that continued on dispite the tragedy with the support of close friends to the Kyles. "We know that this is what Nathan wanted, so we wanted to make sure it was completed." said close family friend Frank...

She was dying of thirst. Glancing at the desert expanse that surrounded her, Chandra limped on. her throat had already sealed itself shut to prevent more moisture loss, so she could only croak out the name of the object she desired... "water"...

Cresting a dune, she collapsed as the pain in her hip became too much to bear. Turning her head to the side, she notice a pitcher of water, just out of reach...

+++

Groggily, Chandra opened her eyes as she lay in the hospital bed at Gotham Memorial Hospital. Her glazed eyes focusing on the empty pitcher on the night table. she reached out to it with a dripping hand, but in her semi-consious state, she sends it crashing to the ground.

at the sound, her room door opens and the nurse gives out a shriek at all the water covering the floor. she is quickly removed from the soaked and dripping bed and relocated to another room where she is dried and changed into clean clothes. the Nurses call their facility department to check the water pipes in the area for any leaks.

"it's weird. she was soaked, and it seemed that the water was coming from her" the nurse looked at the attending as the cleanup crew left the floor.
"profused sweating?"
"worse... it was like the water was... oozing out of her pores. we fixed her up with a hyrdration formula and ran tests to check for dehyration, but nothing."
"was she awake?"
"she wanted a drink of water... we gave her a glass then she went to sleep and... the waterworks stopped."
"Get a blood sample to the lab. see if there's anything unusual in her system... anything else occured with this patient?"
"she had an unusual visitor... an older gentleman who brought her those holoflowers. He didn't seem like family... but he dropped off the flowers and after a few minutes, he left..." the nurse gasps, "you don't think he tried to poison her... do you?"
"Dunno, but get that blood work to the labs. she's scheduled to leave today, and if there is anything wrong, we need to know before she leaves."

+++

"That was weird." Chandra commented to the nurse who was pushing her towards the entrance, her parents were laden with the flowers and gifts her friends and teammates gave her.

"It was almost like a swamp in there. Don't worry tho. It doesn't appear to be anything wrong with you. so... I'll be seeing you for your continual rehab?" The nurse smiled and looked down at his charge.

"Rehab... right..." Chandra's smile wavered as she saw the news footage of the Olympic team heading off to Iraq for the Summer Olympics. 'I would be with them... I should've been with them.'

Her father follows her gaze and realizes what she's watching. He steps between her and the monitor. "Hey baby, don't you worry, with the nano-weave muscles assisting... you'll be up and doing those backflips and leaps and all the other things that make MY back ache from watching you. and when the next olympics come around..."

"I still won't be able to participate, dad." Chandra smiled at her father's attempt to cheer her up. "the Nano-weave muscles and Bone supports constitue 'Artificial Enhancement'... against IOC rules. But that doesn't mean I can't help train the next team."

"oh... yeah... with your training, them Chinese don't stand a chance."

As they entered the valet parking, the attendant brought their vehicle around. as they helped her into the car, the attendant leaned in and slipped a card into her hand.
"your future is now open to you. perhaps they can help you find a path suitable for you." He winks at her and closes the door before she could respond. Her parents, not hearing the exchange, drive their daughter home. She looks back as the valet attendant cheerfully waves them off.

She looks at the card. it only has an address printed on it... and nothing else.

"that's weird."

"What's weird dear?" her mother asked from the front seat.

"oh... nothing." she stuffs the card into her pocket and stares at the tall buildings that make up Gotham's skyline.

Nicholai ran a hand down the smooth surface of his shiny new handgun, admiring it like a child with a lollipop.
"The parts are made out of a special metal-like material," Sergei explained, while poking at the remains of a sandwich. "Doesn't set off metal detectors, lighter, smaller, and to be frank, dam awesome." He swept his plate aside, taking out a large black box. He inserted a keycard into the side, qickly pushed a few buttons and the box clicked open. Nicholai stared down at this treasure trove.
"Full kit, used by these 'Special Ops' types." Sergei remarked casually. "You got all the bare essentials; radios, combat knifes, mags, attachments, the works." He closed the box again, pushing it forward. Nicholai picked it up carefully, sliding it into his rucksack as gently as if it was a baby.
"There's a license under the name of 'Lt. Yuri Yaroslav' inside, and the keycard is registered." He waved it, before putting it down. "Eight-digit password. Current password is 'OPEN ME UP'. Letters and numbers, fully modifiable. However, knowing you, I doubt anyone would have time to enter so much as a letter before you dealed with them." Sergei flashed Nicholai a wry smile. Nicholai's face was emotionless, but he inclined his head. He grabbed the keycard, slipping it into his wallet and making a mental note of the password. He then pulled out a small paper bag, dropping it down infront of Sergei. Sergei drew a flick knife, cutting open the bag. Wads of cash poured out, bringing on another smile.
"Pleasure doing business." Nicholai nodded, pulled on his rucksack, and strolled away casually. As soon as he was about 15 metres away, he drew out a small pen and pressed the top firmly. The cafe, Sergei, and any evidence of their encounter was engulfed in a sphere of flame.
"Pleasure doing business." Nicholai muttered under his breath.
"You shouldn't have done that."
Nicholai froze. Not this. Not now.
"He was a good man. You knew that, Nicky."
"Shut up, Alexia." Nicholai growled, the harshness of his voice overcoming the disembodied whisper.

It was an uneventful trip home. Surprising for Gotham. You couldn't go down a single back alley without getting mugged, beaten or raped. Sometimes all three at once. He entered the apartment slowly, looking for Sam. He was still asleep, murmuring away quietly on the bed. Nicholai removed his wallet from the jacket, before tossing it aside. He walked up to Sam, wiping a golden sliver of hair from his forehead and kissing him lightly. He walked over to bookcase, pushing it aside to reveal the secret entrance. Pulling a rusty key from his pocket, he unlocked the door and entered 'the room'. The walls were lined with boxes and bags, cellotaped down on shelves. Each cheap bin liner disguised an ancient artefact, every square of cardboard concealling a relic. It had taken years of scrounging and searching, but Nicholai had gathered them all. No price was too high for such beauty. At the far end of the room lay a small, metal chest. Clicking in another key, Nicholai pulled open the lid. He carefully fitted in the black box. Locking up behind him, Nicholai came back into the living room. He poured himself a shot, downing it in one go. His eyes fell to Sam. He was beginning to stir. Nicholai sat down next to him, listening to his gently breathing before slowly awakening him. Sam's eyelids flittered open, his blue eyes staring up at Nicholai.
"Hey." He muttered simply. For the first time that day, Nicholai smiled.

My dreams are punishment enough.

"Come on Rio, Meet me at the park." Michael's voice, rough with what I could only guess was worry and concern for me. The riots and the murders of whichever Hero the mob could corner were in full flower. I'd been warned by Kyro, one of my classmates and a dear friend, before they'd found him and dismembered him. He'd refused to figtht back. I'd already decided that I would if I had too, but the decission had been hard, and caused me much heartache.

I trusted Michael, how could I not, we were going to be married in six months. And he'd known me from the orphanage where we'd both grown up. Love wasn't in great supply, but we didn't know anything different. They kept us clean, healthy, educated and fed. We did envy the children we saw out with their loving families, but thats only natural, and reinforced our desire to grow up and find such love for ourselves. Michael had studied hard in college after his term of Federal service and had gotten his accreditation asn an accountant. Not very glamourous but he was good with numbers and the corporations paid number crunchers well. He'd never lack for a steady job. And my coming status as a accredited and insigniad Hero would give us all the perks and glamour we could want.

I jerk awake, shieing from the nightmare that my nightmare is to become. I startle the scruffy mutt, tattered eared cat and scarred rat that have curled up at my feet and the discovery that they now trust me enough for that brings more tears to my eyes. I crie till dawn.

I've never been a pretty crier, but there's no one to see, no one to care.

Markus smiled as he sat beside his parents in the Metropolis Airport. Here in Metropolis, he could start all over. Back home, there were always too many people around him. Too many people that could accidentally see something. Here, he could become an outcast if he wanted to. It would make the rest of his high school life miserable, but the cost would be worth it, as long as nobody discovered his secret.

On the plane ride over from LA, Markus wondered if the loss of control he had back home was really an accident. Maybe he had subconsciously triggered his powers to destroy his house. Markus shook his head. It didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that his parents had decided that with Markus's steady decline in grades, and their recent loss of a home, that a change in scenery would be better for everybody.

On his left, his father was complaining to some random employee how the quality of airport personnel was much lower then it had been when he was a kid. When Joseph Alveron was young, you never had to wait two hours for luggage. They had it waiting for you when you got off the airplane. The people even brought your luggage to your car for you!

Markus only smiled lightly at his father's exaggeration, but the look on the employee's face made him chuckle. The person was a young person, probably fresh out of high school. The poor gullible fool believed every word Joseph Alveron said.

"Don't laugh at your father, dear." scolded Markus's mother.

Markus held back a sigh. "Yes, Mom."

Markus tuned out the sound of his father and the employee, who were now arguing with each other over the quality of taste of the peanuts served on airplanes. Markus pulled out a book, entitled Dune, from his backpack. As he began reading, he thought to himself. I think I'm going to like life here in Metropolis.

“No, please, go ahead” Haruka spoke to Michael and Yvette, her ‘staff’. Michael, a large man did the general maintenance around the house, kept the grounds, and also served as her driver (tho Haruka preferred to drive herself) and Butler (also, something that Haruka would preferred to do herself… she always thought it silly to have someone just to answer the door and phone and to fetch things for her.

Yvette, a petite brunette, served as Maid and cook. A simple enough job since now only the four of them lived in the mansion, made simpler since Haruka was a Vegan. But she just couldn’t let them go, since they were employees of the family for as long as she could remember. Infact, she rarely thought of them as ‘staff’ and more like the Aunt and Uncle she never had.

Their daughter, Emily, is also Hari’s best friend. A sister in everyway but blood. The three of them insisted that they stay on, something that Haruka was grateful for since they were now the only family she had left.

“Come with us, it’s no trouble at all.” Yvette smiled at her ‘Boss’

“You guys have been here in this place ever since I came back, you three need time away from the mob of reporters and their stupid question. Go, enjoy the movies, have dinner, relax.”

“The reporters don’t bother us much… not after a couple were chased away by that ‘mad gardener’” Emily laughed at the news story showing an angry Michael waving a rake as a videographer tried to sneak into the mansion to take some candid shots. “they never did try that stunt again.”

“I go with you and anywhere we go will look like a New Hollywood premier. You three deserve a night out without that hassle. Think of it as a way of me saying thanks. Besides... I know you two didn’t have any time off since I came back.” Putting her hand on her hips and a mock scowl on her face, Haruka growled. “I don’t wanna pay anymore overtime.”

The four laughed as they all know that after she came back and the three made it clear they were staying, Haruka gave them one of the family’s bank accounts so that they didn’t have to worry about their financial situation.

“NOW GO.” Haruka again insisted. Grabbing her car keys she smiled at the three, “I’ll drive away, and take that mob with me. Then you three can sneak out and away.”

+++

Haruka lay on the couch, watching Desent on HBO: Golden Classics when her stomach growled. Going to the fridge, she reached for the salad that Yvette prepares for her every day. After a few moments, and the end of the credits, Haruka made sure the doors and windows were closed, put the now empty salad bowl in the sink, and made her way up to her bedroom.

+++

Michael opened the door and Yvette and Emily walked in, turning on the hallway light.

“I love Cirque De Soleil,” Emily said as she crossed the hallway, “I never get tired watching them.”

Yvette smiled back at her daughter as she entered the kitchen, “I remember you and Hari trying to set up the ropes in the gym to recreate some of the… “ Paulette stopped and yelled in surprise at the carnage that greeted her in the kitchen. The refrigerator doors were open and the contents scattered around the kitchen floor.

Emily and Michael stared at the mess. With a gasp, Emily ran up the stairs towards Haruka’s room while Michael and Yvette ran to check the other rooms. She almost made it to the top of the stairs when her Mother’s shout brought her back down.

“Em, she’s here!”

Emily ran back down and found her mother kneeling beside Hari as she lay on the floor infront of the fireplace, her eyes closed and her face and nightgown a mess.

“Mom… is she…”

“Sleeping…” her Mother checked her pulse and looked for any signs of an attack. “no obvious injuries…”

Michael came in and looked at them… “no obvious signs of a break in… is she…”

“Sleeping dear… and from this mess on her, I say she is the culprit.” Yvette carefully wiped away some barbeque sauce, mayo and who know what else from Hari’s face. Emily picked up a rib bone, leftovers from a couple nights ago, and looked at it.

“Mom, these have been seriously gnawed at… Hari couldn’t have…”

“Em, help me get her cleaned up and back into bed… we’ll ask her in the morning.” Yvette looked worriedly at the sleeping Haruka.

“I’ll check the security holos… see if anyone did sneak in.”

+++

“I don’t understand…” Haruka looked at Yvette as she, Yvette and Emily finished cleaning up the kitchen. “The last thing I remember was going to bed early…”

“Well Hari, when we got in at 11, the kitchen was a mess and you were snoozing nice and quietly by the fireplace… covered in rib and chicken bones.”

Hari blanched, “don’t even joke about that Em…” but paused as Yvette nodded to back Em’s statement.

“But…”

“Dad checked the security vids, no one snuck in… it was all you Dawg!” Em grinned. “I was pissed to think that you partied without me.” She teased.

Hari remained quiet as she stared at her reflection in the stainless steel counter top.

She closed her eyes and let the spray of hot water wash over her. She carefully massaged the bruise on her shoulder... a remnant of her failed attempt at a triple sumersault, reverse overlay... a basic move before her injury, but now... her right hip gave out after the third flip, the results was not enough lift to complete the reversal, and she ended up landing on her shoulder, hard.

At least the wetness can now be attributed to the shower. she thought as the tears of her failure was washed away by the spray.

Tho they aren't saying anything, I can feel their pity... what good is a gymnist that can't even do a basic routine? She sighed... bowing her head, she grabbed the shampoo bottle and began washing her hair with a generous portion of shampoo.

The therapists say I'm doing better, and I am... I guess I can't rush it...but DAMNIT! it's so hard to start from scratch...

"Always look for the bright side... that's what Mom would say... " she sighed as she massaged the shampoo into her hair.
Tonight is Roast Beef... with her signature gravy... She makes the best gravy... I gotta get her to teach me how she does it... I can practially smell it alre... no... I can smell it...

She opened her eyes and looked down... clumping at her feet was large blobs of brown sauce... It left thick trails on her body as it ran down from...

Pulling her hands away, she screamed as it was covered in the thick, viscous liquid. stepping back, she slipped on the gravy and landed on the shower floor. she stared at the shower head that was still spewing out water and she started to fling the gravy from her hair. the stuff was clumped together with her shampoo and strands. She screamed as the amount of the thick coating seemed never ending...

and that's how the remaining team found her... frantically throwing a mixture of shampoo, water and gravy all over the place. it took them almost an hour to calm her down, and to get her and the shower room cleaned up. While there was no proof, they managed to convince her that 'someone' must've slipped some instant gravy mix into her shampoo bottle, a poor practical joke.

Except that the shampoo bottle, which lay on it's side, leaked perfectly clean shampoo onto the floor.

Roger spent the night sleeping, then went into work early the next morning. For some reason, the chances of getting a good assignment were always better the earlier you went in. It wasn't a matter of first come first pick, but the bosses had a knack for getting the more desireable jobs assigned first. An almost perfect irony for the bureaucratic nature of assigning jobs. As he walked in, he flipped his name plate, letting his bosses know he was heading to his lab station.

He had barely gotten his computer up when his supervisor, an older man named Ben, came in. "Raj, you've still got your pilot's license up to date, right? Forget it, of course you do." Even as Roger nodded, Ben went on. "Gotham's branch had a new bug in the sewer system and they want an outside consult to run a quick diagnostic to see if it is infectious. Since you have airport clearance, I'm sending you. Here," he said, handing him a few forms. "Sign out, and take the Cessna. I swear, one of these days I'm going to start hiring more guys like you. You've no idea how many headaches you've saved me over the years."

"Well," said Roger, "Not everybody can be the brilliant scientist that I am. And even if you do only hire analysts at my level, then you're only causing everybody else to fall below average."

"You know what I was talking about," Ben said, before tossing Roger a pass key and leaving. Roger always kept a travel bag ready to go. He had picked that up from his flying instructor way back when he was still a kid.

The metro ride to the airport went smoothly enough, and getting to his plane and out to the sky wasn't too much of a hassle. He had more than the usual turbulence during the short flight, but he was standing in the city, bag in hand, before lunch hour, and as he walked the airport corridors, his mind drifted to the stories his grandfather had told him about the one they called "The Dark Knight."

Metropolis

Gwendilynne Shultz aka Lady Moonette swam lazily in her indoor swimming pool allowing herself to remember the first day she had come to Earth. It had only been two months since her arrival from the Planet Narth, one of three Class M Planets located in a Andromeda Universe system called the Nelchizedeke Cluster.

She had been sent to Earth as a Protector from a number of hostile alien races that were always looking for humanoid planets to enslave or destroy. For decades now Narth’s long lived ruler Lightwalker had only quietly observed Earth because no more then that was needed. However in the last few years he saw a decline of super or mutant protectors for the planet. Some had been killed in some manner while performing their duties as Hero’s. Other had just grown to old or burnt out to continue in there seemingly never ending vigil.

Consequently he had sent her to fill part of that void. She had traveled here in a great starship built especially for her. Within it lay the means to monitor sol system space against invasion as well as manufacture and repair any of her home planets high tech equipment because she was meant to stay here for as long as the planet needed her protection. For the first month she had been busy with establishing herself a secret identity that would stand up to any level of investigation. Since then she had been busy building a new aerospace corporation through which she would slowly raise Earths technology level to universal normal levels so one day they would be advanced enough to protect themselves from even the high tech villains of the multiverse.

Hocking Hills / Wild Cat Hollow

Between three of the many rolling wooded hills of Wild Cat Hollow on the Farrar Country Estate an air car piloted by Ms Nikki Farrar landed near the entrance to a large hanger. After Nikki shutdown the power to all the systems of the air car she climbed out of it’s cockpit and down to the ground. She navigated the two flights of stairs down into the underground tram that would whisk her to the basement of her Country Mansion five miles away in just a few seconds. It had been a long day at the office of Matergy Inc. today and Nikki was more then ready to let her hair down for the evening and relax a bit before she had to leave on a business trip to New York City in the morning because her company was looking to invest in space tourism and she had heard about this new aerospace corporation that had just unveiled some new products which seemed to be just what the doctor ordered at least at first glance …. tomorrow she would know for sure.

The Next Morning ….

Nikki boarded her personal Vtol Learjet on one of the many pads near the aircraft hanger as a VIP Passenger even though she was an accomplished pilot in her own right. The six hundred mile trip to New York City took only thirty minutes to travel because of the jets ability to fly at nearly Mach 2. Soon after landing she boarded a helicopter that whisked her away to meet the CEO of Nelchizedeke Aerospace …. Gwendilynne Shultz.

Despite having been within the confines of the city for several days now, Gotham was still quite a shock to eyes of Ed Romano. He'd only been in the USA for a bit over a week now and was somewhat used to the differences between American and Australian cities, but Gotham was far beyond anything he could have ever expected.

Of course he'd listened to what others had to say and by all descriptions Gotham sounded like an undesirable place to be but Ed decided he had to see for himself, people tended to exaggerate things and he wanted a realistic idea of what was going on. Unfortunately little had been exaggerated. The streets were littered with filth and poverty, the people were almost like zombies, going about their own business with almost lifeless expressions upon their faces, avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

It was late afternoon and the sun was quickly sinking into the horizon, which seemed to encourage everyone upon the street to move a lot faster. Evidently the idea of being out on the streets during the night was not ideal. With no particular direction in mind, Ed continued to wander the streets until he passed a particularly unpleasant smelling alleyway, the sounds of a struggle clearly audible. Despite such, no one stopped to investigate or help rectify the situation within. Ed could not let such go, his father had always told him a man that stood by and watched a crime committed was just as bad as the man committing the crime. To do anything but follow his father's advice would be a slight to his memory.

Moving deeper into the alley, Ed came across the sight of three men and a young woman. Two of them appeared to be thoroughly enjoying their task of kicking the woman as she lay upon the ground whilst the other man appeared to be keeping a lookout, which resulted in him spotting Ed. Promptly withdrawing a small blade, the young punk approached Ed with a menacing glare.

"Get the f*!k outta here or I'll skin ya alive..."

Noting the blade, Ed's heart began pumping faster as he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins in anticipation. Taking another look at the helpless woman, Ed knew he couldn't leave.

"How about you get your mates to stop kicking her senseless and I'll take her with me?"

The young man didn't bother to reply and simply lunged towards Ed with his blade, hoping to plunge it deep into his chest. Ready for any such action, Ed stepped back enough just in time to allow the man to overbalance himself, now plunging for the ground. Instead of allowing him to simply fall again, Ed stepped forward and brought his knee crashing into the young man's face, the sound of his nose and various other bones crunching quite obvious, quickly followed by blood exploding all over his jeans and the screams of agony as the punk fell to the ground, clutching his face.

The encounter was enough to grab the attention of the other two thugs, one of them immediately withdrawing a gun. Ed simply reacted. He knew he was quick, but he couldn't dodge bullets. Extending an arm, Ed pointed at the two criminals and watched as the air began to stir around them. Within seconds they were fighting gale force winds are barely able to keep their eyes open as debris from the alley flew towards them. The young woman was protected by a shield of air Ed had established and was slowly being dragged out of the way.

With the two thugs on their own now, Ed grunted as he upped the force and watched as they were promptly lifted off their feet and launched high into the air before slamming into the brick wall of a nearby building and crashing to the ground. Whether they were dead or unconscious didn't bother Ed, he'd had to kill on multiple occasions to defend himself before and he figured in a city like this, he was doing the people a favour.

The air still once more, Ed approached the young woman in order to investigate her condition. A quick check of her pulse and breathing explained she was unconscious and probably in no threat of dying, yet the injuries were serious enough to need medical attention. Knowing there was a hospital about a block or so from this location, Ed hoisted the young woman onto his shoulder and exited the alley, headed for the hospital.

Nicholai woke up frantically, reaching for his gun.
Just a nightmare. He had dreamed about Sergei coming back, exacting his vengeance on Sam and then attacking Nicholai himself. Where was Sam? He looked down, and noticed Sam lying on Nicholai's chest, still heavily asleep. Nicholai sighed. He knew he ought to wake him up, he would have to leave for work in 10 minutes, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He pulled himself out of bed, careful not to disturb Sam. He dressed quickly. There was a lot of things he needed to do. Money, for starters. And work. He slipped on the Kevlar, and then pulled the large jacket off from the radiator. He found the black sunglasses, lying closed next to his bed. Sliding them on, he grabbed his keys and phone and went out the door.

Even in the early hours, Gotham couldn't be described as quiet. Cars still lined the roads, people still walked the streets, and criminals still stalked the back alleys. Nicholai turned a corner...
...and found himself facing a brickwall. Shit. Instantly, he heard someone move behind him. Turning around, he came face to face with a thug. Armed. Shit.
"Dun't mova dam mussle or ay blow ya fucking open, asshol!" The mugger's speech was slurry. Probably some cokehead. Nicholai grimaced.
"I don't take orders from insignificant insects like you." The mugger's gun was rusty and dirty, held together with cellotape. Wouldn't be surprised if it broke after one shot.
"Watchya dam muth, motha fucka! Ay'll blow ya wide-fucking-opan!" The criminal spat. "Naw givvus yar muny, bitch!"
Nicholai reached behind him into his pocket, feeling the hard handle of his Beretta. With his left hand, he took off his sunglasses.
"No." Nicholai prepared himself quickly. Within a few seconds of him stating that word, the thief fired. Nothing. The criminal looked down at his gun in surprise. It was smoking, and it had ejaculated a shell, but what happened to the bullet. Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a golden puddle which had formed inbetween him and Nicholai. Nicholai smiled at his surprise.
"Oh, i'm sorry, did you mean to do this?" Nicholai asked sarcastically, before whipping out his handgun and planting a bullet in the cranium of the unfortunate thug. The precise bullet split right through the core, destroying the head in a bloody explosion. A quick search of the cadaver revealled one mag of .45 ammo, a small packet of cocaine and about 500 dollars. Nicholai grabbed them all, before running up the fire exit to escape the scene of the crime. He need not of bothered, Gotham Police being crap at best during the day, nevermind during the morning.

The money went straight into the bank, the cocaine and ammo magazine reaching a fair price on the black market. Atleast that was rent sorted. But Nicholai still needed a job. He couldn't rely on Sam's trickle of income, and Nicholai had other useful....'talents'. One did not live on the streets as part of a violent gang for 13 years without learning how to defend himself. Perhaps fighting might be his forte...

Duo Alvaro Sato sighed as he stood with a heavy suitcase at a strange airport waiting for a complete stranger to pick him up. Duo, sometimes known to some as DAS, was an orphan from England. No ordinary orphan mind as he had the power of invisibility.

And it was that invisibility power that had got someone interested in him. Here Duo was, tired from the flight and awaiting a complete stranger. His green eyes looked around for anyone who appeared to be heading towards him. So far nothing, he would have to wait a little longer. The thirteen year old sighed and ran a hand through his long blond hair tidying it up just a little.

“Come on,” he muttered to himself.

He wondered how long he would have to wait. It was the right airport, after all this was the one on the airline ticket. Still it was better here than at that old orphanage set in an old haunted Victorian building. That was a nasty place and he shivered as he remembered events that went on there.

Just as the two men left, Julian's mother Nicole arrived. As she put down her briefcase, she asked, "So who were those two?"
"Just a couple of people from the power company, claiming blackouts and other technical crap."
"Alright, supper will be in an hour. Got that Julian?"
"Mind if I get a burger at the mall. I heard the arcade has a couple new games."
"Alright, if you intend to stay out all night, call."
"Will do."

Julian headed out to the mall to get a burger and fries before wasting a couple bucks at various arcade games, including one of his favorites, a somewhat mothballed game based on the NJLU that had fallen out of favour due to the crackdown on superheros.

Afterward he decided to head down toward the scuzzier section of Gotham, the warehouse and industrial section. One of his friends, so to speak, who lived in a rundown house in the area had mentioned he had a couple boot-legged games and dvds that he'd be willing to let go cheap.

On his way back, he thought he heard something that sounded like sobbing coming from the environs of a rundown warehouse and began making his way toward the noises.

Nicholai walked briskly, hugging his jacket for warmth. Gotham was bitterly cold, as usual. Why the Hell can these people not meet somewhere convetional, like a bar? One of his contacts, 'Skoda', had said he could hook him up with a match. Skoda was an unsavoury character, but Nicholai needed the work. Skoda had chosen to meet down in an area Nicholai would rather avoid, some deserted warehouse or shit like that. So Nicholai was surprised when he glimpsed a teenager. Obviously not Skoda. Nicholai kept an eye on him, hands hovering over his gun. Cops came in all shapes and sizes. Eventually, the figure moved into a warehouse. Shit. That was probably Skoda's meeting point, and this kid was obviously some Police agent. Pulling out his Beretta, Nicholai followed, keeping a safe distance.

Josh woke up. He felt more relaxed now that he had some sleep. He checked the messgaes on his machine. Most were from some girls he never intended to call again, others were just as useless. Finally, there was one from his boss. He was going to Gotham to cover some music event. Josh wasn't thrilled, as he hated most of the music out today. He would be leaving tomorrow. Today he had the day off, so he got up and packed for a few hours before going out.


He went right to the firing range. He unpacked his six shooter and took aim. He was starting to get pretty good, as he had been practicing for awhile now. After he hit several perfect shots, he decided to leave. He drove over to an abandoned old building. It was where he practiced his powers.


He entered the building and went to the room where he practiced. He sat down on an old chair. He them tried to pick up the radio wave from K-LON Radio. He did so easily. Next, he tried picking up some waves from other stations. Again, he easily could. Next, he looked out the window and saw some people outside a supermarket. He decided to practice on them. He transferred radio waves to their ears, waves that said look behind you. Every person spun around and, confused, looked around for someone. Josh smiled. He waited until dark to practice his gamma rays. He could fire them, but the recoil was rough, andhe had no control over the power of the beams. Some would come out weak, others strong. He practiced for hours, and by the time he realized it, it was 3 in the morning. He was starting to get the hang of the gamma rays. He returned home and slept for a few hours, then woke up, drove to the station to pick up all the mescessary things, and then drove to the airport. The next few hours he spent in the airport and on the plane, before finally landing in Gotham. His hotel wasn't in one of the bad parts, but the whole city was pretty bad, so he kept his gun with him at all times. He went to the hotel, and crashed, getting some much needed rest.

My sobs cease as I notice the trio pricking their ears and making a quick fade into the darkest of the shadowy corners.

I've taken care to make sure that my small nitche wasn't visible from the sole useable 'door'- if you were willing to risk tetnus from the rusty corrugated steel door pannel that would slice a careless hand open in an instant. The matching pairs of semisized doors at either end of the wraehouse had been lowered and sealed shut years ago. There were the many small, roughly made caltrops I'd scattered liberally about. Yes, there is a path through them, but I hope that it isn't easily discerrnable. I'd altered it twice since moving in.

'Hose, wire?' I thought as I stiffled a cough. I use a hose and a heavy duty extersion cord to give myself water and light. They run from an old external junction on the laundry next door. I tried to disguise them by duct tapeing them to the old standpipes that run overhead between the two buildings. The alley is narrow and noisome enough that those passing by watch where their feet go rather than overhead. And I'm carefull of how much I use. I sleep, or go elsewhere during the day, when there are workers next door. But there are enough snoopy people about, and the warehouse had obviously been used for trists and deals before I'd come along. Then it gained a reputation for being haunted. So I wasn't as safe as I could be, just as safe as I coulde make it witth what I had to work with.

The nitch wasn't much and it wasn't home, but it was the best I can expect having no passport and no local I.D. Hoepfully this last score has netted me enough to cover the cost of such.

I sit still, listening intently to try and catch such sounds as alerted the trio.
The warehouse isn't really dark, a fair amount of dim 'city glow' filters in through the dirty skylights that cover a good portion of the two story ceiling. If some one enters I should be at least able to see their outline. The cold is making me shiver, and I can see my breath, even with my blankets wrapped around me. The blankets aren't that warm. I'd found them in a dumpster outside a thrift store. It was easy enough to wash them and to ignore the ugly flower pattern.

"Be careful with this one, we're in a public building." The voice on the earpiece was a bit more reminder than warning, but was still annoying to the listener.

"I know it's been about a century since you went through basic training, sir, but we did cover this stuff then." This got a few laughs in the room where the reply was sent to.

"Just hope you remember it then, kid." The man listening to this was thin and had a face smoothe enough to suggest late adolescence or early adulthood. Which was good, because the general staffing for weekend workers at the hotel consisted of local college boys lokking to earn some spending money or participating in a work-study program.

He knocked on the door, waiting for the reply, and took out a small device that had two small antennae protruding, as well as a display that had a menu listing the room number, the word "Occupied," and two lines that read "Synchronize TV w/ Remote."

A rat crossing his path was just about enought to send Julian out of his skin. With a similar stimulus as that which prompted his abilities manifesting originally again stimulating them, Julian didn't even realize that the door was jagged and sharp or that the floor was covered in sharpish debris until he heard one crunch under.

Pausing for a moment he looked at his shoes to noticed that the soles had been lacerated almost beyond repair. With a curse he muttered, "Mom'll kill me if she sees these. Maybe, no that wouldn't work. Guess I'll have to see if I can get dad to give me the money for a new pair and hope mom won't notice."

Problem solved, as far as he was concerned anyways, Julian proceed again with the same lack of caution and curiosity that had been responsible for numerous punches to the gut, wedgies and swirlies when he accidentally discovered his antagonists doing what they really shouldn't have been, he called out, "Anyone here?"

Nicholai shadowed Julian, keeping a distance of 10 metres. Noticing the objects scattered across the floor, he stepped quietly past the door, trying to evade the strewn shrapnel. He swapped his gun into his left hand, so he could concentrate on avoiding the rubbish. Nicholai was beginning to have doubts. The boy seemed like a typical child. No Police agent would ever announce their presense. Unless, they were trying to infiltrate. Caught up in thought, Nicholai's foot landed on a shard of grass, the crack echoing around the building. Before the kid had any time to react, Nicholai launched himself out the front door and swung round to the side. He held his Beretta with two hands, as he peered round the corner of the door.

Nelchizedeke Aerospace / New York City

Minutes later the helicopter landed on the roof of Nelchizedeke Aerospace at 2 Columbus Circle across the street from Metropolis Park. As Nikki got out of the helicopter with her dark mane of long hair blowing in the breeze of the helicopters rotors she noticed the Park across the street. This she thought would be a good place to introduce Shebat to Metropolis later this evening. Unfortunately her day dreams concerning this was short lived as a female voice said, “ Good Morning Ms Farrar, I’m Gwendilynne Shultz, CEO of Nelchizedeke Aerospace, I am very glad to finally meet you face to face after all our phone conversations I feel I know you. “ quickly Nikki brought her thoughts back to the business at hand and replied to the blonde who had spoke, “ As do I Ms Shultz, how about we forgo the titles and full names …. You may call me Nikki …. may I call you Gwen? ” Gwen smiled to herself and decided she liked this earth woman. “ Of course you can, now if you don’t mind Nikki we will be off to my research and development building in up state New York so I can show you your new high tech toys.”

*She ran... it was hunting her, and she knew that should it catch her, she would die.*

*She ran... Through the trees and branches tearing at her, the leaves whipping her face, hands and arms...*

*She Ran... the heavy thudding of it's feet are rhythmic and pounding in her ears... the feel of it's breath as it neared... the caress of it's claws as it tore through her skin...*

*She Ran... as the trees parted and the vast plains stretched out in front of her, the gazelles, startled, began scattering in front of her.*

*She Ran... her heart pounding loudly, as she leapt onto the back of one of the Gazelles and sank her claws into it's back, her fangs bit into it's flesh easily... her mouth filled with the warm red fluid that was it's blood...*

*the stricken animal tumbled into the lake, breaking it's neck. Starving, she savored the feel of the red, juicy meat sliding down her throat, it's blood quenching her thirst. Looking into the red waters of the lake, she stared at her striped fur, her cat-slitted eyes and the way the blood glistened off her razor sharp teeth... the refection grinned back as it's blood soaked, clawed hands reached out from the water, encircling her throat as it's grinning face broke the water's surface to stare at her from mere centimeters.*


YOU CANNOT KEEP ME CAGED FOREVER, MEAT!



With a scream, Haruka bolted upright... her nighgown soaked with sweat, her body shaking with fright... the dreams keep coming... my god, what's happening to me...

"Haruka? are you ok?" a voice sounded out from the doorway.

*Haruka took in a deep, shaky breath. and marvelled at the scents that permiated the room... old scents... of her mother and father...*

yes, Yvette, I'm fine... sorry to wake you.

"I was awake anyway, was heading to the kitchen to make breakfast."

"oh really? my bedroom isn't between your quarters and the kitchen."

*Haruka could hear the worry in Yvette's voice.*
"Ma'am, it's not... but you are not in your bedroom..."

*The lights flickered on and Haruka could see that she was in her father's Hunting Trophy room, at the Maid/Cook's gasp, Haruka turned and saw that the stuffed Gazelle that was in the corner was shredded apart. It's stuffing was all over the room, it's head torn of and resting by the Grizzly Bear standing at the opposite corner. Turning towards Yvette, Haruka noticed that the mother of her best friend was not looking at the dismembered trophy... but at Haruka herself.

Looking down, Haruka noticed that her silk nightgown was in tatters, shredded by some huge animal, next to her, the stripped and broken bones of the chicken that was to be tonight’s dinner lay scattered on the ground. Haruka scrambled away from the bones, feeling the revulsion that she always had when it came to her consumption of meat... only this time, the urge to vomit was not there. She turned to look at Yvette.*

"Yvette..."

*Yvette closed her eyes, sighed and took of her robe, wrapping it around Haruka's sweating body. *

"Another 'nightmare'? I... I spoke to a friend of mine, she's a psychologist... she mentioned that this might be memories from your time you spent in the jungle. she mentioned it might help to talk about it... you know.. to stop the nightmares and these nightly excursions of yours..."

"I... I can't... not now... maybe not ever..."

*Haruka stood up and looked at the ruined room.*

"uhmm.... I'll clean this up and make the arrangement to get the gazelle repaired..."

*with her head bowed, Haruka stumbled out and towards her room.*

"Oh... and Yvette... don't bother making me breakfast... I guess... I mean... It looks as though I just ate..."

Hearing a sound behind him, Julian spun to see nothing. Wondering if a rat or something had caused the sound, he looked to see if he could spot the beastie. There didn't appear to be one but it most likely scurried off. He continued looking about the building, as he wondered if maybe a young child had wondered in, stepped on one of the sharp peices of debris and was crying.

If Nicolai was paying attention as he peered around the corner he would see that Julian was stepping on the caltrops without appearent care as to the fact that his feet should be getting shredded.

Getting to the Gotham CDC building wasn't that difficult, as the bus line travelled there. The analysis itself was rather routine, and just for kicks, Roger decided to see what the new bug did to a sample of his blood when on a slide. It was the water sampling, though, that clued him into the orgainsm's nature.

"This isn't something for you guys to worry about. I have no idea why people never check, but this water's contaminated with chemicals. Notably potassium salts. Was this from a sealed section?" It was a moot point. Gotham's water works system had undergone an overhaul after No Man's Land. "Anyways, the scrubbers kill this stuff off. For some reason, it can't survive in low concentrations of potassium. If this bug is problem, then the people who've got it are suffering from far worse problems, namely, potassium overdose."

He was eating dinner near the park when two men joined him at the table. One of them was the man that had tried to knife him the night before. Roger simply looked at him, and said coldly "I thought I told you that I would kill you if you ever approached me again."

"I'm not here to start anything, Mr. Hartigan." Roger raised an eyebrow, the only indication of reocgnizing the name. "We know who you are. This is my British partner, Agent Baerdin. My name is Agent Hrocko. We're with th government."

"Many people have said that in the past, Mr. Hrocko. Why should I believe you?"

"Because," Baerdin began, "we can go elsewhere. But we could use your help. We got a blood sample off the knife. We know you heal, and for some reason, your blood plasma showed above average levels of titanium. We also know that your mentality is too much a loner to be much use to us."

"What exactly do you two want?" asked Roger.

"Our government has identified one of our own, a young boy that has been able to disappear. Now, how he does this is up to conjecture, but we've decided that for his own good, it would be best if we could figure out how exactly he does what he does. This is where you come in. He's flying into Gotham now, and we want you to pick him up. Take him to Metroplois, and then see if he's either physically or mentally dangerous to others."

"And what will his parents say?" asked Roger, with more than a touch of cynicism in his voice.

"He's an orphan, technically a Ward of the Crown. It makes this a bit easier. You can imagine our lack of enthusiam at keeping him in the orphanage that he currently inhabits. Please, you're a scientist, and your file shows high marks from your supervisors about your ability to work well with others. Despite what the conspiracy theorists think, we still respect the rights of priacy. We're trying to defend it without losing it. I believe your compatriot Benjamin Franklin said something about that."

"Yes, he did," replied Roger. "He said 'Those the sacrifice their freedom for security deserve neither.' I'll do this. But so help me, what I said to this man last night still applies. You try to cross me, and I will kill you. And I'm the one that has trouble dying."

"Most of the time," replied Baerdin, "I simply shrug off that threat. But Mr. Hrocko is right. You don't sound like the man to make an empty threat, and I truly believe you." He handed Roger an envelope. "Everything is there. Have a safe flight, Mr. Hartigan."

As Roger walked away, he could still hear Baerdin turn to Hrocko. "You were right. That man has an iron will. I hope this is the last time we must deal with him."

Roger called in when he got to his hotel, only to find that Hrocko had already taken care of things. He got a few hours rest before he got back to the airport, this time waiting for his new charge to arrive. He stood outside the security point, waiting while holding a sign that read "Duo Sato."

Josh was watching TV when he heard a knock. He walked up to the peep hole and saw a few people in suits. He was somewaht confused. He yelled through the door. "What's up?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the criminal underground of Gotham, a rumor was spreading about a powerful man. The man was seeking aid. However, he would only accept superhumans or those with years of experience. One only needed to attempt to contact him with a flase number given out, and the man would know where to find them. Meanwhile, Adam stepped off his plane and got in a taxi to the hotel he was staying in.

Nicholai's entire body tensed when the boy started checking behind him. He was caught for sure. But then...the boy just carried on. What an incomptent cop! Every lowlife criminal in the city know that if you hear a noise, you're being followed. As soon as he judged the teenager had given up interest, he slowly crept back into the warehouse. Wary now of the floor, he edged up against the wall, slowly inching towards Julian. As soon as he was about a foot away, he lost his patience. If he was a cop, he'd be discovered as soon as Skoda looked at him. But if he was someone else, he might accidentally discover this site and report it, which tended not to happen much considering the Gotham Police force isn't exactly Gold Class. Still, one must not take chances. Nicholai pushed off the wall, and moved up directly behind him. He took a slight breath, then he put the cold metal of his gun barrel against Julian's head.
"Don't move." Nicholai whispered in a low growl, as to disguise his voice. With his free hand, he quickly started to search Julian. "Who are you?"

Exiting the hospital, Ed sighed. He tried to do the right thing and help the young woman and what did he get for it? Nothing but suspicion and contempt. Upon delivering the unconscious woman to a nearby hospital, the first thing the nurses asked him was 'what did you do to her?', despite him stating many times that he found her unconscious in an alley.

For some odd reason they appeared to be more concerned with accusing Ed rather than helping the beaten woman and so he decided he had to leave. Perhaps they would focus on delivering some medical treatment if they didn't have anyone to yell at. Simply ignoring the harping banshees, Ed walked out the front door and left them to deal with yet another victim of Gotham. It was people like that whom had always dissuaded Ed from taking a more formal approach to his abilities and outright dedicating himself to the rescue and aid of others. Besides it not being a paying job, people simply didn't appreciate those that would go out of their way to provide assistance.

With that in mind, Ed decided he'd had enough of the Gotham streets and figured it was time to head back to the hotel. Despite his attempts to stretch out what little funds he had as far as he could, Ed refused to stay in some dodgy motel that would likely see him gutted and robbed in his sleep. The hotel he'd found was at least respectable and the people there could spell the words 'customer service' so all seemed well enough.

Not encountering any significant issues on the way back, Ed gave the doorman a slight nod before entering and making his way to the sixth floor room he'd been designated. The wind he'd used to dispose of the final two criminals had required more effort than he usually exerted with his powers and so Ed was content to order some room service and go to sleep.

"I don't have any money if thats what you're after, but there are a few cds in my pocket." Julian said, traces of fear in his voice. He did think it somewhat strange for a thief to be asking his name but answered anyways. "My name is Julian and I'm in high school."

He stood outside the security point, waiting while holding a sign that read "Duo Sato."

Once again Duo looked around the airport. He saw a man holding a sign, upon closer inspection he saw that it was his name, minus Alvaro.

"Finally," he sighed under his breath.

He picked up his suitcase and headed over to the man. As an orphan brought up in an orphanage he had little in the way of personal belongings.

"I'm Duo," he told the man.

Roger looked at the kid. One thing immediately leapt out. The kid smelled from the long plane ride, and obviously hadn't used deoderant.

"Nice to meet you, kid. My name is Roger Hartigan, though you can just call me Roger, or Raj. Tell me, do you know why you're here?" Roger had decided not to take on the role of the protective parent. Besides, this kid looked old enough to learn the cold truths if he didn't already know them.

"Sorry to bother you, sir, but we received a call about the remote not working for your television set. They sent me up with a replacement to take of this." While the young 'hotel worker' spoke, he had slowly tilted the scanner down and then up, pausing to look at it. "Is the remote working now, sir? I can come back later if you want."

========================================

Meanwhile, in the hotel lobby, another team had picked up a signature from a balc man that had just entered, having disembarked from a taxi. One person, halfway across the lobby, tuned the scanner, while another person approached, dressed as a hotel porter. Looking at the tags, he asked "Can I have your bags taken to your room, Mr. Clay?"

Content with his search, Nicholai now focused fully on the kid. He sounded shaky, and Nicholai again wondered if he wasn't actually a cop. Still holding the gun firmly in his right hand, he dragged the kid back until Nicholai was in the shadows. He then turned the teenager around, still making sure that his face was obscured by darkness. He was a strange looking child, that was for sure. His eyes were a pale green, his hair black with a solitary white line crossing vertically across the length of his head. Again, Nicholai doubted this boy was anymore than some kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also reminded him painfully of Sam. Nicholai shook his head. Concentrate.
"What are you doing here?" Nicholai whispered gruffly, lowering his Beretta slightly.

I watch with raised eyebrows the shadow-play taking place not that far from me in the open center area of the warehouse. Muggings in run down 'rat infested' abandoned buildings "Well one of the trio is a rat, but I know he isn't just any rat; he's the black and white marking of a purpose bred lab rat, not a wild one. how much more cliche could you get? 'Only in an alleyway'I again answer myself in my thoughts as I let the quilts drop and stand silently. I know every inch of the warehouse and when the crook pulls the kid into a corner, I know just where he is and act accordingly.

Ad I mentioned earlier I've made the reputation of this building...Time to play ghost.

A sheet splashed with some glow in the dark paint wafts upwards and makes faint rustling sounds courtesy of the cheap, stiff, plastic shopping bags
taped to the back side. Coal dust, all but weightless and easy to manipulate, billows up around the pair as the sheet floats about in eerie silence.

A fraction of a second later I've Teleported just a meter or two behind the one holding the gun. It's not exactly where Id wanted to be, even thought I know the place intimately. It's dark in the far recesses of the warehouse, and since I can't see clearly, I've 'Ported off of memory and estimate. 'But it's close enough for my next move to be a whirling back kick aimed at the small of the back of his back. And I'll transfer my attention from the sheet to the gun he holds. If I can get enough downward pressure on it, he won't be strong enough to raise it to aim. I've made my plans in a split second as I materialize and begin to move...

"Nice to meet you, kid. My name is Roger Hartigan, though you can just call me Roger, or Raj. Tell me, do you know why you're here?"

Duo nodded.

"Because of my invisibility ability," he said.

He was somewhat nervous about talking to him, he was a complete stranger after all. Still at least he was away from that awful orphanage.

"I said what-" Nicholai began again impatiently, before his eyes flickered in the direction of a sudden rasping noise. He quickly pointed his gun at the direction of this new threat, only to see an ebony sheet float in the draft. Damn, i'm jumpy. But as he turned his attention back to the boy, he saw something in the corner of his eye. What the-

Taken by surprise, the kick was enough to cause Nicholai to stumble forward, dropping his Beretta. That's it. This bitch is toast. Dropping down, he snatched up the handgun and aimed it directly at the newcomer.
"Lights out." He muttered, before moving to pull the trigger. Suddenly, a large amount of pressure weighed down against Nicholai's hand, pushing the gun down until it aimed a foot before the mysterious assailant. Nicholai released his grip on the trigger immdeiately, but it was too late. A lone bullet broke loose from the gun, embedding itself in the warehouse floor, the flash completely illuminating the room and the noise echoing in the quiet area. Shit. Nicholai attempted to aim and take another shot, but the same pressure was there. What the Hell... Giving up, and hearing the distant hum of Police sirens, Nicholai fled from the warehouse. He didn't plan on creating a record for himself. Practically leaping through the door, receiving a large cut from the serrated metal to the shoulder, he sprinted through the darkness back to the supposed safety of his apartment. He cursed himself for leaving witnesses. That woman seemed like she lived in that shithole, so not much chance of her signing a statement. But that kid... Sighing lightly, and making a mental note of a 'Julian' who goes to a local high school, Nicholai resigned himself to defeat.

Roger's eyebrows shot upwards. The kid knew why he was here, at least on some level.

Because of my invisibility ability.

Roger picked up the kid's bags. "You're right. Though I should warn you, you're not alone. Come on, we've got a short flight to Metropolis. Courtesy of me." They went out to the shuttle, catching a ride to the hangar where Roger's Cessna was parked. As they rode, Roger began speaking again. "Listen, Duo, the reason that you were sent to see me is because I'm a scientist with the CDC. I've got a doctorate in biochemistry, and I'm supposed to determine if your body is unstable. Now, I've been pulled from my job for a few days to analyze you. But these are your powers, and I won't press you. Anything else that you wanna know?"

"I thought I heard someone crying so I came to see if I was hearing things." Those were the words Julian had been about to speak before the man who'd been holding him got kicked in the back. The crack of a bullet and accompanying flash left him blinking and partially deaf so he failed to witness what transpired next.

When his sight and hearing recovered somewhat he looked to see if whoever had kicked the man was around. Unsure as to what had happened or if anyone was still around, he called out, "Thanks."

Duo nodded. "Well it was either that or the wanker running the orphanage had finally decided to follow on with his threat and sell me into slavery," he said as they headed to the shuttle.

Once aboard he listened more to what the man had to say. He was less of a stranger now.

"Unstable as in not having full control of my powers?" he then asked. "That's a yes..."

Duo vanished from sight for a brief moment.

"It's annoying that I turn invisible at the most inopportune times."

The young boy did have some other questions, like, "Are there other kids like me there?"

Are there other kids like me out there?

"Probably. But the big thing is that I'm like you." Roger had felt a sharp wire sticking out next to his seat. Careful to not let the driver see or hear, and thankful that it was only the two of them on the small bus, he quickly sliced his left palm, before showing it to Duo.

"I'm not an invisible boy. I heal. I heal faster and from far more serious damage than most people can endure." As he finished, the skin finished stitching itself back together. "I've lost my right arm. It took over three hours to grow back, and a full day before the muscle had rebuilt to its original state. That's the other reason why you're with me. I don't like the government. They don't want to recruit me. I'm too, what shall we say, 'disagreeable,' for their taste. And I hope you show the same rugged individuality that I posess in quantities far too much for regular service." Roger winked at the kid. as he said the last bit. He had no intention of letting this kid fall into the hands of Baerdin or Hrocko.

"That goes back to my main question. Do you want to continue, or does the plane experience turbulence and turn up with one, and only one, parachute missing? This is your life kid. I'd rather not have to deal with you, but that doesn't mean I'm about to save you from one wanker only to turn you over to another."

I've moved back into the deepest part of shadow as the gunman flees. Blinking hard to get rid of the afteriimages before my eyes I am glad that I am too busy with that to cuss.. The gun man had seen me, and that alone was bad enough - it was worse that he'd seen me in my night clothes. Not that I was ashamed of them but they weren't really for impromptu crime fighting. Hero's are supposed to be modest, that was always stressed at the Academe, and well, my teddy and matching tap pants aren't very.

The kid calls out, "thanks" he obvioulsy has no idea where I am, or if any one is inside. He's kind to be concerned, but this isn't his problem. Though his shoes are, they've been sliced to ribbons. I can't tell if he'd bleeding but I don't intend to find out. The old sheet flies up again, this time wrapping about the kid and then my telekensis lifts him up and bears him toward the door.

I won't try and 'carry' him through the dooe, its narrow and I'm not as practised in delicate maneuvers as I'd like to be. I'd rather not hurt him if it can be avoided.

When Roger sliced his palm, Duo almost jumped as he hadn't been expecting a demonstration that extreme. Of course that caused him to turn invisible and like the majority of the time he didn't know he had done so.

"Continue," he nodded. "I don't want to end up in another wanker run orphanage."

She ran through the house, into her room and closed the door behind her... ignoring the questions from her parents. Leaning heavily against the door, Chandra stared at her hands. hands that she was convinced was no longer hers.

She slid down the door and sat there.... trembling...

"Chandra? are you ok?" her mother's voice was full of worry.
"yes mom... perfectly fine." Chandra hoped that the sarcasm wasn't noticable.
"... ok, dinner will be ready in an hour... come down when you're ready..." Chandra listened as her mother left her room door... she could hear her mother and father talking in hushed tones... as Chandra's mind drifted back earlier that day.

---

She said goodbye to her friends as they finalized their plans to watch the opening cerimony the next day. she crossed Hero's park where she stared up at the two statues of Batgirl... Batgirls... and bought a soy dog from the vendor. she was happily munching away, while walking home when she realized that she forgot to put Ketchup on her snack. No biggie, it was fine, but it would've tasted better with some on top. then it happened. Her hand started... bleeding... she dropped her dog and watched in horror as her entire hand was dripping red... *she sniffed at it* ketchup?! quickly she ran to the public restroom and started washing her hand. but the red paste kept oozing out of her hand. she scrubbed at the covering as clumps of it quickly plugged up the small drain. Then, as mysteriously as it started, it stopped. her hands were clean and all that remained were globs of tomato sause in the sink.

she stared at her hands... first the gravy, then the flood of popcorn that never seemed to end when she and her friends were feeding ducks at the Gotham Zoo, and now... ketchup...

Panicking she ran home, almost getting run over as she ran across streets to her family's apartment.

===

Ketchup.... Popcorn... Gravy... then she remembered the water incident at the Hospital... was... was that me also?

The hospital.... the crazy old man with the flowers and... the sweet smelling smoke. the strange Valet and his words...

"a path for me... what was he talking about... " Chandra stood up and started tearing though her books. where is it... where is the card he gave me... wherewherewherewhere?

she picked up her "History of Gymnastics" and the small card fell out. she studied the address and put the card into her pocket, and began putting the books back onto her shelf.

Her stomach growled at her as she finally detected the smell of her mother's cooking.

Damn, I never did finish that soy... she stopped as she felt her fingers curl around the yealding surface of warm bread. Afraid to look at her hand, she forced her eyes down and stared at the hot soydog (with ketchup and mustard) sitting in her hand. she bit back a shriek and quickly threw the dog into her trash can. she stared at her empty hands again.

this is too weird... how about a Cosmic Fizz she imagined a glass of her favorite cola appearing in her hand. Instead, from her pores, the dark liquid began oozing out. it quickly filled her cupped hands and began dripping out. she put her hands over her trash can and carefully licked her finger.

"Cosmic Fizz..." she whispered. her small trash can was quickly getting filled. "Oh puckernuts.... stop, stop! STOP DAMNIT!!!" and the flood of cola stopped.

"CHANDRA!!! What did I say about such language!" her mother's voice sounded out from beyond her locked door.

"SORRY MOM... won't happen again."

"this is too weird..." she whispered as she looked at her cola damped hands.

grabbing her sweat towel, she wiped her hands clean.... but they were still sticky.

ok, I can create food and soda... maybe the water also came from... oh shit... as her hands again started to ooze water from their pores. quickly dampening the sweat towel, she 'washed' her hands and again she mentally (this time) screamed STOP and her now clean and dry hands were once more examined.

I gotta learn how to control this... she thought as suddenly a quiet knock came from her door.

"Chandra? is everything all right?" Her father sounded worried... and that meant opening the door... Chandra stared at her trash can, 3/4ths filled with soda and the remains of her soydog and bun floating inside.

"Yeah dad... everything's peachy!" quickly looking around her sparce room, she searched for a place to hide her trash can.

"Open the door sweetie." her father said calmly.

"Just a minute dad..." wherewherewherewhere she panicked until she saw the only logical place to get rid of the... evidence...

Her father stood, staring at the closed door. He calmly waved to his wife as she watched from the end of the hallway. he smiled at her when Chandra's door creaked open.

He pushed the door all the way and looked inside. Chandra sat on the bed, she was pushing a dark stained towel into her small trashcan and looked foolishly at her father.

"Hey, the... a bottle of Cosmic Fizz broke open in my bag, I was just cleaning it out..."
"I see... here, let me help you..."
"Oh, no, that's not necessary..."
"No, let me... we also need to talk."
"Hmm? about what?"
"I know you were looking forwards to participating in this Olympics... and I know you must think that somehow... you failed us."
"Dad..."
"Please.. hear me out. I know we bragged to all of our friends and we... we did place alot of burden on you." he stood up and pulled her into a hug. "But when we were told that you almost died saving that old woman... what you did... and how badly you were hurt doing it... we were never prouder of you than that moment. you did not fail us, dear, you surpassed all our dreams with that one act."
Chandra stopped and looked at her father. she was shocked to see tears in his eyes... He never cried to her knowledge... never did. she felt another pair of arms wrap around her and in her ear, her mother whispered.
"no matter what you decide to do with your life, always know that you are a hero in our hearts, mind and soul. please don't let this setback tempt you into taking shortcuts. If there is anything bothering you.... we can help you... we still love you."
Then it dawned on her... drugs... her parents must think she's on drugs... she started to giggle...
both her parents stared at her with worry and dismay in their eyes.
"yes mom, dad. It hurts to be this close to realizing your... our dreams. I too heard you bragging and yes, I did feel like I was not only failing you, but me. But... but I'm not a quitter. I'll find something else to do and another goal to aim for. but I won't give up gymnastics... and I won't take shortcuts."
"And you'll come to us for any help?"
"of course... after all, I'll have to find something else for you to brag about."
"after you saved that poor woman's life... we have everything we need to brag about you for the rest of your life.... comeon dear... dinners ready. Are you?"
"Hmm?" Chandra turned to look at her mother. "Ready for what?"
"are you ready to start your new path to your future?"
".... no... but I am ready to start on the path to dinner." Chandra grinned. she knew she had to go to that address now... and find out what is happening to her.

as she left... she turned off the light to her room and guiltily looked out the open window and prayed that no one got showered with cola and soydogs she hastily dumped out her window...

"Come on Hari, this will do you some good."

Emily pulled on Haruka's hand, forcing her to step into the private dojo/gym built in her home.

"I dunno, Yoga? common Emily... like that's going to help..."

"you've been having those nightmares ever since you came back... you've tried everything to stop them, even trying to get yourself drunk and even stoned... and believe me, those times were NOT pretty. Let's be reasonable, Mom's getting rather tired of changing your shredded bedding or cleaning up after you trashed a room." Emily put her hands on her hips.

Haruka stared at the floor.

"You can't know what it's like Em..."

"I know Hari... but as long as you are unwilling to talk about it, you are forcing yourself to deal with it alone. Yoga can help with that..."

Hari sighed... The nightmares are getting more violent, and thus so is the destruction that has been found around the house.

"Please Hari... you can tell me... let me help you..."

Hari stared at her friend... after a moment of silence...

"What do I need to do for this yoga thing..."

+++
[A WEEK LATER]
+++

Hari sat alone in her private dojo. A candle, the only illumination in the room, sat burning in it’s dish. She stared at the dancing flame, willing her emotions to the silent corner of her mind.

After she started meditation and yoga, the nightly destructions of the rooms seem to lessen. Sure they still happened, but now, she could see that the destruction took upon a pattern of frustration and not malice, boredom and not intent. During recent sessions with Emily, Hari could almost sense a presence just outside her consciousness… a fignment of 'thought' that watched and waited with a frustration that was palatable. But always just beyond her conscious reach. *

Hence this private session… Hari had to know what is happening to her… was she going crazy?

Clear my mind…
I am at peace with the world around me.
Clear my thoughts…
Let all be calm.

Seconds dragged into minutes, Minutes to Hours…

I guess I did imagine it after all

yep… that’s all that this calm is… your boring imagination.

!!!

who are you

*She felt the presence chuckle…*

I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO ARE YOU

’who are you’? the answer is a simple as looking in the mirror… MEAT!

no, no, no... you are not me…

then you are… what is that word… insane.

what do you want?

what everyone wants… Freedom.

I am not imprisoning you…

Reeeeeaaaaally… I just ENJOY sitting back and watching you do what you want.

If I free you, will you stop with the nightmares and the destruction?

...

How do I free you?

Trust me on this… you just did.

as she sat alone in the Dojo… Hari felt something dry and raspy scrape along the back of her neck. With a short scream, she dove forwards twisting around, knocking over the candle. She stared into the empty dojo as the candle flickered out.

The nightly destruction and nightmares have stopped since that incident, however, the mystery of what was happening only got deeper. The next day, she went out for her daily run with Emily, and when they completed their circuit, Emily was winded, but Hari continued to do another lap… once she was alone, she upped her speed to a full run, the feeling of exhilaration, of being able to push herself and really stretch her muscles had her grinning as she turned the last corner, she saw Emily still catching her breath.

“Wow… first time I’ve seen you do an extra lap… you’ve been working out behind my back?” Emily panted as Hari drew near, “and you are barely winded!”

“oh I’m winded alright.” Hari pretended to gasped out… “but for some reason… that felt good.”

[Three Days later]

“Ugh… “

“Oh, common, it wasn’t that bad Em…” Hari looked over as Matsumoto Sensei grabbed his bags and left.

“you passed tho. I think even Sensei Matsumoto didn’t see that move coming.” Emily smiled as she looked at the folded strip of black cloth with the ribbons on it. 4rd degree Dan Black belt. “Will you take up his offer to continue to train for Self Defense purposes?”

“Only if you pass and join me. After all, I’d still need a sparring partner.” Hari grinned at her friend. Haruka thought back at the manuver that floored Master Matsumoto... She fell for a feint and ended up being flipped over his back, but she managed to twist enough to land on her feet and sweep his legs out from under him before he was ready, and sent him flying with a modified shoulder throw. The distance she threw Sensi Matsumoto, almost across the room, also surprised her.

“Ha!... I’m not trying to become Commando Woman like you… I’m happy with what I know doing Judo, but you… Karate, Kung Fu… and I know you are watching wrestling on TV… what’s going on with you. You quit Gymnastics in your sophomore year when everyone starts talking about you going to the Olympics, and then you seem so keen to learn how to kill people now…”

“I dunno, I just wanted to get active I guess… I mean… what other sport can I really cut loose and still be the prim and proper daughter, mom and dad..."

Emily looked over at her friend.

“They would be proud of you… I know my folks are.”

“Thanks Em… and speaking of your folks… we better get cleaned up before we’re late for Dinner… I maybe a "Commando Woman", but your mom can still make me cower with that look of hers!”

Josh checked his remote. It was not working. He was a bit suspicious. It had been working before. He opened the door and let the people in. "It's not working. He walked over to the window, looking at the men. He had his hand in one of his pockets inside his jacket, his hand on his gun just in case. He didn't exactly trust them, but what could they do?

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

Adam arrived at the hotel. He quickly checked in and walked up to his room. He walked by a room with several men outside the room. The door opened and the man inside let them in. Adam felt something about the men and the man in the room. His room was right next to his. He would keep an eye on him.

Roger pretended to stare off into space. "You know, I should really watch what I do. People will think I'm talking to myself, being the only visible person on the bus." He finished with the obligatory head gesture to Duo's now invisible hands. "We're coming up to the hangar. Think you can get visible till we're on the plane?"

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

The man in Josh's room took out a spare remote, and turned the television on manually. Holding the power, volume, and zero buttons down, he synched the signal with the televison. For whatever odd reason, the remote already in the room hadn't worked. Luck had been on his side. He had placed his "task organizer" on the table when he worked. As he left, he apologized again, saying "Sorry I had to wake you, sir. Your new remote is synched to the set, so you should be set to go."

He pocketed the broken device, leaving the replacement on the table, and palmed his "organizer." As he walked back towards the elevator, he reviewed the readings. Or at least tried to. The thing had gone hay-wire, picking up interference from a number of electromagnetic frequencies, and masking any attempt to scan for the neural signals generated by meta-humans. "Uh, boss, I think somebody just scrambled my scanner."

Josh thanked the man and continued watching TV. Tomorrow he would go to the festival. There were a few bands that he listened to, and a few classics coming back from retirement, but overall, the lineup was not solid overall. Jsoh was still suspicious of the men. He would keep an eye out while he was in Gotham.

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

The whole time Josh and the men were talking, Adam had been listening with his powers. When he actually dove deeper into thoights, he could tell the men where plotting something. He smiled. Fools. If the men tried anything on him, they would get a very rde awakening. Josh interested him as well. He had potential, but was overall a normal type. He could make a powerful ally. Adam would watch him. Perhaps he would make a trip to the music festival.

Duo hit himself on the side of his head with a fist and became visible once again.

"Sorry, I don't have full control of it," he said. "Most of the time I don't even know I've turned invisible."

Roger smiled to himself as the two got out and boarded the plane. He flipped a switch, causing the controls located on Duo's side to disconnect. "Sorry kid, but you're below the age limit to sit at an active pilot's seat. Now you're just a passenger. Do yourself a favor, and don't touch anything. I'd rather you not send yourself to a plummeting death."

As they got off the ground, and Roger was granted flight clearance over the radio, he released the outbound signal button, limitig his communications to Duo. 'I've been meaning to ask you this. That orphanage supervisor you're not fond of, what made him such a bad guy?"

Duo settled aboard the plane and only nodded when told not to touch anything.

"He was strict and abusive," the boy replied and shivered. "He wasn't the worst thing there though, do you believe in ghosts?"

"Depends on what you mean, kid. I've got problems in my past whose ghosts still haunt me, and that's enough for me. Why? Do you think that the place was haunted?" Roger paused, then smiled as he asked "Or did you make him believe that it was haunted?"

Nelchizedeke Aerospace Research & Development / Up State New York

After arriving in up state New York Gwen lead Nikki to the NARD hanger where her “ toys “ were being stored until she arrived. As Nikki stepped into the hanger bay she suddenly stood in awe of the new craft that Gwen’s company had built for her. They were beyond anything she had ever seen before, first there was a flying bike that used VTOL principals to fly, which had been painted all black to hide it in darkness. Setting beside the Air Bike was a Hyper fast air/space hybrid craft that would be used to ferry people to the orbital facility that would lead the way in space tourism. And the beauty of it was she could have one or more of the Hyper craft & Air Bike converted by her engineers at her Ohio Estate for her use as SheBat without anyone being the wiser. Nikki was getting very excited at the prospects of becoming one of the new hero’s and it was finally starting to all come together. The people who had represented the Mantle of the Bat in years past had always been her hero’s when she was a little girl, even though some people believed them to have caused the accident in California that ended up killing them all. Her great love of what they had once represented to the world had given her the idea for SheBat when her mutant powers had first made themselves known. Now with her taking over the family business she finally had the resources she had needed to make SheBat a reality!

Duo shook his head.

"It was haunted," he said, recalling some of ghosts he had seen and others that he had heard about. "I saw some of the ghosts that haunted the building, some were good others were nasty."

He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes letting out a sigh.

"Rumour from some of the other orphans was that the building was originally a Victorian mental hospital. Which would explain some of the rooms in the off limits wing."

As the sheet began wrapping itself around him, Julian began thrashing as he didn't know what was happening but knew he didn't like it. "Whoever's doing this please stop." He called out as he began getting lifted off his feet. "I'm sorry I intruded, I just thought I heard someone crying so I can to see if I could help. I'm sorry."

His voice was on the verge of panic and so the thoughts of shredding the cloth never occured to him.

She got out of the taxi and paid her fare. she looked around at the run down builings and she clutched her cane closer to her body. Several tough looking men lounged around the various stoops and store entranceways. all looking at her with probably one thought in their minds...

FRESH MEAT.

Just when she decided to turn and reenter the cab, it sped off... the "reserved" light turning on. another fare called... damn.
she sighed... now she had no choice...

Looking at the addresses, she quietly and quickly made her way down the street... 124-897 she thought... she found the numbers and began walking, trying to ignore the predatory stares from the locals.

124-891
124-893
124-895
124-899

she stopped... wheres 124-897 she looked at both buildings. 124-897... 124-899... she looked at the alleyway stretched between the two buildings. the stench of... stuff... waifed out and just added itself to a myrad of reasons why she shouldn't go down the alleyway... she turned to walk away, but noticed those street toughs all lounging along both sides of the street. she started to whimper and was about to call for a cab when someone tapped her shoulder.

... Chandra, as an athlete, has a great set of lungs and excellent breathing technique. so it's no surprise on either the volume, pitch and length of the scream that issued forth from her lips. in fact, had she been paying attention, she would've noticed all the "tough" punks flinch and shy away when she screamed.

As the echo of her scream died away, she looked back to notice the handsome valet from the hospital rubbing his ears.

"and that should learn me to sneak up on walking emergency sirens..." he gave his head one last shake and looked at her. "Sorry if I scared you... but you looked lost."
"wha... er... sorry, you startled me..."
"If that happens when you're startled, I will remember to never scare you." He smiled his friendly smile... then his grin grew bigger when he reconized her.
"Chandra! You finally came." he looks up and down the street and said something in a strange language. some of the toughs smiled at her, others actually bowed with respect, but all now looked at her as if memorizing her face.

"Come in. there's others who want to speak to you." he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the alleyway. well, he tried anyway.

"hehehe... you want me to walk down a smelly, isolated alleyway alone with you?"

"if you want, I can have one of these fine gentlemen follow us." he smiled

"Look... at least be honest with me... am I going to be hurt doing this..."

He laughed. "no, quite the opposite... definately the opposite."

he began to walk down the alleyway... and reluctanly, she followed.

On the street, a black sedan turned the corner... the two occupants drove down the street, quietly observing the people.

===

Several yards in and the smell vanished. the air was clean and the noise from the street sounded like it was miles away. she walked down the alleyway and instead of grime, she noticed that alot of the 'dirt' seemed more artistically set rather than being random. she looked at her guide and he still smiled his smile as he waited by a damaged door.

"it's to keep the riffraff out." he commented to Chandra. He knocked twice, then four times in rappid succession and waited. The door opened and a young woman in colorful clothes peaked out and motioned them in.

"This has all the ear marks of something illegal." Chandra commented as she stepped through the doorway.

"Illegal... no, hidden... yes. there are many who would like a glimpse into what we will be showing you. please."

They made there way down some steps where a large, well lit room with several people waited for them. They were all strangers to her except Valet person behind her and...

"YOU!" she cried as she reconized the old man who had come into her hospital room on the last night.

"Dear lady, I am glad you are alright. I hope life has been generous to you?"

"what the hell did you do to me!" She cried, "after you left strange things have been happening to me."

"Yes, I heard about the water, but what else happened?" the Valet person spoke, everyone else grinned and nodded to each other. the old man chuckled.

"a spitfire, Marjie had her pegged right." the old man cackled. "I should've known never to bet against Marjie." he looked at Chandra and motioned to the empty chair. "We've been Waiting for you Chandra Von Henkelson. for you gave one of our eldest Guardians a gift that she treasured till the day she died. and she wanted to repay you for your act of kindness."

Chandra slowly sat down and a younger woman brought tea for everyone, but what she put infront of Chandra was an empty cup. she smiled in apology and retreated from the room.

Chandra stared at the cup and looked back at the old man.

"Marjie died several days after you pushed her out of the way of that speeding car. but she lived long enough to welcome her Great-Great-Grandneice. For that she wanted to give you a gift that was as close to her heart."

Chandra stared at the old man... "I'm sorry to hear that she passed away."

The old man smiled. "Do not fret, she led a full and wonderful life. but now, our concern is with the gift she left you."

"Hearthcrafting..." he whispered at her blank stare. "A wonderful talent, and one that is very, very rewarding...."

"So... let's begin with your first lession with some Tea...."

Nicholai was exhausted by the time he made it to the apartment block. He had been running since he left that shitty warehouse, over a mile away. Breathing heavily, he punched in the code for the apartment door with a slothful pace. As soon as it swung open, Nicholai collapsed straight down onto the floor. Well, almost. The angle which he fell at meant that he banged his head off the metallic table in the centre of room, before twisting over onto his back. Sam, hearing the clang resounding throughout the room, ran in from the bathroom immediately.
"Nichy?" He said loudly. Then his eyes fell on the unconscious body, lying half-sprawled on the floor.
"Nichy!" Sam quickly ran next to him. There was a slight injury on his head, and a cut on his shoulder. The head wound didn't seem to bad, but Sam didn't know where Nicholai had got that cut. It could be infected, even poisoned. Quickly pulling on his jacket and shoes, Sam, with some effort, pulled Nicholai onto his shoulders and left the apartment.

Having slipped out, the Beretta lay abandoned next to the table, with one bullet missing.

Nelchizedeke Aerospace Research & Development / Up State New York

After arriving in up state New York Gwen lead Nikki to the NARD hanger where her “ toys “ were being stored until she arrived. As Nikki stepped into the hanger bay she suddenly stood in awe of the new craft that Gwen’s company had built for her. They were beyond anything she had ever seen before, first there was a flying bike that used VTOL principals to fly, which had been painted all black to hide it in darkness. Setting beside the Air Bike was a Hyper fast air/space hybrid craft called the Navarone that would be used to ferry people to the orbital facility that would lead the way in space tourism. And the beauty of it was she could have one or more of the Hyper craft & Air Bike converted by her engineers at her Ohio Estate for her use as SheBat without anyone being the wiser. Nikki was getting very excited at the prospects of becoming one of the new hero’s and it was finally starting to all come together. The people who had represented the Mantle of the Bat in years past had always been her hero’s when she was a little girl, even though some people believed them to have caused the accident in California that ended up killing them all. Her great love of what they had once represented to the world had given her the idea for SheBat when her mutant powers had first made themselves known. Now with her taking over the family business she finally had the resources she had needed to make SheBat a reality!


http://usera.imagecave.com/Kormanthor/Kormanthor2/She%20Bats%20Navarone.gif

The Navarone; SheBat's Hyperspeed Aircraft


Aboard the Navarone

But for right now she wanted to get a feel of how the Navarone handled. Followed by Gwen, Nikki enters the planes flight deck crossing to the wraparound helm & navigation console. Slowly she sat down in the pilots seat with Gwen in the weapon control / copilot seat and began scanning the futuristic controls controlled partially by the built in mouse pad in the center of the flight console. Nikki smiled to herself as she looked over the new control configuration. “ So what do you think ? Asked Gwen. “ I’m amazed and a little overwhelmed but also excited to learn this new control system.” answered Nikki. “ Well then there’s no time like the present to learn …. Lets take her out for a spin. said Gwen.

Roger nodded in assent. "That doesn't surprise me. The early ages of psychiatry weren't exactly something that most doctors would be proud of. And after they found out that they had a surplus of unused mental hospitals following the reforms, well, orphanages are always in short supply."

Roger thought for a minute, then continued. "Do you think that any of them had a personal grudge against you?"

Duo opened his eyes and looked over at Roger.

"Do you mean the ghosts or the staff?" he then asked. "Most of the staff hated the kids there."

Great... a storm... Haruka thought as she made her way home from The Gotham University Library.

The high winds that whipped through Gotham was not quite hurricane force, but it was enough to set the trees to swaying at dangerous angles and none of the light poles were still.

Damn, I hope they don’t come crashing down.

Hari adjusted her backpack and made her way towards the parking lot. The night sky was cloudy with rain threatening to fall. She sighed and she waved at campus security as she made her way down the well lit path in the quad.

Glancing at her watch, she noticed the time. 12:34 am… damn, I better head home.

*Crash!... BZzzzzt!*

The sound made Hari stop in her tracks… her head, automatically swiveling towards the source of the sound. One of the light polls came crashing down, and the resulting short knocked out the rest of the lights plunging the area in darkness. With a curse, she dug into her bag for her flashlight, when she suddenly paused…

Hari looked around… noticing that while the area did get… dimmer, she could still make out the path, see the fallen light poll that was sending out the occasional spark, and she definitely could tell that the lights in the Quad were down, yet, it all seemed like it was early evening… or that there was yet another bright light source.

She slowly continued her walk as some students who were up studying came out of their dorms with confused shouts as others in the quad area stumbled around blindly… a comical sight to Hari.

Infront of her, a fellow freshman student tripped and landed with a cry of pain on the concrete sidewalk.

Hari moved forward when she heard another sound. This one, however made her heart beat faster as it was the sound of wood splintering. Glancing to the side, she gasped as the large tree growing next to the path began to tilt in the wind… and it kept on tilting, the ground behind it bulging upwards as it’s roots lost their hold on the soil. The student, picking himself up from the ground, couldn't... or didn’t notice the tree heading straight for him .

The world seemed to move in slow motion to Hari. Dropping her backpack, she sprinted forwards, towards the student as he straightened up. Her first thought was to push him out of the way, but the spread of the branches made that option unfeasible as she didn’t have the strength to shove him that far… then between heartbeats, an image of her in the trees, swinging like Sheena of the Jungle, leaping through the branches, sprang into her mind. A memory of her time in the jungles of India. The adrenaline hit her system as she grabbed the boy a scant few seconds before the tree came crashing down.

* * *

“I tell you, I don’t know what happened,” Zayd said to the securty guard, Gotham PD and the EMT that were bandaging up his bruised ribs and cleaning the many cuts on his face. “the whole area went dark, I tripped and as I was getting up, someone tackled me, and next thing I know, I’m being hit by branches and stuff.”

Campus security were still setting up the emergency lamps and was surveying the damage.

“Do you know how many assailants there were?” the Police officer asked

“no, but it was a lot of branches… and I could swear I was being… carried…”

“While they were hitting you…”

“Hey, I’m not making this up. They took my bag, and beat the shit outta me.”

“I’m not saying you are, I’m just making sure I got the facts down, you said you were beaten by several people with branches while being carried. Is that right?”

“I guess… it happened so fast.”

Another security officer came by carrying a backpack. “This one yours?” she asked Zayd.

“Yes…” he claimed his bag and checked to make sure everything was there.

“Mike,” the Female officer motioned her partner to the side. “They found his pack UNDER that mess.” She indicated the fallen tree.

“and he was found here…” Mike stood several yards away from the tree. “So someone pushed him out of the way?”

“I would guess, except there’s no one under there. So someone pushed him out and this distance, and also got out from under there… no one saw anything?”

“With the power out, no. they heard the tree slam down and some students nearby heard him groaning. His was the only injury here.”

“You gonna find out who did this to me?” Zayd asked

“Son, I don’t think they were beating you up, but saving your life. Your pack was found under that tree, could it be that those branches beating you up was infact you being dug out from under that tree? That would explain your claim of being carried while being beaten. It will also explain how you ended up here while your bag ended up under the tree.”

Zayd thought about it. “ then where are those people who rescued me?”

off to the side, two men checked their instruments and nodding to each other, waited patiently for the officers and EMT to be done with their subject.

* * *

Hari quietly snuck into the house. With all the security cameras around, she knew she was caught, but if she woke no one up, then the lecture will be delayed at least till morning.

She quietly made her way to the bathroom to clean herself up, and when she flicked on the light, she stopped to stare at herself in the mirror.

She could’ve sworn she had cuts, scrapes and bruises when she checked herself in her car mirror… but the reflection that stared back at her had mar free skin. She fingered her check where, moments before, in her car, she dabbed blood away with a tissue. Now it was pink and hale… as if nothing happened.

I must be going crazy… what is happening to me? first I pick up a guy, literally... then I manage to carry him and me through the branches as it fell, again, literally jumping out of the way... and now, my cuts are healed...

She looked down at the crumpled tissue and verified that there was small dabs of blood on it. Then she looked back at her reflection with shock on her face.











And her reflection suddenly grinned and winked back at her…

Chandra sat on her bed that thought about what she learned...

Gypsy magic...

Somehow, that old lady put her powers into me... and now I'm a Gypsy... Guardian...

Chandra looked at her hands and thought about what she just learned.

the instinct to use her abilities were there, but the control wasn't... and that's what she was learning. the control. Marjie was the most powerful Hearthcrafter the gypsy clan had. and also the last. normally, her daughter would carry the gift, but Marjie never had any. so she 'adopted' Chandra and gave Chandra her power.

The others wern't hearthcrafters, but Geocrafters (earth shapers), Geomancers (earth Manipulators), Aramancers (water manipulators), Firamancers (Fire Manipulators) there where also those that can manipulate the hearts or minds of others... all had a purpose. to protect the Gypsy clans or Romani from those who would exploit them. While in the past they were many while the Romani were few, nowdays... most threats were non-existant. So the guardians tend to just make sure their people were ok, and they meet together from time to time to just catch up on news.

And Chandra was the news of the day. They grounded the basics into her. Their Geocrafter, an older man named Bruce, showed her how the crafting power worked, as he formed a perfect statue of her out of various gemstones. and she followed suit with a statue... well, it was more a shaped blob of hamburger... but she was getting the idea down. and she learned the difference between a Geomancer (one who taps into the earth for their power, and can manipulate the Earth forces) and a Geocrafter (one who can create, shape and manipulate products of the earth.)

So she walked home, the street 'toughs' were also gypsies and thus, they now afforded her the same courtesy they gave the other guardians. Protection, eyes to watch their backs, and if need be, a safe haven.

On the way home, she practiced what she learned, spreading bread crumbs for birds, meaty treats for the stray dogs and cats, and even giving fruits and other foods to some homeless people.

but what stood out in her mind was the warning that Bruce gave her. "Several of the guardians have been dissappearing. no one knows why, or where they went, the only clue we have is that some mentioned they felt they were being watched or followed, so tommorrow, we'll begin teaching you the combat aspects of your ability... and make no mistake, you can do alot of damage with your power. Tavis (the Hospital Valet) will take you to another training area. meet him where you first met him and everything will be ok."

combat...

yep... life really knew how to throw those curve balls... but what happens when I don't know how to play baseball...

"I'm sorry I intruded, I just thought I heard someone crying so I can to see if I could help. I'm sorry."

"Jeepers he's just a kid." Sighing I let him down and give him a nudege to get him stumbling out of the warehouse. The police sirens are growing closer, apparently some one had enough snoopy in them to call. That is unusual for this neighborhood, but it means that I'll have to leave for at least the time being.

I don't have much time to get everything done that I need to so I hurry through my already in place plans. It also means no sleep, or not much sleep for me tonight. The air matress deflates as I stuff my small pile of possessions into three large duffle bags. Those are to be 'sailed' out a broken out second story window and on tho roof of the laundry across the alley. The flattened air matress I will roll into a lump and toss into a corner and throw some trash over it.

Once outside the warehouse and after taking a minute to calm down, a thought struck him. "Maybe whoever it is is a meta. It would certainly explain some things, especially if he's a hold over from the Age of Heros, or at least takes inspiration from that era.

With these thoughts in mind Julian quickly pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen. Writing a quick message, he found a rock and wrapped it around the stone and tossed it into the warehouse before departing.

The message read, "If this warehouse isn't haunted and instead inhabited, and you can get onto a computer, please email me at the following account.
J.Jeous@GHS..net."

With any luck, and if anyone was actually in the building, then maybe they'd get in touch.

I jump as a thrown rock clatters againt the scuffed concrete of the werehouse floor, but I don't have time to investigate just yet. I've barely got my duffels packed as the sirens wail to a stop at the far end of the alley. It will take them a few minutes to get here, if they bother to come all the way. I can only hope that they won't.

I wait, not realizing that I'm holding my breath untill my breastbone begins to hurt, and so I let it out slowly, then make sure I am breathing steadily but silently.

My internal clock, they taught us how to to determine each's individual clock and to 'read' them accurately at the Academy, says it's been five minutes and there is no sound from the alley. No sounds of investigating police officers that is, though there is the flashing glint of a car mounted search light darting here and there. My hope grows that they will decide not to get out of the car.

Most of the staff hated the kids there.

Roger was somewhat surprised about the remark the staff. Years ago, they would have given psychologic reviews every six months to keep potentially harmful influences out of the kids' lives. Now though...

"Well kid, I'm afraid I've only got some more bad news for you. After tonight, I'm taking you to my father. I'm too young to know how to raise somebody that could be my brother. My dad will help. And he's a physician. So while I'm busy analyzing your blood at the lab, he'll be working with you. He taught me how to control my rage. You'd be surprised at how mush your mental state can affect your body." Roger didn't want to dump his invisible young friend, but he couldn't keep him around. And in about six weeks, school terms would begin, and the kid would have to attend some place.

"I know it doesn't seem fair, but it's the best I can manage, for now."

Julian hadn't stopped to look back after lobbing the rock as the presence of cops, or at least thier sirens had told him that he'd be wise to get a move on. Afterall, at this hour and in this part of the city, there were very few teens up to something at least partially illegal and in all truthfulness he fell into that catagory. Bootlegged and pirated cds were nothing exceptionally unlawful but they still fell into that catagory and he knew he didn't want his mother finding out about them.

While undressing and getting ready for sleep he wondered if that person, if it had actually been a person instead of a ghost or something, would reply to the email. As he slipped into the realm of Morpheous for a fleeting instant an image of beautiful eyes and silver-blond hair before consiousness shut off.

It would be at least a day till he could check the school based email and as was his habit, he spent most of sunday on the computer or watching tv, taking a short walk to get some exercise in the meantime.

"I know it doesn't seem fair, but it's the best I can manage, for now."

Duo nodded.

"It's Ok," he replied. "Most of the time at the time at the orphanage you'd have to fend for yourself anyway."

Duo raised his right hand and looked at it. It was strange that he couldn't tell when he was invisible or when he wasn't, it was a pain to suddenly become visible in the middle of breaking orphanage rules and not realise it.

"I guess my upbringing has a large effect on my ability to control it."

Nelchizedeke Aerospace / Shuttle Bay

Near dusk and after spending the whole afternoon getting familiar the Navarone and the Air Bike Gwen directed Nikki to her buildings secret shuttle bay where she could store the Navarone until she was ready to leave New York. Upon landing Gwen excused herself by announcing that she had a meeting that she had to attend in a few minutes. Nikki then returned to the guest suite she had been assigned to change into her She Bat costume.
A few minutes later She Bat stood in place of Nikki, then as she summoned her psionic power and infused it into her bat like cape to form wings, she opened the sliding glass door to the balcony, closed it behind her and took to flight by jumping off of the balcony. Quickly she circled around to reenter the shuttle bay from the outside, again flying through the hidden shuttle entrance back to where she had just parked the Navarone to pickup the Air Bike. Even though her psionic power of flight would last for most of the night she wanted to use the Bike to save her strength until she needed to use her powers and to limit its use just in case some of those government sensors were watching the area tonight.
She Bat took her time going over in her mind all the things that Gwen had taught her earlier in the day about flying the Bike. Then when she was sure of it all she climbed on the bike and fired up its engines …. waiting a few moments for them to warm up to safe operational levels. She Bat smiled to herself as she realized this ride might have had to have been declared adults only if not for the short shorts sewn into the costumes mini skirt. It was the Bikes ready signal that brought her back to reality. She reminded herself to stay more alert as she engaged first the vertical air jets, then the horizontal and streaked into the now dark evening sky with her now normal cape blowing wildly in the wind.

Nelchizedeke Aerospace / The CEO Penthouse Condo

After her meeting with her board of directors Gwendilynne went up to her Condo on the top floor. When she walked into the condo the first thing she noticed was the security alert light flashing on the security cameras monitor. She suddenly was very glad that she had programmed the computer to monitor the camera images for criminal or other unusual happenstance in the area surrounding her building. However today it wasn’t a criminal she caught in the act, it was Nikki as she donned her heroine persona and returned to the shuttle bay to retrieve her Air Bike.
Using her Nelch sensors Gwen determined the source of Nikki’s power of flight as Psionic in nature. Because of the scattering field she had placed around the building she knew that Nikki was safe from government detection in or near her building but if she used her powers anywhere else in the city she could be in danger of discovery. Immediately Gwen crossed the room to her magically sealed tech vault to retrieve two scatting field rings. After placing them on separate fingers she conjured her Lady Moonette sorceress outfit then flew out into the darkness through the condo’s skylight in pursuit of her friend.

Adam had been watching Josh for hours. He knew he would be leaving for the music festival in the morning. Adam had grown more interested in the men who entered Josh's room. They were probably interested with superbeings. If they had any more information on superbeings in Gotham, it would prove useful. He had to find a way to get at least one of them. They might still be in the hotel. Adam closed his eyes and letout a wave of force. It was almost like a signal that would travel for miles. If the men were involved with superbeings, they'd come and find him from the signal. Other superbeings would as well.

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

Josh felt a weird feeling. Almost like something washed over him. He felt like it came from the room next to him. As odd as it was, Josh didn't bother much with it. He needed to be ready to get up in the morning, so he decided to get some sleep.

*Hari opened the door and walking towards the living room.*

”Man Prof Jackson is such a pain... three papers due this semester... “

*She stopped as strange scents assaulted her. she peeked into the living room and she noticed Michael and Yvette were not alone in the living room, two well dressed people were there. Yvette with tears in her eyes ran and embraced Hari. Michael looked relieved but still worried.

"Hari... where were you? We thought you were with Emily..."

"I was, but I told her that I had to stay to do some lab work at the University... she's not back yet? what happened?" The scent of fear and sorrow was driving Hari insane. one of the well dressed men stood up and came over, showing her his badge.

"I'm Special Agent Toles, this is Special Agent Giles. were from the FBI. did you notice anyone paying particular attention to either you or your friend.?"

"No sir... what's going on?"

Yvette sobbed out the words that sent a chill down her spine. "We got a phone call... Emily's been kidnapped, they're holding her somewhere and they want money for her return."

"H...how much..."

"5 million..."

"I... we can afford that... can't we?"

Special agent Toles spoke "we shouldn't pay. we can find them and bring her home safely." He looked at Hari. "I know you want your friend back, but trust us, we know what we're doing."

Hari stared at the agent. “Please… bring her home,”

Hari went up to her room, closed the door and lay on her bed, afraid for the person that she would be happy to call "sister".

+++

hours passed, then the phone rang.

after three rings, she heard someone pick up the phone from down stairs. quietly picking up the line on her end, she listened in.

"… million, in unmarked unsequential bills. what is your answer?"
Michael:"it will take us some time to gather the money... we need more time"
"you have 24 hours, we'll call you at a later date, if you don't have the money... " a muffled shriek in the back could be heard. "we'll have our fun with your very pretty daughter."
Michael: "Please.. don't...

the rest of the conversation was lost to Hari... she seemed to focus on other things beside the voice of Emily's father and the speaker... in the background, she could hear the heavy breathing of 5 others, one panicky, the others excited and tense... one was emily, the others were part of the kidnapping group. she could hear Emily, gagged, mummbling "help me"... "please don't"... and other muffled protests...

one by one, she catagorized the sounds, then tuned them out, listening for more clues, more indications as to where they are...

in the background, she could barely hear the hum of a cargo train as it moved in the distance, the rustle of something… a tarp, or plastic sheet... then one of the speakers spoke up just before the line went dead.

"so who's up for some Pizza Hu..."
Pizza hut, near the railway lines...

*going on line, she looked for all pizza Hut restraunts near the Union Pacfic line.*

Sunnyvale County... Dad's construction company is building some low cost Apartements in that area... the perfect hidaway...

*there was a knock on the door and Hari quickly turned off the computer.*

"Yes?"

* Yvette opened the door.*
"The Kidnappers called, Emily is ok... for now. they will give us one day, then... "

"are the agents still against us paying the ransom?"

* Yvette nods, tears streaming down her eyes.*

"Don't worry Yvette, Emily will be saved and she will come home."

"I hope so Hari... the FBI took the tape with them, they said they will try to find some clues as to where they are."

they don't know yet... "uhm... Yvette, I... I need to be alone for a moment... "

* Yvette nodded.*

"Come downstairs when you're ready."

*Hari locked the door and stared at her reflection in the mirror.* They don't know where she is... but I do. *her reflection looked back and cocked her head.*
You want to go after them... don't you.
can we?
yes...
but...
I will need more than the freedom you gave me... I need control.
what are you going to do?
What needs to be done.
... don't kill them.
why?
if you kill them, *smile* they won't learn fear...
*her reflection smiled back*
I like the way I think.
what do I need to do...
accept me, accept that you and I are one and the same. that I am the beast as you are the beauty. That I am the part of you that you always denied existed. your imaginary friend, half of your true self, and then we will be one.

*Hari's memories of her pretend tiger friend, her first pet and confidant... the imaginary tiger that made her climb trees, run in the yard barefoot, and even roughhoused with Emily while they grew up together. a friend she was convinced that should be set aside as she grew up... a friend she never knew she would miss so much.*

I accept you... and… I've also missed you...
Brace yourself... this will hurt a little.

*there was a bone cracking snap as pain shot through her legs. she almost screamed out loud as she stumbled from the dresser to her bed. the pain stretched from her feet to her head, fire blossomed in every nerve and muscle. the blood pounding in her ears and the sound of her bones breaking and mending deafened her to all else as she felt her whole body stretch and fold beyond her imagination. finally, the pain was just too much to contain... *

*downstairs, Yvette poured some coffee for Michael, her husband, and the police officers sent to safeguard the family. they sat in silence, as they worried over their daughter when a soul chilling scream eminated from Hari's room. Panicking that something terrible was happening, they ran upstairs with the two officers following. Pounding on the locked door and shouting Hari's name, the two who were Hari's second parents tried to get into the locked room. suddenly, the screaming stopped and there was a loud growl followed by dead silence. pushing the two servants aside, the officers kicked in the door and burst in… expecting the worse.*

*inside the room, the bed was shredded, but there was no sign of Hari. The curtains swaying in the breeze that came in through the open window..*

FREE!

*Hari lept across the street, from one rooftop to another. She marveled at the power her muscles had as the ground flew by. Leaping down from the third floor of one apartment, she landed softly on the ground and sped off... leaving only the sounds of dogs barking at this sudden intruder in their territory.*

Keep to the shadows, we must be spotted.... yet.

*The dark felinoid shape flew, from one shadowed alleyway to another, Leaping across busy streets, moving from tree to tree, utility pole to utility pole, always keeping to the shadows and always on the move. when moving across open areas is inevitable, she would endure the pain and shift to take to all fours, running like a cheetah, quick short bursts of speed that kept most people watching wondering what they saw.

Roger nodded in assent as they landed at Metropolis. After parking the small craft in the agency's hangar, he disengaged the power controls. "Well kid, welcome to Metropolis. If ever there was a City of Tomorrow, it was always this place. Come on, we'll grab some late dinner before we get to my apartment for tonight. You got all your clothes and hygeine goods in there?" He opened the door, and stood aside to let Duo out first.

"Ok," Duo replied and stepped out.

He stretched as he got used to standing on the ground. It had been only his second ever flight in his life.

"Yeah, not much in there," he said about his small suitcase. "All my belongings are in there."

Roger shouldered his bag and handed the boy his own, before heading out to the mono-rail stop. As the two approached the airport stop, he turned, and asked, "So, will this be your first time abourd a monorail as well? Or do you know how to handle yourself aboard public transportation?"

"It will be," he then said with a nod. "I do know how to behave in public."

Certain staff members had seen to it that Duo and the other orphans learned obedience. He felt guilty at finally getting away from there knowing full well the harsh reality of the orphanage. Duo sighed.

Roger sighed. This kid had a lot to learn. "I'm not talking about being in public, Duo. I'm talking about public transport. Listen, just stay close, don't talk to anybody, and don't stare. On the other hand, keep your eyes open. Be aware of who is around you without drawing their attention. The last thing either of us need is a mugging directed at us. Come on. Our ride's here."

The train had arrived, and the two managed to find a semi-vacant car. Roger stood, but near a seat. "Sit down, kid. I don't want you spraining an ankle at the stops."

Duo nodded and sat down. The mention of a mugging worried him slightly, there was so much outside the orphanage that he wasn't exactly prepared for.

She crouched on the rooftop of one of Gothams taller buildings. Below her she watched the hovercars and normal wheeled traffic move in their crowded, chaotic way. Her claws dug into the soft plascrete that was the main building material for todays building. it's yealding surface allowed her to cling to the side of the building yet it's memory matix refilled any holes her claws made. handy stuff.

her eyes focused on the old tracks that marked where the old Gotham Rail Lines once stood. long forgotten, it served as a placemark for historians and also as a visual guide for the new hover rails that floated above them.

not much time.

she scanned the area, following the tracks.

Not here...

with a running leap she dove off the side of the building, catching one of the flagpoles fixed to the side and catapulted herself across the street where her claws allowed her to practically run along the side of the building. she continued to follow the old Gotham rail lines... towards the wharehouse district and finally to the new developments area.

That evening, Chandra and Tavis drove to the warehouse district. their car entered one of the abandoned warehouses and Tavis turned the engine and lights off.

in the darkness, she could hear the Warehouse Doors close, cutting of the dim lights from the street. then the warehouse interior was illuminated as the lights turned on. Tavis and Chandra got out and faces about 20 men... no... boys. each armed with clubs, chains and other sharp and pointy objects.

From the rafters, Bruce called down.
"one aspect of your power that Marjie was a master of, is the ability to alter the characteristics of your creations. heat, hardness, elasticity, even it's tensile strength can be altered by you. Imagine a spaghetti strand strong as steel chain, an egg hard as a rock... a log of salami tough enough to dent steel."

Bruce said something and 19 of those boys found perches and boxes to sit upon. one stayed behind, he held no weapons, he grinned ferally at her.
"We'll start off slow. don't worry about hurting them. they volunteered to train you. and the beating you get now, will be far better off from the fate that you would get... should you be targetted next by our unseen foes."

"now... let's begin with a simple log of salami..."

+++

It seemed like hours has passed as Chandra rested on the floor of the warehouse. around her, bits of various rolls of salami lay on the ground. broken, sliced or torn to peices.

"well Gino?" Bruce spoke from the warehouse floor. he had come down from the rafters while Chandra was watching her third salami roll crumble as she tried to attack her opponent.

"that last one was a bit harder to break, but..." her opponent shrugged with an apologetic smile towads Chandra. Bruce sighed.

"you got to imagine the steel being inherent in the material you summon. since you cannot produce steel itself, you have to imbue your item with the same characteristics."

"I'M TRYING! THIS ISN'T EASY YOU KNOW!" Chandra complained as she slowly stood up.

"NO! Do not try, DO!" Bruce slamed his marble walking stick on the ground for emphasis.

Chandra closed her eyes and first pictured a steel pipe in her hands. she molded that steel pipe into the shape of a salami log. then she changed that steel log into salami and called it into being. she opened her eyes... looking at the salami log in her hands. with a cry she swung it towards Gino who nimbly stepped aside, and snatched it out of her hands and promptly broke it in two.

"I think I finally know what the problem is." a soft voice called out from the shadows.

A small lady stepped into the light. she was one of the guardians that Chandra met the other day... Roxanna?... no... not Roxanna...

"Moxanna, any help would be greatly appreciated." Bruce sighed.

Moxanna looked at Chandra and smiled. she was a telepath, a powerful one, but limited to line of sight. she had to physically see her target in order to affect their thoughts.

"Chandra dear, try this. instead of forming the object then turning it into the food item... just give it the appearance of what your making."

Chandra stared blankly at the middle aged gypsy.

"Allow me in please." Moxanna looked at Chandra. after a moment, Chandra closed her eyes and she could 'hear' Moxanna in her thoughts.

"First you formed the steel pipe..." (an image of the pipe appeared in Chandra's mind.) "Then you gave that pipe the shape of the food item you wanted..." (the pipe turned into a log of salami.) "Then you turned it into salami itself." (the steel pipe faded away, leaving the salami.) "However, at that point, you lost the steel and only have salami. what would happen if you stopped at your second step..." (the salami shaped steel pipe reappeared into her mind.) "and only... painted it like a salami." (the silver sheen of the salami/pipe faded to a dull brown of salami.) "Now try to conjure that."

"but it's steel, not..."

"don't doubt yourself. Just try it." Moxanna's voice echoed in her mind.

with a sigh, Chandra tapped into her energies and pulled the salami out. or tried to. it was harder... more resistance and she could actually feel the energy be sucked out of her... but she felt the oily hard surface in her hand and she opened her eyes and saw a plain log of salami in them.

With a fustrated sigh, she tossed the salami away and stopped when it make a solid *THUNK* on the concrete floor. Bruce bent down and picked up the log... he hefted it and tossed it to Gino who strained to break it. but couldn't even dent the surface of it.

Gino looked at Chandra with a grin and with a fierce yell, swung the salami at the floor as if he was swinging a sledgehammer. The salami slamed into the concrete and remained in one peice.

Bruce looked at Moxanna. "That seemed to do the trick."

Chandra stared at the salami and when Gino handed it back to her (still grinning like a child) she sniffed it, and resisted the urge to lick it.

"It's still salami... only... harder." Moxanna said as she turned to walk back to her seat. "the trick is to imagine the steel or elasticity or whatever quality you want in it."

Chandra smiled at Bruce, but the smile faded when Bruce simply looked at Gino and said...

"Well... Don't just stand there grinning like an idiot... attack her!"

Rio had forgone sleep for the security of staying awake. If the police retured she wanted to be prepared. Exhausted when dawn came she brought her bags floating back from the laundry roof. She trudged wearily towards the door, stopping as her foot scuffed the rock the kid had tossed back inside last night. She could see that there was paper wrapped around it and curiosity got the better of her. She unwrapped it, read it and chuffed in half amusement. Tossing the rock over her shoulder she thrust the piece of paper into her coat pocket as she left the warehouse.

There was a greasy spoon diner not too many blocks away and she'd get breakfast there before finding a movie house to sleep the day away in under the guise of a movie marathon. and by five or six it'd be safe to head over to the YWCA again for another shower. Rio really hoped that shed scrabbled enough together to get an ID. She wondered what the rent on the warehouse would be, though she knew that it was more than likely out of her range.

The next day was a generally average school day, though the school was abuzz about the fact they'd won the game. After a tedious, and mandatory, civics class followed by equally mandatory and pointless abstinence only sex-ed it came time for one of the courses he'd actually chosen.

Signing onto the computer, he pulled up the assignment and after transfering it form a different folder, thanks to the miracle of getting a copy of the assignment list at the start of the year, he had gotten all the work done in the first month so he could slack and enjoy himself for the rest of the term. With the lesson handed in, he opened an IE page and scrolled to the e-mail page. Clicking he wondered if his 'ghost' would have replied yet.

Haruka softly landed on the almost done apartment building. She padded silently to a stack of Plascrete mix as a figure came around, making rounds so to speak. Haruka could see that he shouldered an automatic rifle and that he was keeping a watch, of sorts, for anyone coming too close to the building.

As he passed close to where Haruka was hiding, she caught the wiff of Cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and... a faint trace of Emily.

the look out leaned on the stack of plascrete mix and stared out into Gotham's nighlights. 5 mill... split 5 ways... a lot of moola... he smiled as he lit his cigarette, then exhaled a plume of smoke out into the night sky.

A furred hand crushed it against his face as he is suddenly yanked back and out of sight.

===

"Don you fret little one. When Mommy and Daddy convice that rich bitch to pay up, you'll be going home." The Lead Kidnapper patted Emily on the cheek. He checked her gag and her bindings then went back to the box of now cold pizza and grabbed a slice.

"we won't kill you. You are such a nice hostage, we'll even think about keeping our promise of not having some fun with you." He winked at the look of shock on Emily's face as he nudged one of the sleeping accomplices.

"Go relieve Tim." The sleepy kidnapper grabed his gun and yawning, made his way to the stairwell.

===

Mac started climbing the stares when it suddenly vibrated. looking up he blinked as he could barely see a crouched figure on the upper landing. turning on his flashlight, he didn't have time to scream as Haruka launched herself at the, now wide awake kidnapper.

the door to the stairwell burst open as two shadowed figures tumbled through. one lay on the ground while the other figure remained in a crouched posistion. It's tail? lashed the air about it as it crept forward.

The other two kidnappers groggily got to their feet and snatched up their weapons. The leader trained his flashlight on Haruka and stared in shock at the creature before them. It was... a humanoid tiger. complete with orange and black stripes. it opened it's fang filled mouth and let out an angry sounding roar. He brought his SMG up and let loose a burst of fire that passed harmlessly as it launched itself into the nearest kidnapper. With apparent ease, it hefted the struggling man and threw him hard against one of the support beams. he slumped limply to the ground.

The second to last kidnapper screamed as he let loose a barrage of bullets at the cat-man. leaping up to kick off of a nearby scaffolding, the cat-man somersaulted through the spray of bullets to land between the two men. With a bone crunching punch, it drove it's fist into his shoulder and spun around, holding her now improvised sheild as the leader cut loose with a barrage of his own.

===

Haruka held the limp but still jerking body between her and the last kidnapper. he was freaked... holding down the trigger as his fear induced mind didn't register that it was his friend that he was shooting. she peeked behind her shield and saw that Emily was still tied to the chair, her eyes wide at the tableu that the scattered flashlights showed. but so far, she was unharmed.

suddenly, the gunfire stopped as the 'clickclickclick' of the hammer hitting an empty champer signaled that the leader was now out of ammo. with a heave, she sent the body flying into the last man and both went down in a heap.

Haruka stood up and calmly walked over to where Emily was struggling with her ropes. Her fear was so thick, Haruka could not only smell it, but could taste it.

Kneeling down infront of her, Haruka reached out with a clawed hand and sliced through Emily's bindings. she then pointed to the stairwell and in a voice that barely registered as human, she growled.
"Go, Get out of here, your family is waiting."

Emily needed no further prompting. slowing down long enough to snatch up one of the flashlights, she raced down the stairs.

Haruka turned and staggered in pain. Her eyes focused on the leader who stood up, his friends SMG in his hand as he held down the trigger, intent on killing the monster before him.

===

Emily ran into the street. the sounds of gunfire and animal growls filled her ears as she exited the stairwell and ran accross the street. she reached a public phone and dialed emergency services.

"T-this is Emily Brown... I've been kidnapped and I need help... "

Chandra tossed her keys aside and staggered towards her room. as she was reaching the hallway to her bedroom, a voice spoke out from the dark living room.

"hmm... 3:30 in the morning. you must've been busy."

she spun around as the lights flickered on. Her mother sat on the sofa staring at her.

"Candra Von Henkelson! what HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!?"

Chandra started... then looked in the wall mirror mounted at the end of the hallway and chuckled. she showed signs of some bruising, a spaghetti strand hung from her hair, bits of mashed potatoe, cotton candy and god knows what peppered her clothing and hair. also, her clothes sported various tears and other stains. she started to laugh.

Her father, hearing both his wifes exclamation and his daughter's laughter, walked out of the bedroom, took one look at his daughter and looked at her sternly.

"It's... nothing. I got a job at a resturant." Chandra gasped when she could. "they needed the help and thus hired me on the spot. however, while cleaning up, one of the cooks had some sort of emotional melt down. food was flying everywhere."

well, at least the last part was the truth... Chandra thought. Bruce thought up the cover story... and Gino, one of her sparring partners, explained that his parents, who do own a resturant in their neighborhood, would put her on their employee list as a new hire. to provide a cover for her training... and an opportunity to learn some recipies to bolster her powers.

"A job... at a resturant?" Her father said with alot of disbelief in his voice.

"Yeah, waiting tables, learning some short order stuff... " she saw her parents look at each other and sighed.

"The therapist said I needed to excercise my hip to strengthen it. Waiting tables will help with that. They understand my situation and they knew the Ma... the old lady I saved. so they were glad to accept me and help me regain the use of my hip and leg. and... well... without the grants... I gotta find some way to pay for my training..."

"It would've been nice to let us know. we were so worried..."

"Sorry Dad, Mom. it just happened so fast... I... the notion just hit me, and I asked at the first resturant I came to. it was just lucky that they needed the help right away..." She yawned. "I'm really beat... can we talk about this later?"

"Sure dear. we'll talk later. get some sleep."

"Thanks... and I',m sorry about not calling you. G'nite."

Central Park / New York / SheBat

SheBat floated quietly above Central Parks Harlem Meer on the corner of 110th street and 5th Ave on her air bike taking in all the sights and sounds of the City. This was her first time in New York, she marveled at the cities shear size, it seemed to go on forever. She remembered as a little girl the first time her parents had taken her to Columbus. At the time, to a small girl it too looked huge in her eyes, she had been so awe struck that she had looked up at the tall downtown buildings for so long that her neck had gotten stuck in that position and her parents had to take her to the doctor over the problem, but New York actually was huge! Even the size of central park was surprising to her, it was funny really because the mayor in Columbus was always talking about Columbus being a world class city …. well maybe he had never visited New York City either. Realizing that she was day dreaming again she was glad that there was no moon tonight because it helped to hide her position over the park from any unwanted detection.
Suddenly she heard a woman’s scream break the parks otherwise eerie silence, immediately she touched the side of her face mask lightly to engage the masks built in infrared eye piece lens to help her see in the dark. Looking in the direction of the scream she quickly found the location and couldn’t believe what she saw! A group of guys wearing jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes and matching jean jackets with head bands on their heads had two young women trapped in their circle. As she flew quietly closer she could see the gang name “ Harlem Titans “ on the back of all the jackets and could hear one of the guys talking to the girls. “ Well, well, well …look what we found …. two beautiful saps wondering through our park at this time of night, this could be fun and profitable …. What more could a guy ask for. “ said the leader. The girls huddled together in fear in the center of the space the gang bangers encircled. The leader of the gang bangers started toward the frightened girls with a evil grin on his face even as he said, “ I get first dibs on these beauties boys so just wait your turn." as he removed a syringe from inside his jacket.

Central Park / New York / Lady Moonette

After leaving her building on Columbus Circle Lady Moonette cast a locate spell to allow her to track Shebat. As the spell started to work she could suddenly see a trail leading into Central Park. Immediately she set out to follow the trail flying across Columbus Circle and into the airspace of the southwest section of Central Park. First the trail went to “The Pond “ a small pond located on the southeast corner of the park. From there it turned northwest crossing over 65th Street and Olmstead Dr. until it came to the body of water in the park known as the “ The Lake “. From there it turned northeast to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It then continued north northeast to cross above the parks largest lake just below 97th Street. After crossing 97th Street it over flew the ball diamonds just above 97th then continued on to a spot on the southwest side of Harlem Meer where she finally spotted SheBat quietly floating on her air bike downward towards a group of gang bangers that had to young women trapped. Immediately Lady Moonette cast a spell that teleported the scatting field ring into an empty pocket of SheBats Utility Belt, then sat back to see how well she could handle herself.

Here is a link picturing Harlem Meek:

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/wireless/free-wifi-in-nycs-central-park-now-thats-more-like-it.asp

Ed awoke due to the sun shining squarely upon his face. Evidently it wasn't long past dawn and whilst he grumbled at the fact that the gap between the two curtains in his room was in exactly the right position to allow the sun onto him. Despite such, he hauled himself out of bed and showered before changing into a pair of blue jeans, black Iron Maiden t-shirt and light brown jacket.

Not bothering to order any breakfast, Ed returned to the streets of Gotham, lighting himself a cigarette as he left the hotel. Whilst he was able to light it with his fingertip, Ed always used a zippo lighter instead. The fire element of his powers was not something he was comfortable with or even completely in control of. Chances are he could try to light a cig and end up lighting his face, such was the drawback of training his other abilities whilst marginalising fire.

The streets of Gotham appeared somewhat more friendly in the morning, although Ed could still see the suspicion in people's eyes as they walked by. People were afraid of other people, always looking twice or checking to see if they were being followed. It was somewhat of a shock to Ed, although by all rights he should be used to it by now. Of course that didn't mean he had to like it.

This train of thought eventually led Ed to consider the heroes of the past, those that had stood up for the right thing and had done their best to make the world a safe place. They were either dead or gone now, their deeds simply a fond memory for some and myth for others.

Completely focused on these thoughts, Ed wasn't particularly paying attention as to where he was and promptly ran into another young man, knocking him back a few steps and causing him to lean upon a nearby building for support. Spinning around to apologise, Ed narrowly missed a large tightly clenched fist charging towards him. Stepping back, Ed place both hands up.

"Hey mate, I'm sorry. No need to get so worked up."

"You should have thought about that before you ran into me!"

Ed couldn't believe he was now in a fight over bumping someone on the street. Many people simply walked by whilst some sat back and watched, none offering assistance. Intent not to let this escalate, James didn't approach the angry guy and kept evading his punches until he found himself backed against a street light. Looking behind him to gauge the space he could move into, Ed silently cursed himself. He'd just taken his eyes off his opponent.

A single blow to the side of the head knocked Ed to the ground, a ring opening a gash just above his temple. Head now spinning, Ed scrambled back to his feet before he ended up tasting boot. Enough was enough. Ed backed up roughly two paces and waited for the young brute to move towards him. As expected, he began a charge forward and that's when Ed struck. It wasn't anything that anyone could have noticed but Ed had employed his control of the earth to shift one of the pavement slabs ever so slightly. The change was enough to cause the young man to trip, shifting his balance which led to an eventual fall. Before he hit the ground, Ed promptly stepped forward and placed his knee into the path of his assailant's face.

A clear snap was audible as the guy's nose broke and blood sprayed over Ed's jeans. The guy was down for the count and to the onlookers it appeared as though Ed had simply reacted very quickly upon a lucky opportunity. Not wanting to be in the spotlight any longer, Ed quickly broke into a quick run, crossing the street and covering several blocks before stopped.

He was liking each day in Gotham less than the one beforehand.

At the second stop, two men boarded the train. The next leg was extremely short, and Roger knew that this was when stuff wnet down. He casually dropped his bag next to Duo, and whispered "Watch my stuff," as he stepped in front of them.

The two looked past Roger at another, older man. One kept his eye on Roger while the other approached the man. "Excuse me, sir, but would you like some help from us while we're riding with you?"

The man only said "I'm fine," but the punk was expecting this.

"Are you sure? You know there are muggers out there, and we'd hate for your money to get stolen by a snot-nosed brat."

This was when Roger acted. "Duo, if you can, make yourself hard to see." Then he spoke to the second guy, the one that was looking at the rest of the car. "I think your friend should lay off the gentleman. He seems well enough off that he doesn't need your help." This last part had just enough sarcasm to tell them he more than knew their game.

"What, did you want to help him?" asked the first mugger. He shifted his hands. Roger bet on knives for both of them. This had to be taken care of, soon.

Gotham

One team moved up the stairs, while another waited in the hallway. They were on the floor where one of their own had been before, only this time they moved one door down. One stepped forward and knocked. "Mr. Carey, please open up!"

Duo nodded and watched Rogers stuff. Then as Rogers next suggestion came, Duo once again nodded. He was a little scared about what might have been going on and that helped him, when scared he did often turn invisible much to the wonder of some of the orphanages ghosts.

It worked, he successfully willed himself invisible. He then waited for Roger to sort things out.

"When did this happen?" I wonder, my mind blank, as I look at the sign posted in the ticket box winddow.

CLOSED

The bold red lettering brooks no arguements, and I scuff the pavement with my worn tenny-sneak. I'd been looking forward to a nap of some ninety minutes, several times over as different movies played. But I haven't been by this particular theater in almost a week, and now this haven is gone. My shoulders slump and I can't help the tears that prickle at my eyelids. Turning away I search my shoulder bag for sun glasses. They had been discarded for no apparent reason, save maybe not being the latest fashion, but they are good for hiding my eyes.

I'm at a loss now, unsure of where to go, not hagving made any plans. I can't really return to the diner, especially after the terrible breakfast they had served me -that would be suspicious. Perhaps the near by library branch is quiet today. I make my decission and turn in that direction.

I can't blame any one but myself as I nearly run into a man moving briskly down the street. He doesn't look like his day is going any better than mine.

"Sorry mister" I apologise softly as I just manage to keep from knocking both of us over. I'll check my pockets in a few steps and make sure I haven't been relieved of the small dummy wallet I leave there just for pickpockets. If I have I'll discretely follow the man. He might be worth it, if he is a criminal.

Haruka groaned as the sunlight flooded her room. bathing it with light.

"damn!" she swore when she tried to get out of bed. she sat there for a moment, remembering what happened just hours before.

---

she managed to crawl back into her bedroom. the pain of the gunshots still fresh in her mind. more than once she almost screamed in pain as she shifted back into her human form.

Breathing heavily, she crawled to her bathroom and tried to apply some first aid.... only to find her bullet wounds gone. dried matted blood was all that remained.

As quick as her sore muscles allowed, she cleaned herself off and stepped out just as Yvette knocked on her door.

"Hari! They found her! She's Ok!" Hari could hear Yvettes tears as she shouted the good news. "She's at the police station, We're going to pick her up... think you can be ready in 5 minutes?"

"I can be ready sooner than that." Hari shouted back. she limped over to her closet and quickly threw on a pair of jeans, a shirt and sweater. a fake stumble on the stairs would exscuse her limp (and she was rewarded with a reproving look from Micheal) and they went to pick Emily up.

+++

Hari sighed and crawled out of bed. she changed to her day clothes and went to open her large windows when she stepped on some pebbles.

Wondering what they are, she bent over to pick them up, she found herself looking at 4 bloody lead slugs. smiling she tossed them into her trash.



However, she fished one out and carefully wrapped it in a square of satin. a keepsake, and reminder of when her life truely changed.

SheBat vs The Harlem Titans / Central Park Fight

SheBat leveled off and placed her air bike in hoover mode at two hundred feet above the Gang Leader, then quickly summoned her psionic power infusing it into her cape to form batwings and took to the air by diving off of the air bike as she again summoned her power this time down her arms to fire her beam at the gang leader from her hands.
. Immediately and unknown to SheBat the scatting field ring immediately surrounded her in an invisible blanket of protection again mutant detection. Then something really weird happened a full moon suddenly appeared in the night sky coming out from behind the cloud cover that was now breaking up. Because of this SheBats winged shadow could now be seen on the ground by some of the gang members as she flew overhead. Some of the members that had been told stories by their grandfathers of their repeated captures by “ The Batman “ years before as young thugs themselves lost their nerve and broke and ran thinking that Batman had somehow finally returned.
To busy with his intended rape of the two girls the gang leader never even noticed that a number of his back ups had just hightailed it out of the park entirely. But what he did notice was the syringe full of ecstasy that flew out of his hand narrowly missing his head in the process when a beam of some kind hit him in his midsection and knocked him out flat on his back. Seconds later SheBat came screaming out of the air to plant her boot in the face of one of the four that had not ran knocking him on his back so hard he slid backwards a foot after hitting the ground and promptly lost consciousness. The other three watched as the second member of their gang hit the ground in less then a minute. They continued to watch as a young woman with black bat like wings, red eyes, jet black hair and dressed in a sexy skin tight but armored black costume suddenly dropped from the sky right into their mist. Immediately SheBat gave the nearest thug a swift ballet-like kick in the chin, sending him stumbling backwards into the water of the Meer as her wings seemed to just disappear into her back and shoulders. For some reason the last two decided then that they were tired of watching all their friends either running away or getting the crap kicked out of them So while one pulled a knife and moved in for a frontal assault, the other silently circled around behind the female vigilante.
While SheBat watched the guy in the front because she had seen him pull the knife, the second guy suddenly grabbed her in a bear hug from behind. His size and strength held her firm, so when the guy with the knife approached her from the front, she lifted her legs and kicked him squarely on the face, using the force to push herself backwards into the guy behind her, who lost his balance. Once he loosened his grip to steady himself, SheBat slammed an elbow into his solar plexus as she stomped his foot hard with her high-heeled boot. Rolling out and away to the right side to gain some ground SheBat then spun around as she came up into a stance while summoning her power for the last time. This time a beam erupted from each hand to strike down the last two gang members. Only then she realized that the two young women had taken advantage of the fight to make good on their escape, she smiled to herself knowing that she had successfully introduced herself to New York City.

Julian sighed slightly at the fact that his 'Ghost' either didn't exist, was unable to access a computer or didn't wish to respond. Other than the hope of correspondance, it was a normal day for Julian, what with a pop math quiz that was nothing if not pedestrian and the need to avoid the gym teacher's sadism in chosing to pit the various athletes against the rest of the class in dodgeball. Thanks in no small part to his ability, what would have been a massacre was simply a rout.

He was getting more confortable with his power by the day thought as far as he could tell he'd hit its limits and while he had found he could outstrip just about any purely physical athletic record, it took about as much effort as it cost the athlete and didn't mean anything if he didn't have any natural talent. He'd discovered how fast he could move one day when he'd gone to the track very early one sunday morning shortly after he'd gotten his abilities so he could work on testing them out without witnesses that might have asked embarressing or dangerous questions. When he tried to sprint and found he'd shattered beyond compare the records for the hundred meter dash had been quite shocking for Julian as he'd never been that much of a runner.

Returning home he finished his homework and then decided to do a little work on a personal project that he eventually intended to use as the basis for a thesis paper in university on the rise, abilities, weaknesses, origins, history and eventually the 'fall' of the 'Supers' both those of the criminal, noble and anti variety. Many had fallen due to age such as the various incarnations of the Batman and his nefarious counterpart in the form of the Joker, both Gotham icons to the illustrious carrier of Superman. Others due to incidental accidents or revenge from criminals and mobs over the disaster of the last great conflict. However there were some who's fates remained a mystery, listed dead but the actual fate unknown, those who'd simply vanished.

Julian's research had led him to believe certain heros and possibly villians remained either in seculsion or retirement. The one who'd gone by the name of Morph he was certain still lived, he also knew would be as near as impossible to find him unless he desired to make himself known due to the powers possessed by the worthy.

Finishing his stint of research he grabbed a bite of dinner and headed to bed, wondering if there would be an email with a different originating point than his high-school server in his box the next day.

Adam heard a knock on the door and people asking him to open the door. He smiled, everything was falling into place. He opened the door. "Can I help you men?"

Roger didn't have time to mess around with these two. A galnce told him that Duo was concealed. "Yeah, I'm going to take core of his two biggest problems. You two worms that barely deserve my time, or my consideration."

That was enough. The closer man rushed him. Roger sidestepped, grabbed his wrist, and then delivered a blow to hyperextend the elbow. The knife fell to Roger's feet, whence he kicked it away. As he did, he threw th man into a vacant bench, and then took the second.

The other had good handwork, enough to land the blade inside Roger coat arm. The leather jacket was thick, though, and Roger's sweeping motion caught the blade up, dislodging it from his fore-arm and then his jacket. The punk tried to land a few blows, only to break one or two of the wrist bones on Roger's reinforced skeleton. Opportunity knocks only once in a while, and Roger knew it. A light punch was enough to break the punk's nose, and a couple of gut blows winded him. Luck was with him, as they approached the station stop just as he was finishing.

Roger threw the two out of the train, and to the conscious one, left a warning. "Don't ever ride this train again."

Sitting, he picked up his bag, whispering, "If you can, make yourself visible as we disembark. One tap for yes, two for no."

"Sorry mister"

Ed was almost shocked as heard those words after his second collision of the day. His first thought was to check his wallet and phone, they were both there and it was obvious he wasn't about to get into another fight. Spinning around to face the woman he'd run into, Ed apologised.

"No, it's my fault. I wasn't really looking where I was going. Are you alright?"

By now a visible bruise had formed on the right side of Ed's face, an indication of his previous conflict. It wasn't quite a black eye yet equally unappealing and obviously tender. Despite the somewhat rough look, anyone that had any skill in reading people could tell Ed was certainly being sincere with a genuine concern for the woman before him.

Although the people of Gotham seemed to be mostly criminals and thugs, Ed couldn't help being empathetic, it was part of his nature and a part of his upbringing, most likely due to the socialist background of his parents.

Content that he was far enough away from the broken nosed thug, Ed was no longer in any hurry nor did he have anywhere else to go.

No, it's my fault. I wasn't really looking where I was going. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine...What happend to your face" I exclaim softly as I get a good look at the man's bruised face. I pull the sunglasses off so as to get a better look worried that I had hurt him. My eyes shouldn't be too red, I'd only cried a few tears.

"I..I didn't do that did I?" That had to hurt, bruises often seemed to hurt worse than other injuries, especially when they're on the face.

Sitting, he picked up his bag, whispering, "If you can, make yourself visible as we disembark. One tap for yes, two for no."

Duo watched him take care of the thugs with interest all the while staying invisible. When asked, he tapped once as he was confident of becoming visible again when they would disembark.

Gotham

"Mr. Carey, would you mind coming with us for a moment. There's a matter of local concern that we need to speak with you about."

"I..I didn't do that did I?"

Ed smiled briefly at the woman before him, evidently she hadn't but it was nice to see that not everyone would jump at the chance to hit him in the face. The movement of his face resulted in a small wince, reminding Ed that he was still sore and probably shouldn't do that again. Gazing into the woman's eyes, Ed could see she didn't seem to be in the happiest of states either.

"Oh no, it wasn't you. The last person I ran into on the street had a lot less manners than you and had no qualms about informing me of that fact."

Rubbing his face slightly, Ed attempted to gauge the severity of the bruise.

"Is it really that bad?"

The idea of having a big visible bruise on his face did not appeal to Ed, it somewhat marked him as a potential target for other thugs that figured he may be an easy target.

SheBat The Dark Detectress

Before leaving the park SheBat tied up all the remaining gang members to different trees wearing just there underwear to publicly embarrass them. Then rifled through their clothing and personal effects. She hit pay dirt on the leaders palm pilot, which had names, addresses,& telephone numbers of his criminal associates in Gotham, Metropolis, Central City & Columbus! Then as she turned to leave she saw a woman in red materialize out of thin air. She Bat immediately went into a martial arts stance and started to summon her power incase this woman proved dangerous. “ Hello SheBat …. Or should I say Nikki? I am Lady Moonette.” said Lady Moonette. This of course surprised Nikki that this woman knew her secret identity, “ Do I know you? asked Nikki. But before Lady Moonette could answer her Police sirens suddenly could be heard close by. SheBat had been concerned this might happen and was surprised that they hadn’t shown up sooner. Suddenly the world seemed to just vanish into mist, then she found herself, the stranger and her air bike suddenly in the Nelchizedeke Aerospace Shuttle Bay beside the Navarone. Reality dawned on SheBat as she realized that the mysterious woman in red was in actually
her associate Gwendiynne Shultz.
“ Gwen! You are secretly a wizardess![/I]” said Nikki as she slowly reversed the power summoning possess, returning it to the depths of her being. “ No Nikki I am a sorceress, but you were close. ”replied Gwen. “ I just love that outfit your wearing! ” said Nikki. “ Yours is very interesting too. ” answered Gwen. “ Girl walk with me I have some stuff I need to run through my database in the Navarone. ” said Nikki as she tapped a hidden button on her utility belt to open the Navarones hatch and started up the stairs. Minutes later she held a read outs on all of the people named on the palm pilots in her hot little hands. As she read down through the information she couldn’t help feeling as if she had just been suddenly hit in the gut as she read plans for a terrorist bombing scheduled in Columbus tomorrow afternoon!

"Of course. Is everything alright?" Adam faked his compassion. He was really smiling on the inside. He could easily take control of the situation when nescessary and find out the information he desired.

It took less than ten minutes before they reached Roger's stop. Taking all of the bags, he stepped off, and turned to see the kid next to him. A short jaunt, and they were at Roger's apartment. Entering, Roger jerked a thumb towards one hallway. "Guest room is first on the right, bathroom is right next to it. Put your stuff down, and I'll whip up some pasta."

As Roger entered the kitchen area, he flicked on his TV, going to the news feeds. None of the local channels indicated anything of great importance, but there were the usual bits of political hot topics, news worthy crimes, and the business developments that made the world go 'round.

Duo nodded. "Ok, thanks," he said and headed straight into the guest room.

He dropped his bag on the bed and looked around. Definitely much better than the orphanage was, especially good because there were no signs of any ghosts around. He didn't unpack before heading out to where Roger was.

"Is it really that bad?"

Rio winced in sympathy and nodded. "Yeah rather. And I'm not sure if even over sized shades would hide all of it...." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "You wouldn't like to get off the streets for a bit, would you? I know a book store that also has a honor system coffee bar. They don't mind people reading at the tables for hours as long as it's yesterdays news or last months magazines." Trubucks wasn't the most upscale book store about. And if they thought you really were a vagabond they got serious about running you off, but if you looked even half way respectable they left you alone, mostly.

"The coffees not bad." She added tenatively. He seemed like a nice man, and she wasn't offering him anything you couldn't offer your aged mother, not that she was in any way certain what one could offer a mother, having been a foundling rasised by the Nihongoan government.

"I dunno... I was never much for these... RPG's?"

Gino grinned at Chandra over the counter of his family's resturant. "You look beat... I mean, tired. with all the training that Bruce has been drill... making you do. You need a break."

Chandra looked at the "Origins" flyer.
"Maybe, but watching a bunch of... geeks sitting around a table rolling dice. That doesn't sound like a break I'd like."

"maybe not. but you can get some ideas for... you-know-what." there are some replica sellers there, as well as some martial artist looking for students."

Gino grabs a plate full of food and heads towards one of the tables. on the way back, he grabs some empty plates and puts them on the sink where Chandra is busy washing them.

"Also, when VR gaming became reality... the RPG crowed really adapted to that. so it's no longer just imagining an orc and saying you're swingin a sword... you will actually be swinging a sword at an orc."

Chandra paused. she looked at Gino straight in the eyes, her's narrowing while he grinned impishly at her. She splashed him with some soapy water.

"I KNEW IT!!!" She shouted. after a stern look at Gino's mother (and her boss) she continued quietly. "More training..."

"Yep. Pavlow, another of our clan, works with Sony-Mitsubishi Corp. He said he can set aside a machine for our personal use."

"Uh-huh... right... and knowing you... you're looking to get some different form of excercise done."

"Hey, you wound me. I have nothing but Good Intentions for you."

"Which is why you tend to grapple me alot during our sessions. Don't think I noticed where you put your hands."

Gino gave an exaggerated sigh. "I'm so totally mis-understood. Do you think your enemies will have a care where they grab you?"

"You do... and right now... you're mother is coming in to see why the orders are NOT being served."

"Oi!" Gino ran out to deliver the orders. Chandra bent over her task while her boss watched them both with hawk-like eyes.

Racing back to Columbus

After dropping Gwen off in at Gotham City Airport Nikki pointed the Navarone towards Columbus at Mach 15, determined to stop the terrorist bombing planned the next day!
Minutes later after a hair raising high speed flight Nikki successfully lands at Rickenbacker International near Grove Port on the southwest side of Columbus. During the flight she had monitored the Navarones systems and was very pleased with the Navarones performance during the flight here but now she had to get downtown as quickly as possible to warn Columbus Police of the pending terrorist plot and she couldn't use the Navarone for that.
Crossing to the other side of her private hanger she entered the elevator, then using a special key only she possessed she instructed the elevator to drop into her secret transport hub under the hanger bay. The transport system housed there was designed similar to banking systems used to transport customer documents into the bank from their vehicles in the drive though only on a humanoid sized scale. Immediately upon entering the transport module Nikki entered her secret password into the computer as she sat down in the fighter like cockpit and strapped herself in. The module then streaked away following the downtown tunnel and mere seconds later stopped in the basement of Matergy International.
Soon Nikki was in her office and at her computer checking all public modes of travel into Columbus to see if the terrorist might be stupid enough to use the same names she had gotten from the Harlem Titans Leader when arranging transport into the City.

After Roger finished making and then eating the ravioli dinner, he put his plate in the sink, before sitting back on his couch. "When you'redone with dinner, there's a small screen with basic service in your room. I don't care when you go to bed, but we're getting up early tomorrow, so get some rest." After that, Roger pretty much tuned out, surfing through the documentary channels in search of something interesting. "G'night, kid."

Duo nodded, he needed the sleep, he was still on British time and it was rather late back there.

"Night," he replied and headed back up to the guest room.

Wearing an old pair of shorts and a well worn t-shirt he climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep.

"The coffees not bad."

It seemed today was full of ups and downs for Ed. The first stranger he runs into makes a point of hitting him across the face whilst the second invites him for a cup of coffee. Not having anything planned or anything better to do, Ed nodded in agreement.

"Sounds good to me, I could do with somewhere to sit."

Indicating that she should lead the way, Ed fell into pace beside the kind stranger.

"I'm Ed by the way. I'll hazard a guess based on your accent but I think I'm right in assuming you're not really from around these parts?"

If Rio happened to be a particularly worldly woman she most likely would have been able to to identify Ed as Australian, his accent particularly stuck out in places like Gotham and New York where the locals possessed a distinctly American tone of voice.

Rio was perhaps the first civil person Ed had met in Gotham so far and thus his day was significantly brightened.

Gotham City


After watching the Navarone take off for Columbus Gwendilynne walked outside to the taxi stand. As in most all airports their was a line of taxi’s waiting for their turn at the available customers. Walking up to the first taxi she got in and said, ” Please take me too Gotham City National Banks downtown branch.” “ Yes Madam, said the taxi driver as he engaged the hover mode first to get clear of the taxi stand then streaked off towards downtown at a slower speed then Gwen was used too. Gwen smiled to herself because she knew that she could fly faster on her own but there was no reason to attract unwanted attention to herself. Minutes later she paid the fare and tipped the driver as she exited the taxi on the banks old helicopter landing pad on its roof. Because she had called ahead the bank had been able to check her out during her trip here. They knew that she planned on making numerous major purchases in Gotham in order to have places to manufacture parts for Nelchizedeke Aerospace. Because of this they were really rolling out the red carpet for her.

"I'm Ed by the way. I'll hazard a guess based on your accent but I think I'm right in assuming you're not really from around these parts?"

"No I'm not from anywhere any more, really." The sadness that lurked in Rio's eyes was a bit more discernable for a bit, then she hid it with a bright smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ed, I'm Rio. You wouldn't be from 'Down Under' would you? Or am I getting the accent and it's origin all wrong?" Rio asked as they crossed the street after waiting for the walk light to come on. She shivered slightly, the day was turning colder, and she put a brisker pace on.

Shortly they had passed into a marginally 'better' area and a few minutes more walk led them past a large plate glass window. One couldn't se inside for the mural of an a woodland sceen dominated by a massive Irish red deer stag. "I think one of the owners painted that" Rio commented as they past it

*Rrrrrriip!*

"Damit... " Haruka threw the scrap of cloth away as she shifted back to human form.

why a need for a... costume? I thought you enjoyed the feel of the wind through your hair.

Haruka looked at her image in the mirror. "yes I do.. but I need to have some form of covering when I shift back to this furless state."

I'll never understand this taboo....

"well... I'm used to it."

"Used to what?" Emily spoke softly from Haruka's door.

"Err... not having a thing to wear... I swear this is all so... last month." Haruka stuttered in surprise. And surprised she was. Emily seemed to be avoiding Haruka after her rescue from those kidnappers.

"really... um... can.. can I come in?"

"Sure. You never needed to ask before... and you don't now."

"but things are different now... arn't they."

Haruka watched as Emily walked in. she held her book bag close to her chest. carefully Emily sat down on the bed and looked at Haruka's floor.

The minutes seem to stretch into hours untill.

"So... er... " both girls said at the same time.

Haruka smiled as emily looked embarassed. "you first Em."

"So... when were you going to tell us?"

"tell you... what?" Haruka looked puzzled.

"About the shifting into the tiger thing..." Yvette and Micheal stood at her door.

"w... wha... what do you mean..." Haruka flustered about as Micheal popped open Haruka's HDVD player and popped in a disk.

Her Holo projector showed the exterior of her house then in a frame by frame speed, showed Haruka leaping down from her 2nd story bedroom, all furry and face twisted with rage.

"the Security cameras caught that the night... Em was rescued" Micheal calmly said.

"Several hours later... it picked this up." as the playing field showed Haruka limping back, then she lept up and they could see her struggling to climb back into her window.

yep... I remember how painful those bullet wounds were... Hari winced at the clumbsy entrance. "that's... pretty good editing you did th..." Haruka's voice trailed off as she looked at the three faces staring at her. "I guess you got more evidence..." she said softly.

As one, the three nodded. then a montage of camera angles as Haruka's nightly roamings in the months before played out. some had her in her night gown, others with her as a tiger or hybrid.

"If you knew all this time.. why didn't you tell me?" Haruka whispered.

"We didn't know what to make of it. Frankly, we were afraid to say anything because of the Goverment's stand on Metahumans..." Yvette sat next to her daughter.

"But after you saved Em... we decided to keep your secret. and we had to tell Em since she was traumatized by that experience."

Haruka glaced at Emily who sat on her bed... quiet.

"Em... I'm sorry, I wanted to say..." Haruka started to speak but Emily Violently shook her head.

"Don't... please don't." Emily whispered. as bad as it was for me, I could only imagine what you were going through. Wondering if you were going nuts or..." Emily sighed, then smiled at her friend. "you didn't hurt me, infact, you went out of your way to show that you won't hurt me... I realize that now."

"So now you know..." Haruka whispered. "What now?"

Yvette looked at her family then to her 'boss'. "if you want us to leave you..." she stopped at the look of sadness on Haruka's face. "They want to leave me, they don't want to be associated with a freak like me." Haruka sat still... waiting for her maid and someone who is as part of her family as if she was born into it to finish her sentence.

"... um... Do you want us to leave?" Yvette looked at the woman she practically raised.

"NO!... but... I won't force you to stay either."

"Then we have a problem..." Yvette sighed.

They're going to leave me... Haruka thought, over and over again... so deep was she in self-pity that she almost missed Yvette's next words.

"We can't have you running around naked... what would the neighbors think?"

Wha... "Huh?" Haruka stared at Yvette and her other 'staff' as she took in their grins.

"The Government is tracking down meta humans. so you need help hiding." Micheal straightened with pride.

Emily spoke up. "and you need a costume.... one that will offer some protection as well as... modesty."

She opened her bookbag and took out a black body suit. "Here. Mom made it for you."

"You designed it dear." Yvette smiled at her daughter.

Haruka looked at Emily and the body stocking she held. her mind in shock.

"Go on, try it on." Yvette looked at Haruka and then turned to her husband. "Dear..."

"I'm off to pick up dinner. so you ladies can do your modeling thing." Micheal left the room with a jaunty wave.

Haruka took the stocking from Emily. it was thicker than nylon and alot heavier.

"I figure, a double weave with a Tritanium overlay wouldn't be too heavy for you."

"Tri... tanium? where did you get..."

"oh... as your official personal assistant, I'm often called upon to be your proxy in your stock holdings and other business matters." Emily straightened up and looked 'business like'. "Your mom and dad had that set up after you graduated."

"they... did?"

"Yep and since Tritanium weave is used by the police force for their body armor... I convinced R&D to improve on it so that vests would be less bulky and yet still offer the same protection. of course, this won't hold up to what they go through... but I felt with your training... speed and agility were better for you."

"uhmm...." Haruka stared as Emily continued on with her presentation.

"The double weave is more along the lines of a sweater. it will stretch and these opening would then allow your hair... er... fur.. to grow through. allowing another layer of protection for you."
"Em..."
"The belt also stretches, and I figure we can have little pouches on em filled with gadets and other things to help you fight."
"Emily..."
"and the weave will shrink back, closing the holes as your fur retracts... leaving you with a slick and sleek body armor thin enough to wear under your clothes."
"Emily, please..."
"the only problem I'm running into is the shoes..."
"EMILY!"
"Huh? you have a question Hari?"
"Fight... Crime?"
"yep. Gotham always had a BATMAN to protect her citizens... you can be... CATWOMAN!"
"wasn't catwoman a criminal?"
"oops... well... yeah... so we'll think of a different name. but for now, how do you like your costume? Does it fit?"
"She wouldn't know dear..." Yvette spoke up behind her daughter. "You haven't given it to her yet." She nodded to the cloth, still wrapped in her hands.
"oh... " Emily looked embarrassed as she handed the body suit to Haruka. "Sorry."

"This feels... great!" Haruka smiled at herself in the mirror. the long sleeved outfit felt like a second skin on her. While it was heavier than her normal clothes, it wasn't hampering and it offered her full freedom of movement. and as designed, her shifting to either form was unhampered and smooth.

"so now you need a name..."

Haruka turned to face her best friend and her mother. "I already thought up one."

She turned back to the mirror and shifted to her hybrid form, struck a fighting pose and growled. "It's time for Gotham to meet my... Wyldside."

Gotham

"Sir, we really can't get into that right now. If you'll please come with us, we need to move from this location to a more...secure area for discussion. I really must insist, Mr. Carey. If you'll please come with us to the elevators..." There was a touch of nervousness on the man's voice as his mind raced through possible outcomes for this.

Adam had a look of nervousness on his face. He needed to make his "captors" think they were in control. "Um... okay.." he said with a hint of fear. He followed the men to the elevator. Despite his belief he would win this situation, he still was on guard in the elevator.

As the group of men gathered into the elevator, the one at the panel slid a pass card in and punched the lobby. They waited for the doors to close and the elevator to start moving, before the commander radio-ed down th inbound message. He we waited for his reply, then turned to the others.

"Cuff HIM!"

"You wouldn't be from 'Down Under' would you?"

Ed nodded at Rio's correct guess. He gathered that home was somewhat of a sore subject for her so he didn't press it any further.

"That's right, born and raised on the desert island. Haven't been there in over a year now but I can't lose the accent and it kinda sticks out around here..."

Matching Rio's brisk pace, Ed also took note of the stag as the image stood out from the ordinary bleak environment that was the streets of Gotham City.

"It's a nice change from the usual scenery. Gotham sure as hell won't win any awards for aesthetics."

Ed wasn't even entirely sure what had drawn him to Gotham. He knew it wasn't a particularly desirable place but he couldn't help but feel that people could make it better. Unfortunately he was soon beginning to realise it was the people that were the problem.

"So what's your purpose here in the city?"

"So what's your purpose here in the city?"

Rio paused as they came to the door of the book shop. "None really, just no place else to go." She blushed and added, just a tad defensively but it felt hollow "I wanted to travel and see the world" She busied herself pulling the door open.

Warm air rushed out, bringing with it the scents of coffee, spices, fruit and fresh baking, overlaying the faint dust smell of large numbers of books. The storefront style shop wasn't very deep, going back maybe twentyfive feet, but it stretched back along the way they had come nearly a hundred feet.

Rio didn't meet Ed's eyes as they entered the shop.

"Cuff me? Well, that's not a very good way to introduce someone." Aenima stopped the elevator in mid transit. Then, he lifted every one else in the elevator upside down, keeping them from doing anything. "Alrigfht my friends. I knew you were up to something. Now here is my proposition. I am fully capable of ripping through your mind and finding everything I want, completely destroying your mental state forever. However, I'm felling generous today. You will tell me everything I want, or I will tear it out of you. Understand everyone?"

I can't believe I said YES to going to this con...

She pressed the button on the elevator and waited.

Shit... the elevator light stopped between floors. Stuck again.

She jabbed at the call button several more times and waited.

finally, she sighed and started up the stairs to her floor.

When Roger heard the snores, he got up and left, closing and locking the door to prevent any type of 'unauthorized' entry. Making his way downstairs, he stepped out into the cool Metropolis night breeze, and started jogging. He made it three blocks before pausing, not really needing to catch his breath. As he did, he heard breaking glass in the distance, followed by a muted alarm. Following it, he found a broken window to a store and the obligatory noises inside of somebody that had just finished cutting the security system.

Roger hesitated, but then entered, thankful that there was enough light for him to see his way. As he walked in, he heard the perpetrator coming out, a second before he saw the gleam of night vision goggles. He threw himself behind a low counter to avoid being sighted. The man stepped caustiously, obviously having seen something. What puzzled Roger was that he could see whereas the man obviously needed night vision goggles. As he came upon Roger's hiding place, Roger threw himself up, grabbing the goggles and ripping them off the man's head.

The man followed basic knee-jerk reactions, bringing his arms up in a protective motion. Roger swept his arm around, causing the man to be knocked sideways against a display case. Roger grabbed his shirt and hoisted him up, turning so that the light from the street was from behind, hiding his face in his own shadow. "Who are you?"

The man panted heavily as he spoke. "You don't wanna mess with me, man. My boss will kill you if he finds that you interrupted me. Just walk away, and I'll pretend that I tripped, alright?"

Roger laughed, a deep, mocking laugh of scorn and disappointment. "I have a better plan. Tell your boss to leave the city, or else more of your buddies will deal with me."

"Oh, and who the F*^& are you, man? What am I gonna tell them, that they've got to fear some idiot that got the jump on me?"

"No, tell them that they're messing with me. I'm Dragon Blood."

Gotham

The man in the elevator struggled against the telekinetic bonds holding him suspended. "Look, all we were told is that you were a dangerous fugitive, and we were under directive to arrest and hold you until somebody came and got you." The man didn't know how much Aenima could do. He had played his bluff, and waited to see what his captor did.

"I wanted to travel and see the world"

Ed got the faint feeling that he was touching on that sore subject area once again and didn't pursue such as they entered the small store. Rio seemed like a nice enough woman and he certainly wasn't one to pry into the business of others, especially if it was of a somewhat personal nature.

Taking in his surroundings, Ed couldn't help but like this little corner of Gotham. It was warm and the people inside seemed at least somewhat friendly, they didn't eye each other with suspicion or malicious intent. Considering the amount of books surrounding them, Ed decided to move the conversation onto literature.

"So do you have any particular reading preferences? I haven't had much time lately to sit back and read a book lately, which is a bit unfortunate. It's a bit of a dying pastime in this day and age..."

Leading Rio up to the counter, he began examining his purchasing options whilst awaiting a reply.

"Im sure. Well, I am not a fugitive, and I don't apprecate it. A little punishment for you all." Aenima increased the pressure on the holds to the point the men would feel like they were being crushed by boulders. They would not be harmed though, just in pain, until Aenima got what he wanted.

"I saw you go into the room next door. I know he has powers. How did you find him?"

Gotham City National Bank / Presidents Office

“ Hello Ms. Shultz, I believe we have found a suitable piece of property for your Gotham Estate. There are two large islands with two smaller ones close by just off the southern end of Gotham City. The first large island is already zoned for industrial business purposes, the second …Blackgate Isle is the site of the old city prison which has been closed for decades now. We could easily change its zoning to residential so you could use it as your private estate. ” explained Bank President Weghorse to Gwendilynne. “ Yes I am familiar with that property Mr. Weghorse, it sounds like it would be ideal as long as the zoning can be successfully changed before the purchase is finalized. I will have my bank in New York City wire your bank half of the purchase price immediately and the remainder at the closing. My construction company will arrive on the first island tomorrow …Good Day. “ said Gwendilynne as she got up to leave.
“ Very well Ms Shultz I shall make sure everything is in order before the closing date, Good Bye, “ said Mr. Weghorse with a grin of triumph on his face as he watched Gwendilynne leave his office.

Columbus Terrorized / Part Two

Two hrs later Nikki found the evidence that she had wanted, it seemed that Ajax Moving had moved a number of semi trailer loads to a warehouse in the short north for a man that she cross referenced on the national database as a possible terrorist. After making a copy of the evidence on computer disk she got dressed in her Evil Princess Leia Costume ( Black instead of white ) for Origins over her She Bat costume. By 9am she was in a downtown internet café where she sent the evidence to Columbus Police and to her Estate in Hocking Hills with instructions for security to investigate it and let her know what they found. As she left the café she dropped a business envelope addressed to Channel 6 with the disk in it into a mailbox around the corner and crossed the street to enter the hotel where Origins was being held. She arrived at origins at 10 am just as Origins opened for the first day. She knew that between the police and her private security force the terrorist would be found, then she would deal with them personally!

"Wait... what... weird..."

Chandra was pulled though the crowd of costumed workers and vividly colored booths towards the back of the Origins Convention.

"Can't wait," Gino replied, "We're late!"

"But it hasn't opened yet... "

"as our cook, you need to prep"

Gino was pulled to a stop when Chandra froze.

"Cook?" Chandra raised an eyebrow at Gino.

"Yeah... Cook. listen, Bruce wants you to work on your stamina. not just your physical one but your craft also. you noticed how tired you get after each session? well, we need to excercise your crafting skills as well. Now let's get going."

===

At one of the few food booths, they were given their instructions. the menu will change for each shift. for the first couple of days, it will be simple fare, Hotdogs, Hamburgers, Chili, etc... but in the middle (and busiest time) of the con, more ethnic foods will be served, then the con will end back with the simple foods as well as deserts. the various menu allowed them to actually make money because it's different than what the others serve.

Chandra was given a recipie book and she started to get to work.


By the time the doors opened 2 hours later, the warmers were full, and Chandra was tapped out.

"I feel like I just did 3 days of non stop floor excercises..."

"Rest up" Gino said as he stood by ready to assemble the food to the customer's expectations. "you got..." he eyed the crowd as they started to move in. "err... 30 mins before we need more..." ;)

I found myself wanting to apologise for my reaction. I really should handle my past better, but the ache even trying to talk about was so painful. However Ed waz kind enough to let it drop, and turn the subject to one far more interesting than my past.

"So do you have any particular reading preferences? I haven't had much time lately to sit back and read a book lately, which is a bit unfortunate. It's a bit of a dying pastime in this day and age..."



I couldn't help but chuckle. 'Isn't it just a shame how good litterature, and reading, is falling by the wayside? Though I think they've been saying that for centuries now, ever since the printing press was invented. I enjoy nearly everthing. In Nuevo Nihongo." I hesitated for a second as the name of my homeland inadvertantly slipped out then continued, hoping that it hadn't been noticed. "Reading is one of their staples, they don't like relying on electronic media, and 'movies' - Cinema - isn't very well reguarded."

The sales person turns to us and gives a friendly smile, asking us what we want. Giving Ed a look I order for us, a forwardness that isn't much like me, but feels right at this time. "Two coffees, and two of your biggest Elephant Aars" The buttery, cinnamon pastry is soft and will be easier for Ed to eat than something thick or very chewy. They have cream and sugar on the side board, they don't do thinks like lattes and such here, just plain, good quality coffee. She returns with the pastry and coffee quickly and I pay her, not letting Ed do more than offer.

Taking my cup and the Elephant Ear I head to the cream and sugar. I like cream but no sugar in my coffee. "I have to admit a fondness for adventure novels." I add over my shoulder to further answer Ed's question.

Gotham

The agent reeled from the pressure. "We were tracking you with E.M. scanners. Only it got jammed when we were getting a double reading on the kid. The scan of you at the lobby, though, was important. The kid was nothing, it was residue we picked up from you. That's why we moved." The agent paused for breath, still feeling the pressure close more and more.

"There's one other definite, we had him with our only psionic sig meter. He's in Metro, goes by Dragon...something. Blew the thing apart, though. You'd find him like the Planet's globe sticking out of a field of hay, but his mind can't be cracked. It's the equivalent of the single most blatant yet imprenatable psionic fortress in existence. Shame, though. ooks like he could stand against you, but he'd never manage to get close without you realizing it." He had given everything. He was spent. Now he just hoped that the pain would go away, that this man would let them go.

"So that's all hm? Useful information. I think I'll take one of your E.M. scanners with me. You won't be needing it anymore. Now, what to do with you. You have been cooperative, so I guess I could spare your life. One more thing before I go, and the pain will disappear. Who are you working for?"

Josh got out of his room and went to the elevator. It didn't respond. He waited for a while before getting frustrated. He took the stairs instead. He quickly hailed a taxi and drove of to the festival.

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

Josh arrived at the festival and looked around. It was a free concert in the vein of Live 8 or Woodstock. A fairly popular new rock band had taken the stage. Josh didn't care for them to much, and he didn't have to be at his station until later at night, so he walked around. Next to the stadium of the concert there was a large Convention of some sort. Maybe he'd check it out later.

Julian had come down the stairs with a bit of annoyance at the fact that the elevator was out again. His mother had suggested he go to the 'Origin Con' to spend a bit of time and try some new foods. He'd agreed for he'd gotten the impression that mom wanted a bit of private time and he didn't want to be anywhere on the block when that happened. Bad enought that his parents still did it, but there was no way he wanted to be anywhere near them when they did.

Stopping by a booth that was serving a variety of foods he picked up something to munch while he wandered. A few feet away from the booth he paused. He seen food coming out but hadn't seen any signs that food could go in. While puzzling, he didn't really ascribe much to it and continued on his way.

However from inside his 'prison' Julian's darkside began turning the information over as if his possible suspicion turned out to be accurate there could be much gained from persuing the matter a bit.

"Reading is one of their staples, they don't like relying on electronic media, and 'movies' - Cinema - isn't very well regarded."

Ed ignored the mention of Rio's home nation. It was not a country he was familiar with at all and evidently it was a sensitive subject so there was no real need for him to pursue such. Chuckling at her remark, he couldn't help but agree.

"I can understand that, it's especially tragic when a decent story is gutted in order to translate to the big screen, they never capture it properly."

Rio's forwardness in ordering and paying was somewhat surprising, yet it didn't seem to bother Ed. She'd certainly made an appealing choice which he was more than content with. Upon offering to pay she wouldn't hear of it.

"Next time it's my shout..."

Ed didn't even know if there would be a next time, for some reason he just assumed there would be and he didn't like the idea of owing anyone anything, even if it was only a few dollars. Reaching the cream and sugar, Ed promptly dumps two packets of sugar into his coffee and stirs. He didn't find cream particularly appealing in coffee although it was better than having it straight.

"I have to admit a fondness for adventure novels."

"I've always been partial to many fantasy authors myself, which usually has a lot of adventure and such tied into it. Something that's hard to predict is always good, there are too many authors out there these days that write very mundane stories with predictable endings."

"I've always been partial to many fantasy authors myself, which usually has a lot of adventure and such tied into it. Something that's hard to predict is always good, there are too many authors out there these days that write very mundane stories with predictable endings."

I nod in agreement as I find us an empty booth to settle in. "It can be that way in any genre it seems. I haven't read much fantasy, I was raised in a state run orphanage, and they discurraged those type works as 'an escape from ones sutiation' that wasn't suitable. They were very strong on biographies and other educational non fiction."

I took a sip of my coffee andsettled back, feeling comfortable just chatting idly with Ed. "I have seen movies and most of those were adaptations. You're right they do rather butcher them don't they. I think it's because books are in the mind, how each of us interpets them differently while reading the same words."

Columbus Terrorized / Part Three

Nikki entered the hotel walking up the two flights of steps to the first floor from the street level. At the top of the stairs she found various kinds of small shops and a information booth in the center of the room. To the left a staircase went up to the next level and a large doorway lead to the hotels large waiting room & registration desk on this floor, to the right two wide hallways opened up into the hotels food court.
On the wall between the two hallways was an escalator going up to the second floor where she knew the beginning RPG table games were to be found. After riding the escalator Nikki started the mile long walk to the Origins Ticket Counter Concourse. During the walk she passed many tables where groups of people sat playing various RPG Games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Then as she passed through glass doors she saw the long escalator going down to the Ticket Counter. The area above the escalators were open and on the far wall a electronic sign welcomed everybody to Origins 2007.
By the time she got in line she was staring to get over heated even though the air conditioning was on so she decided to take off the Princess Leia Costume and just wear her SheBat Costume. Because the line wasn’t very long this early in the morning she went ahead and bought a ticket then went into the ladies room to change before going into the main game room. As she entered the main game room she felt funny wearing her SheBat costume out in public but she started feeling better as a group of storm troopers walked by talking to a elven wizardess. Looking around she saw numerous games with tabletop dungeons, villages, castles, battleship shelled beach fronts, and the like entertaining hundreds of players. On one side was an area for people to play various board games together. Remembering that she had forgotten to buy any tokens for these games she returned to the concourse.
Then she realized she hadn't eaten since yesterday and was feeling a little hungry so she stopped at one of the concourse vendors to order, “ I’ll have one of your fruit medleys & a grape flavored water.” she said to the vendor. The woman placed the fruit medley on the counter then the bottle of flavored water and said “ That will be $8.00, ”. Nikki raised her eye brow a little as she handed her a credit card because of the high price of the food only to have it refused saying she excepted cash only. Replacing her credit card in her utility belt Nikki pulled out a five and three ones which she handed to the vendor. As she walked over to a group of tables Nikki vowed to herself that she would not purchase anything from that vendor again. As she sat down to the table to eat it occurred to her that she could use some more eyes and ears here so she called Matergy International and told them to send over a dozen security people dressed as Origins attendees with hidden headsets. Replacing her cell phone on her belt she began eating her fruit as she watched the crowd of people walking by grow larger and larger.

"Sorry Gino... I am taking a break. NOW!"

"but if we need more food..."

*sigh*... "I talked to the hotel wait staff... I got some extra pans and loaded them up with what seems to be the popular stuff... including the fruit medley... which won't spoil btw." She added when Gino opened his mouth to speak. "and yes, I know I didn't include seeds in the watermelon. last thing I want is a spitting match here."

"You have my cell phone number, and I am going out to stretch my legs. See ya in a few."

Chandra left the booth and started walking around the con. Superheroes, Cyber... punk? Dungeon and Dragons: Advaced 23rd edition... Geek central!

She bought a bowl of Chow Fun from a Chinese stand. then as she ate it, she wondered if she could recreate this dish. Glancing around to see if anyone is watching her, she put her hand over the bowl and concentrated on the texture, the flavor and the ingredients she could taste. then she sampled what was now in her formally empty bowl.

Not bad... she thought as she threw her once more empty bowl away. Chandra made her way to the gaming room where every now and then she would toss a popcorn or nut or piece of candy into her mouth. This power of mine can be quite... useful. Guess I should head back now.

she made her way back but stopped to buy some minatures that one of the vendors was selling.

back at the booth, she studied the minuatures and an idea came to mind.

"Hey Gino... wanna get more people to buy stuff from us?"

+++

At the Roma Food Tent. a new pan of treats was put out on the floor, Hard candy, Jello, and other confectons shaped like minatures. from Barbarian warriors to Galactic Stormtroopers. From Elven Princesses to Galactic Orcs.

Minature marshmellow weapons also lined the pan. swords to blasters to robots and starships.

"Good Idea Chandra... I didn't know you like to work since you just made more of it for yourself."

"damn... didn't think of that..."

Ed decided he rather liked Rio. She appeared to be a rather nice woman and they shared very similar views, at least on cinema and literature.

"I think it's because books are in the mind, how each of us interprets them differently while reading the same words."

"Indeed. I'm afraid the people are losing their imagination these days, hence the continued popularity of movies and TV whilst books continue to become an outdated hobby of the past."

Taking a sip of his coffee, quick movement caught Ed's eye and he turned to look through the glass door. Several men sprinted by, shortly followed by two police officers evidently struggling to keep up.

"I hope it doesn't bother you if I say such, but in the few days that I've been here I've learned to really dislike this city. There seem to be more criminals and thugs littered across the streets and ordinary citizens."

Ed didn't know how Rio would react to his comment about Gotham but he felt the need to vent his thoughts.

Gotham, Hotel

"I work for the FBI. Right now, agents are scrambling out of here, contingency plans and all. As a team, we get shunted from agency to agency to bureau and back."

Gotham, the convention

Matthew Howard Zinn looked around as he walked. Unobtrusive, he was the type of man to not attract attention. The fact that he could be made aware of anybody noticing him also helped. He had felt a feeling telling him to be here. He didn't know why, as he normally detested music, but he came anyways. Something had called, and he was here to answer.

Metropolis

Roger made it back to his apartment a little after midnight. It surprised him somewhat to notice the time. Such was his life. He checked the locks, and Duo's obligatory snores told him all he needed to know. Turning in to his own room, he slept on his rarely used bed. To his own expectations, he was up after a paltry three hours of rest. The kid, with any luck, wouldn't arise for a little while. That left Roger time to clear his head, listening to the low level rock music until Duo would wake up. Something told him that it would be a long day.

I watch the criminals and policemen run by and my eyes are mingled sadness and fury.

I feel just as Ed does, I don't much like this city at the moment. Part of me itchess to be out the door, to be about what I was trained to do, more, born to do. Criminals and thugs abound and dealing with them had been my chosen calling.

"I used to be a part of the solution, back at home. We were part of what kept the warf and weft of society safe. Keeping the innocents from the the predators. But then we were vilified, and hunted, and murdered. Those of that were lucky managed to flee with such of their lives as..." I break off, aghast at what I've revealed. Part of mer didn't care though, is too bitter, to hurt to hide any longer.

"The FBI? Well, I can't have you ruining my plans. However, I promised to spare your lives. So I think a simple mind drain will work." As Adam said this, all of the agents' memories were gone. "The only thing you will remember is that you work for the FBI. Nothing else." Adam allowed the elevator to work again, and stepped out, leaving the agents in there. He looked at the device he took from them. He found the locations of several other superbeings, including four in very cose contact. He smiled.

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

Adam walked around the music fest. There was a convention nearby. He looked at the device, which was picking up four singals. The closest one was very near to him. He looked up and used his powers to detect the man. He found him. A quick psychic scan of him revealed him to have potential. He approached the man. "Hello. You are feeling as if you were called here. I am the one who did that. My name is Aenima. I am like you. Come, we'll talk in private."

Chandra found herself wandering the main convention center during her second break.

"Nay Knave, Thou dost owe ME and Mine an apology for thy rude remarks!"

What the... a play? Chandra watched with a growing crowd as several groups of cosplayers dressed in very realistic armor and bearing sharp looking weapons seemed to be putting on a show.

Wow... those things look real... these guys are good. Chandra sucked on her bit of Rock Candy... a confection she managed to perfect. Sugar Crystals... I wonder... she drifted into the possible uses of her new item when the screams drew her back to reality.

wha... I guess it's not a play... as the scene unfolded infront of her. two groups of fighters, some dressed in leather and fur and others dressed in armor began swinging their weapons. not caring who they hit... some bystanders were on the ground, some moaning and twitching... others not.

two locked in mortal combat moved towards where she stood. security was desperatly trying to make their way through the crowd of people, they were not going to be in time to prevent other deaths...

Dancing between the two, she weaved in and out, dodging the swinging weapons as she spun a long ribbon of lasagna, upping it's tensile strength while keeping it's flexability. within moments, she had the barbarian with the wicked club tied up. however, Sir Persistant seemed more intersted in getting the final blow in than stopping the fight.

With a sigh, Chandra 'threw' a glob of chocolate pudding into his visor, blinding him. then as he staggered forward, she slid a slice of raw fish under his booted heel. With a loud clatter he fell backwards and lay still. Chandra quickly kicked his large sword away.

She quickly looked around as the other fighters seem to have moved the melee into common eating area.

Oh... shit... Chandra made her way towards the sound of more fighting.

As many had, Julian had drifted to the food court as the sounds of a commotion had quickly grown. He'd arrived after the brawl was already somewhat underway and some of those former fighters were no longer in the running for the 'Gladiator of the Con' award. The sight of blood got a brief squeek from Julian before he passed out. Unlike the overwhelming majority of sufferers from hemophobia he had suffered no trauma or really had any other outside source for the fear.

Julian's weakness was Sunder's gain as a few moments the body stood back up from appearence the same save perhaps if one looked into his eyes and noticed the difference. Looking about a smile that was disturbing formed as he spotted the girl from before moving through the crowd toward the confrontation.

Being able to control the head and eyes made all the difference as he watched the events unfold. She was liken to him it seemed or perhaps the world's greatest street magician thought her abilities seemed almost laughable they did prove effective. Following her he spotted the expanding altercation.

With the fight still underway he decided to end it. Not for altruistic reasons and not in a manner that a hero might have done, but in a most effective manner none the less. Concentrating for a brief moment each fighter was hit in very rapid seccession in the left leg just above the knee with a shard of forcefield that was all but certain to crack if not shatter the femur. He was in a sense, anticipating the howls of pain as the men went to take a step onto a broken leg. Afterward he would have words with Foodie.

Gotham, the festival

Matthew stepped aside to speak with the other man. "You'd be Adam Carrey, then, aye? Or do you prefer Aenima? My name is Wager, or Matthew Zinn. And let me guess, a while ago you had a run in with FBI agents looking for guys like us?" Wager offered his hand. "I'm a psionic scanner. I can read thoughts, plus minor sonic manipulation. No projections like you, I'm afraid. Why are we here?"

Chandra paused as some of the costumed fighters fell clutching their legs. unfortunatly, the mob mentality already took hold of some of the observers. Added to that the falling bodies and armor caused as much damage as they fell swinging their weapons.

Chandra litterally spun a shield out of sugar crystal (a crystal shield to the observer) and grunted as a mace that was thrown loose slammed into it. In as loud a voice she could muster, she ordered all non combatants to leave the area... some listened, others however, wanted to see the outcome of the fight, and others wanted to participate.

At least the fight was now contained within the common eating area. Where is the Con's security?!?

Tossing her shield aside, Chandra used her agility to get around the mass of people pressing towards the door.

*Dry Lightning flashed through the sky*

Damn, I hope it won't rain. Diane thought as she made her though the streets towards her workplace.

she was so busy watching the lightning flash against the sky that she never saw the hand that grabbed her purse. She fell to her knees as the punk ran off with her Cred chip, her ID and all her cash. She screamed for someone to stop him as she took off running after the punk. She turned into the alleyway where she saw him duck into and came face to face with...

an empty alley. she looked left and right... then slowly made her way into the dark roadway.

"Miss? I heard you scream... you ok?" Officer Grayson heard the scream and ran to catch up. He slowly waved his light around, lighting up the shadowed recesses of the alleyway.

"Yeah... but I lost all my money, credit cards, PDA... dammit" Diane kicked a can and sent it richocetting off the wall.

They both jumped when a meaty thud resounded just inches behind them. turning, they found the purse snatcher laying on the ground unconscious, Diane's purse neatly tucked in his jacket.

Officer Grayon aimed his light upwards and caught a flash of... something dissapearing over the ledge.

+++

EMT Quinn examined the eyes of the woman they found. Her clothes were torn up and she had a wild-eyed expression on her face. They wrapped her up in a blanket and tucked her into the ambulance. EMT Quinn turned back to the officer to answer his questions.

"Female was assaulted, fortunatly, no severe damage was done. she insists that a giant cat-man came to her rescue."

"A cat-man?" The officer looked at the EMT dubiously.

"Hey, that's her words.... and that's all she says. She'll be taken to Gotham Memorial if you need to question her."

"What about him?" The officer looked at the other man.

"Contusions, bruises, lacerations... he took a beating. he should wake up, but with what she said, we're going to put him in restraints."

"Gotham Memorial?" the officer asked as he flipped his Touchbook closed.

"Yep." EMT Quinn looked up as more Dry Lighting lit up the sky.

+++

"We do have a hostage situation. Mr. Anderson lost his job and now he's holding his wife and daughter at gunpoint. Right now, our negotiator is talking to him. we hope to resolve this situation soon."

The reporter turned away from the Officer in Charge and looked at her camera.

"Sgt. Mackerson, Gotham PD. To recap. It appears the Mr. Anderson, a former employee of Gotham Water Works Dept. was let go after he was found to be embezzing company funds. The Company is planning on pressing charges, and that seems to be what caused Mr. Anderson to take these drastic measures. wait... that's the negotiator coming out of the command center. he doesn't look happy. As Sgt. Mackerson said earlier, the police do not want to enter the home because of Mrs. Anderson and their two month old baby are still inside, however, if Mr Anderson is telling the truth about wanting to end it all for him and his family... the police might have no recourse but to... what... what was that. Billy, did you catch that? It looked like someone lept onto the roof of th... OH GOD! That's gunfire! Mr. Anderson is now shooting someone, is he... wait... he's been thrown out of the window... someone, threw Mr. Anderson out of the window... the police are rushing in Oh God, I hope the wife and child ar... I hear crying... I hear a baby crying and yes... Mrs Anderson is holding her child...she's hysterical... I can't make out what she's saying, something about being saved by something... Billy can yo... wait there... up there... see it? that figure leaping away from the home. OFFICERS! OVER THERE... it's gone. did you get it? a figure in the shadowed part of the roof lept out and away... we don't know what really happened here but you can bet we'll find out. This is Kristen Vale, KGAE, reporting live."

"I'm impressed." Adam said. "The reason I am here is I am looking for people like us. I intend to take down the city of LA. But, with a team stong enough, I believe we can take over this whole planet. It will be a long undertaking, but it is possible. I need men like you. Join me. There are more people like us here. If they join us, fine. If they don't, they must die. Now then, do you have any combat abilities?"

Ed didn't make a big issue out of what Rio had just revealed. Evidently she hadn't completely intended to but the notion that she had chosen him to speak to about such was somewhat comforting. Before he could say anything, a loud crash turned Ed's attention to two men that had obviously entered through a side door, probably from an alleyway.

Both men wore ski masks and dark clothing, it was evident from the beginning that their intentions were not friendly. This was soon confirmed as Ed spotted a pistol in one man's hand and a large knife in the other's grasp. Ed sighed, he couldn't believe that it seemed impossible for him to simply sit down and have a coffee without being harassed by criminals.

The knife wielding criminal approached the counter immediately and began threatening the young woman managing the register whilst the man holding the gun began yelling at the customers to hand over wallets and jewellery. The man with the firearm was close to Ed and Rio, within minutes he would be confronting them for their valuables.

Whilst Ed hadn't openly acknowledged Rio's revelation, he knew what she meant and it wasn't a police officer. He gave her an intent look, one that conveyed a very clear intent. 'We should do something about this.'

Rio nodded and stood. Her voice was clear and carrying. "Whast in the Hell do you ruffians mean by coming in here and robbing a bookstore. One in the poor end of town anyways. Have you no sense? Go on get out of here!"

She commanded as she invisibly spun a telekenitic sheild about the muzzel of the gun carried by the second man. Unsure if she could keep such a heavy shield going and reach out to the knife weilder as well, she figured diverting their attention to her was a good ploy. Standing, she began to stalk towards the man. Rio could see hi finger tightening on the trigger of the gun and her smile was pure evil anticipation.

She'd trust Ed to think up something to handle the man threatening the little cashier, Jeanette.

Gotham

Matthew took in the man's offer. He had never really liked L.A. that much, so getting rid of that city didn't seem like a bad idea. "I'm in. I can tussle pretty decently, mostly cause I always know what's coming at me. Like I said, I also have minor somic manipulation. You'd be surprised what tipping the balance in the inner ear can do a person's footing."

Metropolis

Roger had grown tired of waiting for Duo to wake up. Relishing in the opportunity, he went into his room, threw the blinds back in a sudden fashion, and said very loudly "Rise and Shine! It's a new day, and you've got much more of this beautiful country to experience. Up you get, boy."

Standing simultaneously with Rio, Ed eyed the knife wielding man as it became quite obvious Rio was focusing on the guy with a gun. He didn't quite know what she was able to do but the confidence plastered across her face convinced Ed that Rio was more than capable of dealing with the one man before her.

Stepping around the guy with the gun, Ed closed in on the knife wielding thief with a menacing look upon his face. Despite the fact that Ed was unarmed, he was evidently more muscular and a good four inches taller than the criminal before him.

"You picked the wrong store today..."

Ed didn't have time to say anything else as the knife came lunging towards him. Completely expecting such, Ed employed his abilities in a manner that wasn't obvious to the surrounding onlookers. As the knife continued on its downward path, the man behind it noticed a significant resistance to his motion, as if the air had all of a sudden become really thick and was moving in the opposite direction to himself, pushing against him.

With the plunging blade slowed down significantly, Ed moved out of the way and promptly slammed his fist into the side of his assailant's head, knocking him to the counter and cracking the glass display counter. Realising that things could very likely get destructive in here and potentially dangerous for the other customers, Ed turned back to Rio as he had a few moments to spare before the criminal before him regained some sense.

"Perhaps we should take this outside?"

Aenima smiled. "Excellent. It's time for your first assignment. There are three more beings like us at this festival/convention. Use your powers to try and locate them and get information on them, I want to see if they will join."

Duo groaned and shielded his eyes from the effects of the sunlight blinding him. For a few moments he lay there, removing his arm to let his eyes adjust to the light. Sitting up he groaned further before yawning.

"What time is it?"

As Ed inquired ...

"Perhaps we should take this outside?"...


The gunmans finger finished it's tightening on the trigger, and with unexpected for him - at least- reaction - the gun blew up in hi hand causeing every one, save Rio, and Ed to ducking for their lives, some scraming involuntarily. The erstwhile gun man was one of those screaming and going to his knees as the burst revolver destroyed a good portion of his hand.

Rio hadn't seen what Ed did , but she had heard the meaty crunch of fist on flesh and caught the would be theif dropping like a lead balloon.

"Ouside? Most definitely. We wouldn't want to damage the store any. I like having coffee here." With that she grabbed the sobbing robber by the back of his shirt collar and began heading for the back door of the store. The alleyway wasn't too far, the store being long and narrow in layout.

She could hear Ed behind her.

Ed wasn't the only one surprised when the gun exploded within the would-be thief's hand. Evidently Rio was able to project some sort of shield or something that had blocked the barrel, causing the gun to misfire. With the man behind him stirring, Ed spun around and delivered another blow to the man's nose, breaking it under the force of his knuckles.

Ignoring the cries of pain and annoyance, Ed followed Rio towards the back of the shop and the doorway leading to the alley. The man in tow was being forcefully held in a headlock by Ed in order to prevent him attempting anything. Despite the guy being somewhat stunned and pouring blood out of a broken nose, Ed didn't want to take any chances.

Now out in the alley, Ed didn't bother being subtle about his abilities. Throwing the culprit against the brick wall before him, Ed raised his arm and pointed at the criminal he'd recently subdued. Within seconds the air before him was filled with water and it was gushing towards the masked man, pinning his arms, legs and torso against the wall. Lowering his arm, Ed was now confident the criminal would not be able to move, his head being the only free part of his body.

"So, what should we do with these thugs? It wouldn't be right to let them simply run off with a slap on the wrists."

Metropolis

"It's, let's see, 8 AM. You've been out for about ten hours. I know you're just a kid, and you had a long day yesterday, but this is pushing it. Today, you and I experience the greatness of the American Bagel, a breakfast item unrivaled by any other bagel in the entire world."

Gotham

Wager nodded. "Noticed one on the way in. A radio jock from out West. And then I scanned him to see more. He's a light bender, controls things along much of the EM spectrum. Oh, and last night, he was visited in his hotel room by a dude with a funny little PDA that looks a lot like the one you've got there."

Aenima already knew that Josh was hear. He had followed him after all. "Alright. I will approach him. You go into that convention hall and find the other two sources of power." Aenima walked over to Josh, ready to see if the promising superbeing would join him. He would get him alone soon.

Duo yawned and slid out of bed.

"I'll be right down then," he said, still yawning. "Can I have a little privacy though."

Gotham

Wager moved through the crowd, trying to get a read on the other two detected sources of power. He wasn't able to notice much on the conscious level, so he had to skim the subconscious. That was how he noticed the kid with mom issues.

Metropolis

Roger waited in the living room for Duo to come out. It was then that the local news channel finally broke the story about an assault on a thief late last night. The thief had made claims of being assulted by a shadow man, mentioning "dragon blood" over and over again.

Aenima managed to find Josh completely alone. He approached him.

"Josh Oliveri."

Josh turned and looked at him suspiciously.

"How do you know my name?"

Aenima smiled.

"I know a lot about you. I know that you are carrying a firearm here, I know you work at K-LON Radio in Palm Desert California, and I know your secrets."

Josh was stunned.

"What do you want with me, and how do you know these things?"

Aenima smiled once again.

"I am like you. I have powers and abilities like you. And I also have a propositon. You have more potential then you might think my friend."

Aenima explained everything to Josh. His goals, his new allay in Wager, and that he wanted Josh to join him. Josh's head was spinning. He needed to get away from this guy. He was walking away, thinking the man was crazy. He headed toward the convention. Maybe he could loss him among the other weirdos. However, Aenima did not stop.

"If you do not joim me, I'll be forced to destroy you."

Josh looked at him angrily.

"First you try to get me to join you on some crazy quest, then you try to destroy me? What the hell man? You need help."

Josh walked away again. Aenima ceased smiling, and then attacked. He used his powers to launch Josh through a convention center wall. He made sure any recording devices shorted out around him so no one would be able to catch the moment. He made a call to Wager physiclly. Wager, come to the convention center, things are getting messy. Aenima had a plan for Josh. As he was thinking, Josh launched a gamma ray at Aenima. He, almost was hit, but reflected it away into a conscension stand. Josh realized that Aenima was powerful. He lept aside and found some cover, trying to get off a shot with either his gun or gamma rays. However, Aenima was to strong, and he flung debris, modles, and other various things at Josh. He would need help with someone this strong. He managed to hit Aenima with a gamma ray, but it only temporarily stopped the onslaught, he continued to attack right after. Josh looked around. People were running and screaming. Security was no where in sight. Josh screamed out loud. "HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME! I NEED SOMEONE TO HELP ME! ANYONE!"

Columbus Terrorized / Part Four

After finishing her meal Nikki decided to look around the sales room after a few minutes of shopping she heard screams of fear from the other side of the room. Looking at the direction of the screams she saw a crowd of people around two groups of thugs swinging swords as if they didn’t care who they hurt! Immediately she pulled out her cell phone and called her downtown office as she ran towards the trouble spot, “ Where is that security force I asked for? I need them here now! There is a group of people with swords hurting people in the sales room at Origins, tell them to hurry, also called Columbus Police and report this to them. Call an Ambulance too! ” said Nikki to her secretary Julie Mueller.[/I] ” Madam the security force should be there any second. I’ll call Lt. Hawks and have him contact you, then I will call Columbus Police. “ replied Julie. “ Great! Thanks Julie …gotta go …. Bye. “ said Nikki as she hung up the phone, while replacing it on her utility belt and activated the phone headpiece in her face mask. Soon she was unable to go any nearer on foot because of the surrounding crowd. She didn’t really want to use her powers in front of all these people but it seemed she had very little choice if she wished to save lives here. Quickly she summoned her psionic power again infusing it into her cape to form batwings and took to the air with a powerful flap of her now fully spread wings. Luckily the rooms roof was a good thirty feet overhead so she had room to maneuver. As she gained altitude she heard someone on the ground exclaim “ Wow did you see that one minute she was talking on her phone and the next she grew wings out of her back and jetted into the air! ” From above she could see the sword bearing guys a lot better, looking around she saw a number of people that had already been hurt by these guys swords. She could not believe this was going on at Origins, these people had to be tied to the terrorist somehow, maybe as a diversion. Well she would teach them not to operate in her city she thought as she again summoned her power this time down her arms to fire her beam at the leader from her hands. Then as her beam slammed into the leader knocking him flat on his back she saw Lt. Hawk and his security force enter into the room from the concourse. Hitting the walky talky button on her phone she said, “ Hawks its your job to disperse this crowd! Get them out of harms way! I will handle these jerks! “ Yes Madam! ” Replied Hawks.

Gotham City / Blackgate Isle

http://usera.imagecave.com/Kormanthor/Kormanthor3/StarCar3.jpg

On her way back to the roof of the bank Gwendilynne called her office in New York and instructed them to deliver a star car to her on the banks old helicopter landing pad as soon as possible. A half hour later Gwen streaked south above the city heading towards Blackgate Isle in her company star car where she intended to explore her new home.

Chandra danced with her sparring partner. or so people will say as they gave their account of what happened.

the lithe girl nimbly avoided the club one of the fighters welded, deflecting it on her Crystal sheild (spun from harden sugar crystals) when she got close enough she would blow into his face, blinding him with a spray of diluted zest (the spray that is emitted when you bend and squeeze the skin of a citrius fruit.)

with her opponent then blinded, she would bind him with rope made from toughened spaghetti noodles and move on, leaving him on the ground.

It was while she was binding one of the 'vikings' that she barely noticed an amored cos-player coming up from behind... ready to deliver a two handed strike when a flash of light left him on his back.

Damn... Bruce would have my hide for being that unobservant... I wonder who... dammit!

Chandra dived to the side and did a quick scan. it looked like security finally got on their feet to do something.

she looked around to find the flash of movement that caught her attention. finally noticing a woman... flying? above her.

some fancy harness rig... man these cos players are good.

In seconds Rios thug was beside Ed's, held imobile against the wall by her telekensis.

"So, what should we do with these thugs? It wouldn't be right to let them simply run off with a slap on the wrists."

"Very nicely done Ed...and there was a time that I'd proudly turn such as these over to the proper authorities, now I don't dare, for what would befall me would be worse than what would happen to them...and I 've found I like life and freedom too much to be as I once was." She looked at him, and did the bravest thing she had done in a long while.

"You decide Ed, I don't know if I have the right any longer " Rios said, trusting the man, though she didn't know why.

Metropolis

Roger waited in the living room for Duo to come out. It was then that the local news channel finally broke the story about an assault on a thief late last night. The thief had made claims of being assulted by a shadow man, mentioning "dragon blood" over and over again.

Once he had his privacy, Duo quickly changed and headed out to the living room. He was still tired and rubbed sleep from his eyes as he looked at what was on the news.

Lady Moonette / Blackgate Isle

Minutes after leaving Gotham City Bank Gwen is over flying Blackgate Isle in her Star Car. From the air she can see that the island basically has two levels, the sea level outer coastal area and the partially flat inner wooded plateau like area. She could see the ruins of the old prison built on the western edge of the plateau. The bridge from the City connected with the area just below the prison where the prisons distribution & maintenance centers had once operated from. As she continued around to the sea ward side of the island she could see a number of cave like opening in the cliffs face. As she arrived over the far eastern end of the plateau she saw a flat meadow area surrounded by woods. Circling the meadow she decided that was the site for her new home. Now that she had found the perfect site for her home she wanted to take a look inside one of those cliff caves.
Minutes later she found a wide mouthed cliff cavern that looked interesting, but the problem was that there wasn’t an area flat enough to land the star car on. Adjusting the car controls to hover she opened the cars moon roof, and climbed up onto the roof where she had plenty of room for casting spells. As she thought about what type of spell would work the best she decided that an earth based spell was what she needed. With a quick wave of her hand her earth spell book appeared in her hands. Flipping through the book she finally came to one called …. Transmute Rock …. after reading the spell from the book she directed the magic to an area of the floor that she had decided would make a good landing area for the star car. As the magic settled in the cavern floor she could see the rough rock begin to flow like liquid down into the solid flat area that she needed. Dropping back down into the pilots seat she placed the book on the floor boards behind the passenger seat, then adjusted the cars controls to land on the newly formed flat area. As she shut the cars systems down she keyed in her personal code to the system to turn on the cars anti theft device then again climbed out onto the roof of the car and down onto the ground . Fortunately the flat area was bigger then the car so she had room to walk on flat ground so she walked around to the trunk where she had her backpack stored, and took it out. Moving to the cave side of the flat area she turned to face the car as she cast a guards & wards spell to protect the car while she was gone. Because of the natural rough rocky very uneven ground of the cave floor she decided to activate her flight ring because its use wouldn’t tire her like a normal flight spell would after a period of time and she didn't want to twist an ankle trying to walk on uneven ground in heels. As she placed the ring on her finger she started to slowly rise off the floor. As she did she placed the remote into the backpack, took out her infrared goggles out zipped it up and put the pack on her back, the goggles on her head then flew into the waiting maw of the cave.

New York.

a rented limo pulls up to the Metro-Towers, a 5 star hotel that caters to the rich and famous. a young, elegantly dressed asian woman gets out as the paparazzi that hang out infront of the hotel begin snapping pictures in hopes that it's a celebrity. the young woman pauses as she looks at all the photographers in a stunned, 'WTF' moment. then a large man gets out from the drivers seat, he tosses the keys to one valet and recives his ticket. then he ushers the young woman into the hotel, as the Bellhops begin unloading a large selection of suitcases.

The posh lobby is bustling with activity as the woman and her apparent bodyguard make their way to the check in desk.

"May I help you Ma'am?" the desk clerk sniffed as they approached.

"Reservations for Haruka Kyle from Gotham." the large man spoke loud and clearly as the woman emotionally examined the lobby

"yes... Penthouse suite. For the week I see... I need some ID..." the clerk examines the two cards handed to him by the man. "and I need her signature... thank you..." the Clerk hands the keys to the lead man and watch as they head towards the bank of elevators.

Snobby Bitch

+++

"Thank you sir, and let us know if you need anything."
the transporters left as Micheal began unpacking the suitcases.

"Wow... so this is how the elite in New York do things." Emily sighed as she sat down on the bed. "You know Da.." a curt wave of Micheal cut her short. he gave her a stern look. "...vids really gave this place high marks. remind me to thank him for this recomendation." Emily stumbled on as she realized what she almost did.
"Yes Ma'am. will you be needing anything?"
"Oh, I'm feeling peckish... perhaps a light dinner?" Emily stretched and almost knocked her wig off.
her father kept his face straight as he grabbed a small electronic device and began walking around the room.
"And what would ma'am want?"
"oh... I dunno... lobster?"
Micheal finished his circuit of the room and the device didn't beep once.
"Em... you're supposed to be Hari. people would know her diet. it's not exactly a secret."
Em stuck her tongue out. "I gotta eat nothing but veggie stuff? I KNEW this trip wasn't as fun as Hari made it to be."
"well, it does give her an alibi as to where she is... and we have our own job to do."
"yeah... I guess"

Emily grabbed the phonebook and looked up the number for Nelchizedeke Aerospace.

===

Gotham National Forrest.

A black hovercar glided past the trees and came to a stop in an overgrown area of the reserve.

Haruka switched off the engine and slid out of the driver's seat.

Well... per our agreement.

Yes...

Haruka slipped out of her clothes, revealing the black stocking that Em and Yvette made. she then stepped out of the car and shifted.

remember... ONE week...

A large tiger bounded out into the woods, Running for the sheer enjoyment of the run.

Gotham

Wager was upset about being called away. Getting an eyeful of what Aenima had done, though, changed his mind. He heard the guy Aenima had pointed out calling for help. Time to change that. There was a big, glass object above Josh's head, a lighting bank consisting of many bulbs and mirrors. Concentrating, he brought his hands to together in a single clapping motions, then turned them with his palms pointed at the lighting fixture. The glass shattered, raining down on the luckless man.

Metropolis

Roger noted Duo watching the report on his nightly "jog." It wasn't something he wanted the kid to see. "Looks like the nutjobs are out again. C'mon, time to get some food."

Ed's assumption had been right as he watched the other criminal slammed against the wall, held by a force none could see. Rio was a telekinetic and a reasonably competent one by the looks of things. Ed couldn't help but nod at Rio's statement about the police, nothing would be particularly accomplished by involving the police so it wasn't really worth the trouble they would experience.

"You decide Ed, I don't know if I have the right any longer "

Making significant decisions like such was not something he was particularly comfortable with, mostly because he lacked the confidence, not the ability. Many of his friends back in Australia had always said he was the wise and usually sought his advice upon many situations, but they had always been petty little issue like how to escape the unwarranted attentions of someone's ugly sister.

This was entirely different, this had real consequences that could very well end in the deaths of these men. Of course, Ed would avoid that if he could.

"Killing them here like this would make us no better than them. Since they are thieves, I doubt anything they 'own' is actually theirs, including these clothes and such."

Strolling forward slightly, Ed looked over the men up and down.

"I'm assuming you'd be able to remove them and anything else they've got hidden on them? I'm sure there are much more deserving people out there in the city that could use some money and warm clothing."

Ed doubted this would prevent the two men from ever committing another crime again, but one never knew and it was sure to teach them some form of lesson.

"Of course, I'm open to your own suggestions as well."

Rio couldn't help but chuckle, though she was sure the sight of the thieves naked wouldn't be the most pleasant she'd ever seen.

"Why, yes I can do that, though to keep the clothes in one piece might take a little longer." With that, the fancy two hundred dollar Nike's one wore unlaced themselves and dropped to the ground. They were followed by the jeans he wore as the zipper ran down and something invisible tugged at the hems.

The mans rapidly approaching frenzied cursing slowed Rio not at all, and within moment he was as unclad as if he were about to take a bath.

The other man's garmets and possessions quickly followed, piled neatly on a relatively spot along with those of the first man. Both were struggling aginat the wall like bugs spitted with mounting pins.

But Rio, by that time ,was nearly exhausted, though letting Ed realize that was the last thing she wanted. She couldn't draw it out much longer, and so she settled for a sharp accurate telekenitic rap against first one then the others temple, blows that would leave them unconscious for hours.

"Why don't you tie them up with their underwear and we can toos them into the dumpster." Rio sought to make her leaining aginst the wall look nonchalant, though her knees were trembling with exhaustion.

Metropolis

Roger noted Duo watching the report on his nightly "jog." It wasn't something he wanted the kid to see. "Looks like the nutjobs are out again. C'mon, time to get some food."

Duo scratched the back of his neck as he nodded.

"Every place has it's nutjobs," he said. "So what's for breakfast?"

Josh heard a noise and saw a hail of glass. He lept aside, but now he was in Aenima's full sight. A large object slammed into his side and sent him through a wall. Aenima waited for a bit. He was met with a gamma ray that slammed into him. He fell to the ground, weakend by the blow. Josh had seen the man who Aenima was talking to, and was sure he was working for him. People had already left the area, and security had been knocked out by Aenima's barrage. There weren't alot of people. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the man Aenima was with. "Freeze!"

Sunder was enjoying himself immensely in the carnage, such that it was. This was his first chance to actually completely uninhibitited by the ever 'moralistic' Julian. Of course his pleasure was somewhat restrained as he didn't feel like causing such a scene as the slaughter that would inevitably result if he truely took it out on the various combatants and citizenry alike. As it was many of them would be getting carted out by ambulence anyway what with the number of broken bones and lacerations he was inflicting.

As one man he was about to smack around collapsed with no other source than a flash of light, he followed it back to spot another person entering the fray, beside a couple secruity personnel following behind. It didn't seem as if she were anything other than a tricked out human in the model of perhaps the old Bats. And if she were anything like that old-school vigilante then he might have to round up Foodie and get her somewhere else, especially if Julian took the inopportune opportunity to come out of his phobia induced unconsiousness. However he would watch to make sure they weren't already friends or foes as he didn't need nor want the complications.

Ed couldn't help but laugh as the two men struggled against Rio's invisible force, stripping them of their clothes and other possessions, leaving them with nothing but their embarrassment. Unfortunately it was the best they could do given their current situation and so it would have to do. With both men now unconscious, Ed unleashed another wave of water, this one surrounding the second thug so they were both held captive by an unwavering liquid prison, thus taking the pressure off Rio.

Concentrating hard, Ed allowed a portion of the water imprisoning the men before him to 'relax', allowing him to pull their hands out behind their backs and promptly bind them with their underwear. With the messy part of their task out of the way, Ed guided the imprisoned men up into the air until they both hovered over an open dumpster, conveniently full of a number of unpleasant odours. Not particularly worried about the comfort of the men before him, Ed released his command on the water and the pair fell into the trash, bound, naked, soaking wet and covered in garbage.

Looking back at the bundle of clothes they'd acquired, Ed noticed several mobile phones, a few wads of cash and a number of wallets, amongst the two pistol and knife.

"I somehow don't think all that belongs to these two. I've got no real use for it so you're welcome to it if you wish, otherwise I'm sure we can find some that truly are in need."

Gotham

Guns were tricky for Wager. The different components, often of varying densities, meant that if he tried shattering it, or knocking it away, it would only serve to set it off. Concrete flooring, however, was a different story. It would take him time, though. He hoped Aenima could scan him. The boss had to stall while he went to work.

Metropolis

"Lou's bagel shop. I don't know what they fed you for breakfast back in Britain, but I'm sure they've moved past one serving of oatmeal per meal. Still, every city has the local bagel shops that are just calm enough to get served at. Lou's is one of them. C'mon." Roger flicked the TV off, and went out the door, waiting for Duo to follow.

"I somehow don't think all that belongs to these two. I've got no real use for it so you're welcome to it if you wish, otherwise I'm sure we can find some that truly are in need."

Rio shook her head and managed a grin for Ed. "Thats just where those two belong" If she'd have been alone she'd have taken the money as fair compensation for her efforts, but at the moment it just didn't seem right. And she was just too tired at the moment to make the effort to bend over and pick anything up.

"No there are more who need this than I do. Hey Ed, it's been nice meeting ya, but I have things I have to do." Rio knew she couldn't go back into the book shop, couldn't ever go back their again, but she was so tired she needed to find some where to sit down and rest. Big act with her telekensis were easy, but the finiky work to pull clothes of without destroying them was exhausting. She pulled her self away from the wall and tried to move briskly and with apparent purpose down the alley. She didn't realise that she was weaving as she walked more than a little.

"Well porridge," Duo shrugged. "For breakfast only mind."

As he followed Roger out he had a very important question to ask.

"What's a bagel?"

Gotham City

Matergy lazily soared on the wind currents over Gotham City in the form of a sea gull, hours before while over flying an island south of the city she had watched her old nemesis entering a cliff cave. She had been unable to get any closer because she didn’t want to give her presence on Earth away to soon. Now flying over the downtown she watched the alleyways below for signs of criminal activity. Her desire to establish a new gang under her control in Gotham required her to recruit some locale talent. She had brought a few key people with her from her cluster gang, but because of Lady Moonettes starships patrolling the sol system it was impossible to get to earth undetected with a large group.

Columbus Terrorized / Part Five

From the air SheBat watched the leader land on his back and slide into the group of thugs behind him unconscious. A couple of them tripped over his sliding body and hit the concrete floor hard face first effectively taking them out of the fight as well. As she watched Lt. Hawks security force start to move the crowd back away from the gang of thugs and out of the sells room. Suddenly the double doors leading outside burst open and Columbus Swat teams came in fast and low with guns drawn. Immediately SheBat dived through the doorway leading back to the concourse and flew across it to the open stair way to the second floor where she landed her wings again disappearing into her back. Knowing that the police had most likely gotten a good look at her she hurried down the upstairs hallway ducking into the ladies room to quickly take off her cowl ( facemask ) and put the Princess Leia Costume back on over her She Bat Costume. Then returned to the concourse to see what had happened since her escape.

Josh had lost all urge to fight. The one guy was on the ground, and the other seemed distracted. He shot a quick gamma ray at the other man, but he lost balance, the concrete floor seemed to be reacting to something. The ray just grazed the man's side, but the was all Josh needed. He spun around, and bolted for the exit as fast as he could. Aenima looked up to see him running. A plan formed in his mind. Aenima fired a ball of energy at Josh. But Josh wouldn't feel it. It would take effect slowly, until Josh would be completely under Aenima's control. He slowly rose, and faced Wager. "Don't worry about him, he'll be back soon enough."

Gotham

Wager nodded as he picked himself up. "I've got a read on him. He gets close, I'll recognize his mental signature again. Also, about fifteen 911 calls went out already. I think it would be best to vanish. Besides, that guy last night, he said something about a dude in Metropolis, right? Think we should check it out?"

Metropolis

"The Bagel," began Roger "is a breakfast roll baked in the shape of a torus, or a ring with a cross section of a circle when viewed perpendicualr to the axis of rotation. In it's most basic form, it is an add on to any good breakfast. However, due to culinary skill and a high demand for a breakfast that can be carried while eaton, America has developed numerous flavors and styles to serve our work-aholic mentality. There's one right there," he said as he pointed out a passing pedestrian just starting on her bagel.

"Unlike that lady, however, you and I will be eating at Lou's, and enjoying cream cheese on the bagels as we eat. Here's a tip: you can never go wrong with a fresh baked bacon and cheddar bagel. Here we are." Roger held the door to the small shop open, blasting the two of them with smells of fresh baked bread and bagel style seasoning. As they approached the counter, Roger placed his order for a bacon-n-poppy bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

"What'll it be, kid?" asked Lou, with a toothy grin shining out from a thick mustache.

Aenima grinned as he spoke to Wager. "Your skills will prove very useful. Let's go back to the hotel I'm staying at, we can plan there. And don't worry about Josh, he will soon be my slave, but he will eventually learn to like it, and serve me on his own freewill. Let's get out of here now, before we are caught. Aenima then teleported Wager and himself into his hotel room. "You'll notice that Josh's room is next to ours. Within hours he'll begin feeling strange. How long the process will take I do not know, it is different depending on the person."

Looks like security is patching things up. better scram back to the booth.

Chandra made her way through the crowd. keeping her head down she wove though the bodies trying to make her way back to the food booth.

Whodda thought that geeks were so dangerious.

she finally broke through the crowd, only to trip and stumble over a woman dressed like Princess Lea.

"Scuse me. sorry, gotta go." she muttered as she limped her way back to the food booth. the nanoweave muscles pushed to their limit painfully reminded her of her limitations... also the pain distracted her enough so that she didn't notice her wallet on the ground.

===

"Where have you been. they said there was a riot of some sort." Gino grabbed her arm as she staggered back into the booth.

"Some... attendees got into a fight. started swinging their swords and stuff..." her voice trailed off as Gino stared at her. "I had to do something... someone was going to get seriously hurt there."

"... as long as you're ok." Gino sighed.

"Aww Gino... I didn't know you cared."

"Of course I care. Bruce would've had my hide if anything happened to you..." He smiled. "Go and take a breather and be back here in 5 minutes!"

Chandra ducked back behind the curtains to sit on some of the empty boxes being stacked by the back wall.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be here!" Chandra called out as a couple of guys were digging around the boxes.

the two men looked startled and ran off. Chandra sighed, and limped over to stack the boxes they knocked over.

then froze as she saw a strange package taped to two propane tanks that had obviously been moved there and hidden by the empty boxes.

"GIN..." Chandra called out before the back of her head exploded and darkness enveloped her conciousness.

Behind her, a third man lowered his makeshift club and ordered the other two to continue their preperation as he bent over to lift chandra's unconcious body.

New York

"Yes, This is Haruka Kyle of Gotham. I would like to make inquiries to some purchases. I'm looking at your private aircraft line. yes, I'm sponsering a jet racing team, the Gotham Nightwings, and wonder if we can purchase several High performace jets as well as spare parts and maintenance for those jets. Yes, a team of mechanics will be maintaning the jets and I will be supplying them with a facility that they will have access to. perfect. I am in New York for a time, perhaps we can meet to discuss the details? great. I'm sure I'll be satisfied with your facilities. Thank you."
Emily hung up and looked at her father.

"we got the frame being sent to the warehouse, when we meet with Nelchizedeke Aerospace, we can look at their antigrav units and perhaps obtain a couple for our tinkering as well."

Micheal laid down on the bed "why are we doing this?"

Emily looked up. "Hmm?"

"Wouldn't we... Shouldn't we be trying to talk her out of this crazy idea of hers?"

"Dad... you saw those tapes. she needs this outlet. the longer she stays 'prim and proper' the wilder her other side gets. At least in this way, she'll be seen as the next 'Batman' and not the next 'Joker'."

"so this whole "superhero" bit is for her to vent? there has to be another way... if the Government knew..."

"Now, if... what they will know is that it's someone in a costume. They'll just think it's all gadgets and gizmos.... not that sh... she's... " Emily couldn't bring herself to say the word.

"a meta hiding in plain sight. we gotta give her the gadets and gizmos that she can use to convince the public that her abilities are due to those devices and not that it's hers... naturally."

"rope and cords... grappling hook of some sort... " Emily studied her list as her father worriedly stared at the ceiling.

***
GOTHAM RESERVE

Bob and Nancy stared down the side of the cliff in horror... their little boy slipped and fell down several feet to land on a narrow ledge. Bob frantically called the park rangers... trying to get someone here to help rescue their 4 yr old.

"TELL THEM TO HURRY... LOOK!" Nancy screamed and pointed.

"HURRY, there's some... mountain lion approaching our boy!"

"Sir" the park ranger dispatcher said "there hasn't been a mountain lion in this area for half a century."

"I'm telling you there is one... look!" Bob turned on his camera phone and pointed it downwards."

the Park ranger looked at the scene. "The hover is 5 minutes out... see if you can distract it."

Nancy had already grabbed some stones and was busy flinging it down towards the stalking Tiger.

===

Wyldside sniffed at the boy's body.

still alive... but hurt.

Rocks clattered down from the top. some bouncing off of her back as she studied the body. Tentively, she licked the boys face as more rocks clattered and struck her... and landed very close to the boy.

stupid... Wyldside looked up and shifted around so that her body covered the boy and protected him from the thrown rocks. this resulted in more screams from the top and... of course... more rocks.

the boy moaned as his eyes fluttered open and then closed.

He needs... silence... this is my time now...

Shifting so that she had hands instead of paws, Wyldside slowly buttoned up the boys jacket, silently cursing each rock that pelted off of her head and back. she then put the boys jacket into her mouth.

Keeping to all fours, she tucked one arm under the boy to support him while using her remaining arm and legs to cradle carry her burden along the cliff edge. the rocks raining down on her became larger as the parents became more hysterical.

I wonder if they know that I am what's preventing their stones from hitting the boy.

it took a while, but finally, Wyldside made it back to the top of the cliff. she shifted back to full tiger to prevent the parents from seeing anything more than an animal.

She limped towards the panicked parents and slowly placed the boy on a grassy patch. she then bounded away as the ranger's hover came into view.

Thanks.

what for?

Helping that child.

why thank me?

You didn't have to...

only a real animal would leave a cub stranded like that.

Besides... you would've nagged me about it...

Thinking of which... thank you

for...

not nagging me about it.

Ed wouldn't have thought any less of Rio if she had taken the money, he himself had stolen on many occasions. He justified such by relieving criminals and their kind of funds and items that were not theirs to begin with. Since returning them wasn't usually viable, they were used to his advantage. Since he had no need for the cash in his current situation, Ed was happy to see it go to those in need of it.

"No there are more who need this than I do. Hey Ed, it's been nice meeting ya, but I have things I have to do."

Ed watched as Rio walked away, none too steadily. Evidently drained herself with the use of her power, much more than Ed had. For some reason water was always the easiest of his powers to use, it took the least out of him and he could control it the best.

Running after Rio, Ed called for her to wait a minute.

"Just in case you ever feel like throwing some more criminals in a dumpster."

Scribbling onto a piece of paper, Ed handed Rio his number and the address of the hotel he was staying at. He wasn't quite sure why but he felt it would be important to see Rio again.

"Anyway, have a good day."

Whilst Ed was somewhat concerned by Rio's unstable footing, he didn't want to seem too bothersome. She seemed like the kind of person that didn't want to accept help unless she truly needed it, this was not such an occasion.

Finding the person he'd been engaging in mindless destruction, well it'd been more for himself but she'd been there and since he'd wanted to talk with her ...

Walking through the crowds, pushing for those who wanted to argue semantics, he spotted her heading toward the food court. Stepping on a wallet almost did what what the brawlers didn't have a chance at, thought it did cause him to lose of Foodie. Grabbing the wallet he continued thankful of the tailor-made excuse.

Thinking that if she did work at one of these stands then she'd likely be in the back he let himself in then proceeded the row to see if he could spot her.

Seeing her walking over to a pile of old boxes awaiting squishing, he began walking toward her when he heard, saw and felt the explosion begin. As the shockwave and wall of flame ripped out he managed to get a shield around himself. Just in time as it Julian awoke, thought Sunder had thought he'd seen something happen to Foodie that wasn't explosion related.

"What'll it be, kid?" asked Lou, with a toothy grin shining out from a thick mustache.

"Right," Duo nodded.

The smell that hit them was unfamiliar to the orphan who was used to nothing other than plain porridge for breakfast.

"Umm... bacon and cheddar bagel please."

Columbus Terrorized / Part Six

As Nikki returned to the origins concourse level of the hotel she saw that it was now very crowded with people. Some she realized was very much aware of what had happened in the sells room while others who hadn’t been in room seemed confused about why the sells room was suddenly closed by security people. As Nikki hurried to the entrance of the sells room her attention mostly on the happenstance within she accidentally tripped a young woman as she emerged from the sells room crowd. Nikki remembered having seen her during her flight over the crowd, this same woman had been looking directly at her then in what might have been amazement. Now the woman seemed far away in thought herself as she muttered, " Scuse me. sorry, gotta go." and accidentally dropped her wallet on the ground as she limped her way back to one of the food booths nearby. As Nikki started to pick up the wallet so she could return it she saw the young woman duck behind some curtains behind the food booth counter. Suddenly a kid riding a antigrav skateboard snatched it out of her hand and tried to get away with it. Hoping no one watching closely she quickly summoned her psionic power infusing it into her right hand and fired a narrow laser like beam from one finger into the center of the kids board which cut it in half. Suddenly the kid found to his horror that he was now trying to ride to halves of a now powerless antigrav board. As she ran towards the kid she watched in amusement as his legs flew out from under him and up in the air causing him to drop the wallet as he hit the floor hard. Figuring he had learned his lesson Nikki picked up the wallet and started for the woman’s food booth. As she neared the booth she heard a muffled battle going on behind the curtain. As she ran behind the counter towards the curtain the guy who’s name tag said “ Gino " screamed, “ Hey your not allowed back there! " and ran after her as she ducked behind the curtain. As Nikki entered she saw one man standing over the unconscious body of the young woman and two other men standing by two propane tanks with a strange package taped the top of them. Immediately Nikki realized that these men must be some of the terrorist and that she probly had mere seconds to stop a potential tragedy.

Aenima made sure Wager was okay, and he teleported again after telling him he had business to take care of. He ad found plenty of power signitures around Gotham. He was merely searching for the strongest. He found one of particular interest, but when he arrived at the location, he found no people, only birds. He focused his powers to try and find if anyone was hidden.

her vision swam, she remembered the two men, a third tried to hit her but she rolled enough with the blow to avoid total blackout, but she was still groggy. over her, the man with the club turned as Gino shouted "hey, you're not supposed to be back there" when the curtain parted and she saw... Princess Lea? I must be outta it...

The other two press something on the box that made a soft beep, then they joined the neanderthal with the club as they faced off against Gino and Nikki...

Chandra turned her head to look at the two canisters and she overheard one say "A couple of minutes is all we need to keep them away from the bomb."

Bomb? Shit.. propane fuel, lots of people here escaping the fight... shitshitshit

She tried to move but her hip hurt and now so did her head. the three seemed intent on their two opponents and thus ignored her as she slowly crawled towards the propane tanks.

"nothing to see here folks... I suggest you turn and leave. you have better things to do than get into more trouble." The large man growled at Gino and Nikki as his two partners moved out to flank their new quarry.

Gotta contain the explosion... something flexable, yet strong. able to expand with the force yet not break to keep the shrapnel and overpressure contained.

an image of a childhood trip to San Fransisco's Fisherman's warf and a treat she was introduced to...

that could work. I just need to get closer... and I need the time... please let there be enough time...

"Anyway, have a good day."

"You too Ed...and thank you very much" Rio gave him a ghost of a smile as she accepted the paper from him. It had felt good to do what she had always wanted to do. Now she just had to get some place where it was safe to get the rest she needed.

There was nothing to do but to chance passing the day in the warehouse. She gave Ed another smile and staggered out of the alley, heading the shortest way possible to her lair.

Metropolis

Lou served up the bagels, and Roger showed Duo to a seat. "Here, cream cheese. Useful for Chinese side dishes, better for bagels." After he topped his breakfast, he got up. "Oh, can't believe I forgot. What do you want to drink? And we don't drink tea with breakfast here."

Gotham
Wager spaced out and listened to the brainwaves. That was when he noticed it. Two of them, fresh off stopping a mugging. He dropped his scan quickly enough. He followed the guy. Looked a bit more amateur, and thus the safer target.

Duo shook his head.

"I don't like tea, tastes like piss," he replied. "I'll have an orange juice please."

Metropolis

Roger laughed at the opinion of tea, mostly because it wasn't far off the mark. Getting two bottles of orange juice, he sat down, passing one to the kid. "Glad to see you at least enjoy one of the most wholesome drinks ever concocted. Here."

"Thanks," Duo nodded.

"Mostly it was cost cutting," he mentioned. "They wanted to spend as little money as possible but yet stay with the orphanages law."

With Rio now gone, Ed was left to his thoughts once again. The idea of being an independent crime fighter was starting to look attractive to him. It would give him some purpose instead of aimlessly wandering the world. Despite such, Ed didn't want to end up as one of those heroes with a stupid name running around in a pair of tights.

Considering such, Ed realised he would have to embrace all his powers eventually, including his 'curse', the ability to create and manipulate fire, the very reason his parents were now dead. Despite the painful memories it stirred, Ed was a practical guy and saw the folly in not embracing his full abilities. Currently he had very little control over his fire, at least compared to water or air. He could unleash a wave of fire or launch fireballs but nothing particularly complicated. Of course, one didn't need to be that complicated when they were playing with fire.

Several hours later, Ed found himself in the outer suburbs of Gotham in a particularly deserted park of significant size. Apparently a lot of thugs liked to lurk about the park so most people kept clear, Ed wasn't really too worried about them. Gazing down at the pile of sticks before him, Ed concentrated. He'd established it was easy enough to project fire from his hands, but to call it into existence beyond himself was far more complicated.

Intensifying his glare, as if his mere expression would do the trick, Ed began to sweat. His temperature always rose whenever he used his fire, which had led him to wonder if he could control the temperatures of the elements that obeyed him. There wasn't exactly a 'How to be an elementalist' manual in the nearest library, but it was worth some thought in his opinion.

Without warning, the sticks burst into flames, the intense plasma roaring up towards Ed as if it wished to consume him. Placing a hand before it, Ed pushed the flames back and watched with a smile. He was making progress. Now panting from his efforts, Ed sat down next to his newly spawned fire. He couldn't help but think that if he'd had such control back when he was younger, his parents would still be alive.

Metropolis

Roger nodded at Duo's remarks. "There's always somebody out to line their own pockets at somebody else's expense. I'm sorry your breakfast routine was so routine. Though out of curiousity, did anybody ever pull an 'Oliver Twist' request while they were there?"

Gotham

Wager had followed the man to the park, and staying well within the shadows, watched as he practiced his pyrokinesis. The man had potential. Time to tap into it.

"Excuse me," he said, stepping out of the shadow, and well away from the fire. "Could I have a word with you?"

Duo shook his head, he knew what Roger meant by that.

"No, whatever was left over was first come first serve," he explained. "The nastier orphans always got to it first."

"Excuse me," he said, stepping out of the shadow, and well away from the fire. "Could I have a word with you?"

Ed visibly jumped as man approached him from behind, as if he'd stepped out of nothingness. Getting to his feet, Ed quickly gauged the nature of the man before him, he didn't appear to be out to harm Ed, yet one could never be too careful in this city. Assuming that this stranger had seen Ed use his powers and not run away in fear, this man was either a meta-human himself or at least quite familiar with them.

Regaining his composure, Ed finally spoke, hiding his uneasiness at being approached by some stranger that had witnessed his secret.

"I suppose you can. What do you need?"

Aenima had been searching the area for anyone, but he found no one. Finally, he looked up at the many seagulls. He scanned them all, and eventually found one of them had a massive power signiture. It must be a superbeing. He couldn't pick up which one it was though, and because the being's power level was equal to his, he felt it unwise to merely wrench it out of it's seagull form. He sent a message to all of the seagulls. Only the one who was a superbeing would really hear it.

Hello. My name is Adam Carey, but you may call me Aenima. I have a proposition to make. If you would show me your true form, I would greatly appreciate it. I have a plan that I think both of us would benefit from.

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

Josh finally got back to the hotel. He collapsed into a couch. He was exhausted from the fight. And he was feeling a little sick. He heard his phone ringing. It was his boss. He picked it up. His boss was frantic, asking if he was okay. He had obviously heard about the attack, which was probably on the news by now. However, all cameras seemed to have broken down before hand, so Josh was relieved to know he wouldn't appear on film battling a super villian. He cleared everything with his boss, and relaxed.

Julian woke to find himself in an odd place with no memory of how he'd gotten there. Thinking back he seemed to remember the sight of blood, which helped clarify things as if he'd passed out some helpful stranger had moved him into the back so he could recover.

With a faint shrug as he didn't see anyone around and felt fine, he decided to head home, after a brief walk through the park. Maybe there'd be something interesting there or he could at least get some practice in if he could find an uncrowded area.

Gotham Park

Wager nodded. "You could probably help me. Call me Wager. And don't worry, I'm a metahuman, not some government stooge." Noticing the look on Ed's face, Wager smiled.

"I'm sonikinetic. Sound user. Most people don't realize it, but thinking out sentences actually causes your vocal chords to waver as if you were talking very, very lightly. Part of the package means I hear that. Gets annoying, but when you're like me, let's you clue in to what the other guy's holding, thus making a killing at the poker tables.

"If you were to check the news right now, you'd see something about an attack at the big convention. I was there. Some light bender went on a rampage, attacked me and a friend. Were it not for our meta-human abilities, we'd be dead. I'm trying to track him down. So is my buddy. Attempting to head him off before he goes off again. That's how I found you. You don't control the EM spectrum, by any chance, do you?"

Metropolis, Lou's Bagel Shop.

"Well, at least they had a system of getting everything out, though it does seem a tad unfair. Finish your bagel. Then I got a surprise for you."

"Well life is generally unfair," Duo remarked.

He then began eating his bagel, not quickly as he didn't wish to start the day with a stomach ache. Still it wasn't long before he finished it off.

"You could probably help me. Call me Wager. And don't worry, I'm a metahuman, not some government stooge."

Ed was somewhat relieved to hear that this stranger was at least someone like him and thus less likely to turn him in to the government or any of those other organisations that seemed to have declared a crusade upon metahumans. Despite such, Ed didn't fully trust the man before him, something about him just seemed strange.

The idea that this man could essentially hear his thoughts was unnerving to say the least and Ed made an extra effort not to even come close to speaking as he considered his options.

"I can't say I've heard anything about it..."

"You don't control the EM spectrum, by any chance, do you?"

Ed shook his head. This whole thing had him curious but he wasn't about to go lying about his abilities just so he could get involved.

"I'm afraid not. I just cover the elements."

Gotham Park

Wager nodded at Ed's remarks. "Thank you for your time. Gotta keep looking. If I ever meet you again, what's your name?"

Metropolis

Roger and Duo left Lou's and boarded the bus to the park. "Glad to see you enjoyed the bagel. I wanted to show you something before we go to my dad's place."

Duo nodded, "It was different," he said with a small smile. "So where are we heading?"

Ed was somewhat disappointed that his curiosity wouldn't be satisfied but he wasn't one to intrude into something that didn't really involve him.

"I'm Ed. Anyway, good luck with sorting this guy out."

Despite his interest in this 'light bender' situation, Ed reminded himself he needed to practice with his fire ability. His other powers were more than enough to deal with your average thug but if he ever came into combat with another metahuman with the intent to kill him, fire was Ed's best defence and he had to be ready to use it.

Columbus Terrorized / Part Seven


Not only did Nikki see that the young woman had woke up and was starting to slowly crawl towards the propane tanks even though she looked like she was still a little groggy to be messing with a bomb. But she also noted that the two men had noticed her and were moving to intercept her. Because she had already summoned her power for the kid she was able to fire a beam of force at point blank range into the nearest of the men knocking him on his backside as her wings spread up and out ripping the outer Princess Leia costume into pieces revealing the SheBat Costume beneath. Quickly Nikki replaced the cowl to her face as she rocketed into the air up and over the second man flying towards the propane tanks and the bomb. Gino looked like he could handle the second man on his own so she quickly summoned her power again and used her force beam as a tractor beam enveloping the tanks and bomb within. Then flew up and over the curtain with the bomb in tow. Using her other hand she fired a force beam at the double glass doors at the top of the steps leading out too high street and flew through the opening into the outside sky. The towing was starting to take a toll on her strength but she knew she mustn’t fail or many people would be hurt or killed from the explosion that was just seconds away. Gritting her teeth SheBat redoubled her effort and flew higher and higher until at five hundred feet her strength gave out and her wings disappeared back into her back. As she and the bomb began to fall back towards earth the bomb exploded with enough force to propel her horizontally towards downtown river. As SheBat flew towards the river she couldn't help wondering could she survive a five hundred foot fall even into the water of the river?

Lady Moonette beneath Blackgate Isle

Immediately as the darkness of the tunnel enveloped her Moonette reached up and pulled the goggles on her forehead down over her eyes. Suddenly she could once again see but everything now had a blackish red look to it. As she slowly flew on the tunnels diameter grew wider and finally ended at a cliff as it opened into a huge cavernous room with unbelievable rock formations. In the center of the formations was a naturally formed lake with dark green water. As she got closer the unmistakable smell of salt water assaulted her nostrils. Looking at this cavern she knew she had definitely hit pay dirt! This cavern would be just what the doctor ordered to house her secret base.

Matergy meets Aenima

As Matergy continued to float on cool breezy winds blowing in from the ocean she noticed a man walking below her. He seemed to be interested in the flock of gulls that she now maneuvered within. He seemed to be looking nearly directly at her! But that was impossible! She had never been traced before! She started to fly away when she heard,
“ Hello. My name is Adam Carey, but you may call me Aenima. I have a proposition to make. If you would show me your true form, I would greatly appreciate it. I have a plan that I think both of us would benefit from. ” She couldn’t believe it! He was talking to her! Normally she would have ignored this person and simply flew away but this mans powers could be of use to her in her quest to find Moonette in a city the size of Gotham.
Carefully she maneuvered around behind him then descended to just above the street as she transformed into her humanoid self. As she lightly touched down her wings became her arms once again completing the transformation. In greetings she said, “ Hello Adam Carey I am called Matergy and you may be one I have been searching for.

As he walked through the the park, Julian spotted a man in front of a fire. As he walked closer he wondered if the man was a pyro or just an arsonist as even when hobos started fire for warmth they did it in a garbage can. An it wasn't even that cold, even at night.

Approaching, he spoke out, "Don't you know starting fires is both dangerous and can be illegal?"

Metropolis

Roger smiled as they walked. When he stopped, it was in the park's central clearing, at the monument that had been erected there, depicting in brass two Kryptonian superheroes. The monument to Superman and Superboy.

"You and I have abilities, Duo. While not exactly the awe inspiring powers that these two had, we are still gifted. I wanted you to see this, to understand this. What we are means nothing compared to what we do. If you truly wish to be great, remember that you will have to give everything. Know this, that if you continue on this path with me, you may very well fall in the defense of another. I want you to think on that before you answer me."

Gotham

Wager excused himself, saying "May you travel well, Ed, and encounter assistance whither thou go." Walking off into the night, he filed away Ed's mental signature. A potentially useful player indeed.

He saw another man approach Ed as he left. This newer, and much younger, man didn't seem bothered by a display of pyrokinesis. Shifting into a hidden vantage point, he watched and listened in on those below.

Adam was somewhat surprised by Matergy. He turned slowly and nodded slightly to her, a show of respect. Now that she was in her true form, directly in front of him, he could feel how powerful she was, just as strong as he. She could be a very powerful friend to have, so he would do his best not to anger or insult her. "Matergy, you may call me Aenima if you wish. I came here because I found your power signiture ona device I took from some meddling government agents trying to arrest me for being a metahuman, I assume they were trying to arrest others as well. Perhaps you can tell me about your powers and goals, and after that, I have a proposition."

Watching as Wager walked off, Ed's attention was soon devoted to another young man approaching him. This was getting somewhat ridiculous for an allegedly deserted park that most people tended to avoid. Watching the guy before him, Ed kept a blank face yet he was ready to defend himself if necessary.

"Don't you know starting fires is both dangerous and can be illegal?"

Ed matched the gaze of the man before him. The guy didn't look like a cop and he found it very strange that anyone in Gotham would walk up to a complete stranger and inform them they may be doing something illegal.

"This fire is no threat to anyone. Why does it concern you?"

Duo nodded and looked up at the statue.

"Might not be awe inspiring but I know a lot of people would love my ability," he smirked.

He placed his hands in his pockets as he thought over what Roger said. He continued to look up at the statue as he thought it over.

"I understand," he said after a while. "I never had a purpose before, just another orphan with no future, but this is my purpose."

"And I'm just suppose to take your word that this fire isn't a threat?" Julian asked the strange somewhat hobo for he didn't look like the average DOYLe but then what was he doing with a fire. "And I like this park and don't want some wingnut burning it down because he didn't even know how to use a garbage can to keep his fire in."

Chandra low crawled towards the propane tanks when a familiar sound is heard. Looking over her shoulder, she notices that two had turned and started towards her, Gino tackled the third man and was pummeling him with his fists. Of the two heading towards her, one was on the ground, moaning as 'Princess Lea' shed her costume for the one she seen earlier. the last man, unaware of the change in fortune behind him, still rushed for Chandra. or maybe he did know and wanted a hostage. Either way, Chandra had other plans for him.

Rolling on her back, she 'conjured' another hardened log of salami and gut punched him as he ran towards her. Staggering back, Chandra got to her knees and leveraging her weight, slammed the meat log into his face, knocking him cold.

The sounds of glass shattering turned her attention to see the flying woman grab the tanks and bomb and fly out the door.

Tossing her log to Gino, who was getting up from his unconscious opponent, Chandra staggered out towards the street and watched the woman disappeared into the night sky. only to see her briefly illuminated as the tanks exploded. She could see the woman's falling form as she headed towards the nearby river.

that fall will kill her!

Noting that she did not have the time to run down and hail a taxi, she gathered what remaining strength she had and ran towards the nearest building.

Forming a spongy disk of marshmallow (with a bit more elasticity than normal) she tossed it ahead of her and using it as a springboard, jumped into the air. Quickly, she tossed a long line of spaghetti (again with some elasticity as well as 200 lb test pull with a bit of extra sticky gum at the end,) and had it latched and stuck to the side of the building as she swung up and away, towards the falling figure.

At the apex of her swing, she threw another ‘line’ out and swung higher and farther. Each swing, taking her closer to her target.

She’s not going into the river… shitshitshit

She swung over the rooftop of one building and she released her line. As started to fall, she threw an extra think, extra elastic line out, with the intent to swing out and catch the falling body. Using her skill in balance and weight shifting, she rocketed upwards and aimed herself to meet the falling body.

Clasping her hand, Chandra pulled the strangely garbed woman and spoke into her ear, “stay close, maybe this would work… maybe not…”

With her head throbbing, and blackness clawing at her consciousness, she began to form a series of large marshmallows around the two of em. Glued together at the edges by a mixture of egg whites and honey, she formed a ball around them, each side was one large, human sized marshmallow.

8… twelve should do it… 9….

The pain in her head was getting unbearable…

10…. The ground is… no don’t think about that… concentrate…

11… shi…

Her tenuous hold on consciousness finally slipped as the large, white, spiky ball of white, fluffy sugar bounced around and came to rest a scant meter from the edge of the river. The open side coming to rest near the top of the ball.

Inside, the two passengers lay in various states of Consciousness...

Metropolis

This is my purpose.

Roger could tell that the kid meant what he had said. "Alright then. It is time to begin."

***********************

An hour and a half later, Roger and Duo found themsleves at Roger's lab, largely deserted for the weekend. "First thing is first. We need to figure the physiological limitations of your power. How exactly do you not disappear? Do you bend light, or rearrange your molecualr structure to let it pass through? So we start small, and work our way up." Roger finished by holding up a syringe and a pair of scissors.

"I'll need blood and hair to start. After this, we start with working towards the psychological control of your power. Ready?"

Duo nodded. "I'm ready," he said.

He was of course interested in finding out more about his ability, more than just that he can turn invisible by purpose or by accident. Then of course there was the fact that he could learn to control it properly, something he could never do alone.

Roger got both hair and blood, going through a DNA analysis and taking a look at the cellular structure of his young friend. What he saw surprised him. One the one hand, it was baffling and contradictory to explanation, and on the other, it was intriguing and by far one of the coolest things he had ever seen.

"Well kid, this is really cool. Come take a look at these two hair samples, and tell me what you see." Roger put a second slide of hair up, a sample often used as a viewing comparison when looking for abnormalities. Even though Duo's knowledge of biology might be limited, it was a perfect place to start.

Rio made it to the warehouse without being stopped by anyone, and after a carefull look around slipped inside. She retrieved her bedroll from where she hid it, and within minutes was fast asleep in the nitch she had made for herself.

Her dreams were unrestful though, and even though she slept until dark, she did not feel rested when she awoke. Dinner ws her first though, she hadn't eaten really all day. She grabberd her small duffle and headed out to the cafe she had had breakfast at. It ws close, inexpensive and the food was edible, if bland.

As she ate she though back on the happenings of the day. Rio ws in part angry that she'd never be able to go back to the bookstore. She had passed many hours there since she'd first come to the city, but she didn't regret taking out the thieves. Though she still thought they should have been killed. The theives had seen her face, and cvould find her. Her thoughts weary, she knew that she needed to track them down and kill them, it would be safest that way. Rio wasn't sure why she had agreed with Ed on leaving them alive.

"He made remember the way it had been once, I guess" She sighed to herself as her appetite fled and she picked at her meal formornly.

"Ok," Duo said and came over.

As he looked at the two hair samples he wasn't sure what he was looking for. Then it seemed to flash out of existence for a moment.

"Whoa, turned invisible on it's own accord."

This was certainly strange to the young boy. However that was the extent of his knowledge of biology.

"What else am I supposed to be seeing?"

"And I'm just suppose to take your word that this fire isn't a threat? And I like this park and don't want some wingnut burning it down because he didn't even know how to use a garbage can to keep his fire in."

Ed looked down at the rather small fire and back to the man before him, an expression of disbelief on his face. Did this guy really think the fire was going to all of a sudden multiply exponentially and consume the park? Now assuming this guy was somewhat of an idiot, Ed spoke clearly and in a slightly irritated tone.

"I'm quite sure this fire isn't going to burn down the park. I'm sure all the drug dealers and thugs that hang out here would be terribly disappointed if it did. I can assure you this fire will not be responsible for any damage to this park, so perhaps you should be on your way?"

Ed didn't really have the patience for this stranger and since it was getting dark he figured it would be a good idea to get back to his hotel.

Julian had gotten close enought that he could see there weren't any beer bottles or cans around and the guy didn't smell like a wino or seem like an addict. "I guess you may be right, but you can never be too careful. The number of fires caused in this park by inattentive drunks is actually fairly high. Since you don't seem like you fall into that catagory, I have to ask, what are you doing lighting a fire for no obvious reason?"

Metropolis

Roger nodded as Duo told him about the invisibility. "The lighting is an electrical livewire, which can spark your hair. I haven't got it pinned down exactly, but based on the fact that it appears to be related to your connective tissue, I'd say you've got super-convective callogenous fibers. Essentially, the protein strings that hold tissues together can convey light at high speeds in your body, allowing you to turn invisible. It would also explain why clothing has only moderate success at losing visibility with you."

He waited a moment to allow the information to sink in about the source of Duo's power. He'd have to see what happened under the electron microscope, but prepping hair samples for that took time, and results wouldn't come back immediately.

Duo slowly nodded, most of it just went over his head.

"So certain clothing may stay somewhat visible?" he then asked.

Columbus Terrorized / Part Eight

SheBat ( Nikki ) opened her eyes slowly to realize that her head was throbbing terribly but that she was somehow still alive. She remembered the bomb exploding then everything going black ….” But how did I get to the ground safely she thought. ” Looking around she saw that she and a unconscious young woman were lying in something soft, white & sticky. Sitting up she ripped off a piece of the material and held up to her nose to smell …. Hmmm … smells like …. like marshmallows ….& honey ? Not believing her nose she took a bite of the material ,chewing slowly so she could taste it …. Yep …. Marshmallow & Honey. I fell five hundred feet onto a giant marshmallow covered with honey?! But how could that be? Then she realized that the unconscious young woman next to her must be another meta human who had just saved her life!
Looking again towards the young woman SheBat felt she needed to check to see if the woman was ok but as she tried to stand her feet immediately sunk into the sticky middle of the marshmallow up to her waist. “ Oh crap this won’t work, now what … I’m stuck for crying out loud! “she thought. About that time she heard people running towards their location! “ What if it’s the cops …. I can’t allow the authorities to arrest us! She just saved my life …. I owe her my protection! ” she thought. But as she started to summon her power Lt. Hawks and part of his security crew rounded the corner on a dead run. “ Thank the Lord we found you first, are you all right?” he asked. “ I'm still a little tired but seem to be fine otherwise Lieutenant because my body armor must have protected me against the blast. But I’m not sure about her, she may need medical attention. We need to help her because I believe it was she that saved me from falling to my death while I was unconscious."

"I have to ask, what are you doing lighting a fire for no obvious reason?"

Ed certainly didn't want to tell this guy the truth, he didn't seem like the kind of guy you'd trust with your name, let alone your most precious secret. Not in the mood to be creative, Ed just said the first thing that came into his head.

"It was just a little experiment, nothing threatening or overly dramatic so there's no need to worry."

Looking at the time on his watch, then the sky above him, it became quite obvious Ed didn't wish to stand around talking about his fire.

"Anyway, I think it's about that time when one gets inside if they wish to avoid being mugged."

Adam was somewhat surprised by Matergy. He turned slowly and nodded slightly to her, a show of respect. Now that she was in her true form, directly in front of him, he could feel how powerful she was, just as strong as he. She could be a very powerful friend to have, so he would do his best not to anger or insult her. "Matergy, you may call me Aenima if you wish. I came here because I found your power signiture ona device I took from some meddling government agents trying to arrest me for being a metahuman, I assume they were trying to arrest others as well. Perhaps you can tell me about your powers and goals, and after that, I have a proposition."


Matergy meets Aenima 2

" My main power as you have already seen is what I call Matter / Energy Manipulation. Not only can I change my form at will, I can also change the form of others as well. Imagine the possibilities! And this is not my only ability, perhaps later after I know you better I will tell you of the others. You see I like to keep my cards close to my chest so to speak. Anyway I have traveled a very long way to get here and I am looking for meta humans to work for me to help me against my enemy. I would also like to have my techs take a look at the tracking device. So what do you say Aenima are you willing to work for me? You might say the perks are out of this world." said Matergy as she lightly ran her fingers seductively along Aenima's jaw line.

Metropolis

"Yes, certain clothing will turn invisible with you. I don't know the exact specifics of it, and if necessary, I'm sure that there is a chemist out there to make the cloth, and a seamstress out there to sew you the clothing you need."

Duo nodded.

"So how come I can still see myself when invisible?" he then asked.

"Fine then. Have a nice night." Julian replied as he headed off. The guy seemed odd but relatively harmless and it was getting late. He didn't really have to worry about muggings because of his abilities and he was hungry so he decided to hurry up.

If the man had been watching it would seem like Julian just sped off, rather faster than might be normal.

"Fine then. Have a nice night."

With the stranger quickly disappearing, Ed extinguished the fire by pure whim and looked at the time once again. Noticing the stranger was now completely out of sight, Ed figured he was simply in a hurry, as should most people lurking about the streets at this hour.

Getting out of the park and onto the streets, Ed kept an eye out for any movement as he quickly made his way back towards the city centre, at least there was more lighting on those streets.

Columbus Terrorized / Part Nine

Immediately the security corpsman started checking out the young woman’s health. After a moment he turned to SheBat saying, “ Other then a few cuts and scrapes she’ll be fine madam, she just needs to rest." Looking relieved SheBat said, “ I’m glad to hear that Thank You corpsman.” turning to Hawks SheBat said, “ Lieutenant we need to get to shelter until this blows over or we find evidence of where we might find one of the other bombs. I suggest we use the short north entrance to my underground transport hub. We can regroup in the companies basement facility.” “ Good idea boss it is the closest hub entrance. [/I]” Just then a company van pulled up to whisk them all away to the hub entrance just as Nikki spotted Police helicopters in the air to their east. Moments later the van pulled into the alley where the hub entrance could be found. Quickly SheBat got out to enter her pass code into a pad beside the elevator. The elevator doors responded by opening to transport them down to the hub below. SheBat then entered her secret password into the hub computer, next she sat down in the fighter like cockpit, strapping herself in while the others strapped into the seats behind her. Seconds later the module streaked away following the short north tunnel to finally stop in the basement of Matergy International. As they entered the guest suite SheBat said, “ Lieutenant please lay our young friend on the bed in the guest bedroom 3 and ask your corpsman to stay with her until she wakes up.” “ Yes Madam ” said Hawks as SheBat disappeared into her private suite.

Gotham

Wager watched as the younger one sped off. Either he was a well trained runner, or there the possibility of another ally available. An elementalist and a kid with heightened physical abilities. Aenima would probably love to hear about this. He wondered what his buddy had been up to.

Metropolis

"I suppose it's due to the same way in which you turn invisible. The lense of the eye is epithial, but it's held down with connective fibers, which probably shift your sight to see yourself. Self-recognition. Then again, it could be that you just see through it."

Roger paused as his phone beeped. "Dr. Hartigan, there is a Mr. Hrocko and a Mr. Baerdin to see you. You want me to send 'em up?"

"Yeah, do that." He put the phone down and turned to Duo. "I'd suggest you hide. I don't like talking to these guys, and they know about you. Baerdin's your case handler from your government, and Hrocko is the guy monitoring me in case I 'slip up'."

Rio had made her way back to the YWCA and was once again taking advantage of their cheap showers, when she nearly crumpled under the force of her unexpected sobs. She tied to stem the nearly hysterical sobbing that wracked her but was unable too for many minutes. Finally she found herself on her knees as the hot water pounded down upon her. Her lower lip she had bitten till it bled, and Rio watched the pink stained water swirl down the drain.

Jerking to her feel she stumbled out of the shower and threw on her clean clothes. Before she realized it she found her self out of the old building and running for her 'home' her sodden hair untowled. Then she was at her lair and using her abilities to haul out a duffle she had hidden away and not touched in the months she had been here. It was laden with dust and cobwebs, but she tore it open, using her abilities to send the dust whirling away.

Her hand trembled as she reached out to lift the contents out and lay the neatly folded bundle in her lap. It was nearly an hour before she could make herself do more than just look at it, then slowly she unfolded each individual piece. She had been a hero once, and while she might not be the same sort of hero, she intended to hide no more.

Hastily she stripped off her clothes and used a damp towel to wipe herself completely off, then dried herself and dusted her form with the contents of a prettily decorated powder box, a Christmas present from the Princess of Hearts, one of her senior year suitemates who had died with so many others back in Nuevo Nihongo. Layer by layer she put on the uniform she had worked so hard to earn, the suit generated solely for her. Last but certainly most important of all she activated the implanted gems and tattooed sigils that started on the back of her hands and ran up her wrists and sighed

It felt like being reborn. And in a way it was, for as she watched her costume changed from it’s previous hue to a rich imperial purple that gleamed with a subtle iridescence and was trimmed with matte metallic gold. They had always claimed that the suits, created from an undecipherable substance of unknown origin, were semi aware, semi alive and knew when their wearer changed. It didn’t look the way it had before either. It was extremely revealing now and had Rio blushing and blinking in amazement. Until she realized that people would be too busy looking at what it displayed to pay attention to what she might or might not have been doing. Her powers had never had glows or other signs of being active, in use, something that at one time she had lamented. And it had a mask for the first time as well, a simple enough domino mask that matched the costume in color and detailing.

She nodded firmly to herself, and teleported to where she could oversee the city. It was hers to watch over now.

Aenima would be lieing if he said he wasn't enjoying Matergy's company. However, he needed to get down to work. "Matergy, I would be most pleased to work with you. I have only one request. You say you have travelled here in search of your nemesis. If I assisst you in your endeavors, I only ask that you assist me in my own." Aenima explained to Matergy his plans to conquer LA. "So, do we have an alliance?"

OOC- King A, sent you a TG.

"Ah," Duo nodded, taking in the explanation.

It certainly made sense. Would have been almost impossible to do anything if he couldn't see himself while invisible. Upon hearing Rogers warning, he willed himself invisible successfully.

"Did it work? Or did you mean hide hide and not invisible hide."