Topic: RPG-Superhumans

"Well ,if that's the case, come to that bar back yonder on Friday. We'll talk, have a few drinks, play some jazz, have a big ol' time. In the meantime, you don't mind me sayin, I'd find somewhere to hole myself up in so as to avoid any trouble. Our faces are all over the tabloids, hot shot. We need to stay out of the limelight for a while, drop of the radar. Capice? "
The dragonman nodded. "Where should I go?"
"Well, considering the circumstances, I'm willing to bet you're 'between homes' as it were. I don't take kindly to strangers often, but I like you, matchstick-man. Tell ya what. Round back of double H's bar there's a door with a 6 digit passowrd. Ya want to type in 157432, then after that you want to type 478396. This'll open a special door to my guest room. There's a couple cold ones in a fridge and a nice new Tele with an fresh Tivo installed. Make yourself at home, muchacho. You dig?"

"Yes."was the response.

"All right, cool. I'll leave you to get situated. See ya round, firefly!" Oni said as he soared away.

After watching the others break, Altair decided to get out as well. Calling a guard over, he stealthily killed the guard with the secret blade that was inside of what was his left ring finger, but that had been lopped away when he became an Assassin. Taking the keys for himself, unlocking the door, Altair was now a free man. Quietly dodging cameras and taking out a few more guards, the assassin found himself at the weapons stash. Now to find his bag of weaponry. It didn't take long, his evidence bag was the most unusual one there. Outside, he noticed a small bar where two most unusual people laid low, discussing some deal. Rather than barge right in and cause suspicion, Altair laid low in the nearest alley and waited.

Flame began to walk into the alley behind the bar. Some one was close, but he paid no attention to it. He began to enter the access code.

(ok i guess im on the ground, trying to be arrested by the cops correct? If not ill edit)

"Freeze! dont move!" Yelled one of the cops, while he trained his pistol on Drakeus. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the Neutrul 'Haze' escaping on a scooter with a man.
A shame the cops didnt see him.
"Hands above your head!" the cop yelled.
"You are making a grave...mistake mortal." The cop visibly shuddered at the sound of the Dark Lords voice. Drakeus raised his hands but stoped them half way, so that they pointed at the cops. "All the way!" They yelled. But Drakeus ignored them instead, he shot out his drain power to grasp the mens very souls. The energy beams gave a sickening red glow as the cops could only watch in horror as there souls were renched out of there bodies...and consumed by the Darkness...that was Drakeus.

Dr. Tanis Jones stared intently at his computer screen. In a few moments it would tell him when the substsnce he was creating had finished the ionizatio process. Dr.Jones had recieved immense sums of funding from the military and medical enterprises over the past 17 years. He had been working on a sunstance that would immediatly regrow damaged tissue when placed upon it. This project originated from a silvery substance (thing the unicorns blood from Harry Potter) that was discovered from meteorite 18 years prior (think symbiote, you know, Venom? Coolest antihero ever.). This substance was discovered to heal burns and cuts relatively quickly, and it was Dr. Jones' job to amplify that effect. After years of experimentation and alteration of the initial sunstance...he had come to the substance that lay before him under the ion beam. It retained its silvery color and sheen, much like mercury, however it became a little bit thicker.

The computer screen flashed and the message that the substance was complete blinked in Dr.Jones' eyes. This was the single greatest moment of his life. He removed the glass vial containing the only bit of the substance he had left. It was time for the final test. He withdrew his pocket knife from his pocket and used the blade to creat a 2 inch cut on his left palm, the pain was lost on him because of excitement. He raised the vial and poured the thick silver liquid on the cut. The effect was instantaneous. The cut healed before his eyes. Dr. Jones was about to leap in excitement, but he tilted his hand so that the liquid fell back into the vial and did not fly out of his hand when he did so. The liquid however, did no such thing... it remained flowing in his palm. Then it got bigger, and began to take over his whole hand, then his arm. Dr. Jones was paralized in shock as he watched the silver substance take over his body..........

That was 3 years ago. Now, Chromium stood atop the bell tower of Mission City's large cathedral. Dr. Jones could now release the liquid through his pores and become Chromium at will. He became living liquid metal. He could form any shape and resist the strongest forces known to man ( think the T-1000 from terminator 2) His body was completely silver and his shoulder length brown hair became fused together and resealed the hair of a silver statue. Using the Earth's magnetic feild he could soar to the greatest heights. To partially conceal himself he wore a thick black cloak and hood. His voice became deep and godlike, resonating in the ear of his listeners. This was his first time in Mission City, where he decided to go after he aquired his new powers. Now one decision plauged him....to stand for what is right and uphold justice in the world....or give in to temptation and power.

(would it be permissable for me to assume that its thursday?)

Is it too late for me to join?

Sorry about the long back story by the way

(no way man, twas cool)

The cops bodies fell to the floor...completly lifless. Drakeus looked at the sky, it would be morning soon. He should find some hidden shadows as to keep himself at full power..and he had no love for the light either. Drakeus found an abandoned apartment and setteled down to meditate till nightfall.

(Right, good idea to have a timeline. So, it's Thursday in Mission City, let's say the year 2014 for fun. Umm, should we be in the U.S.? Or be like most games and have no name for the continent of land that we live on?)

((Adeptus, assume it's Wednesday for the time being.))

(soooo...are you gona try to kill me or somthing?  I think we should be in the U.S, or like on a fictional island.)

Dusk had fallen, and Darklight was awakened by the sound of the flowing traffic; intensifying as rush hour descnded upon the Wednesday night Mission City ((hopefully this should help keep things on track.  You don't like it, I'll edit))  This was the time that Darklight loved, in the twilight between light and darkness.  He could feelhis weakened power intensifying as the light faded.  Time to roll.  He stood up, and cast aside his illusion, revealing his gold-and-black costume once more.  With a gigantic leap, he soared out throught the open full-length window of his house, body sheathed in an aura of golden power.

He loved to fly; if he didn't have to take care of the lives of the innocent, he'd probably do it all day.  But these powers weren't given to him for fun; he had a responsibility.  Thus thinking, he began his nightly patrol over the city, wary eyes alert for any stirrings of trouble.  And there it was.  A small time crook who was trying to break into a smaller convenience store.  With any luck, the cops wouldn't have been called in yet.  Perfect.

He descended like an avenging angel, cape flaring behind him, and hands glowing with an unearthly light.  The crook felt and saw the glow, and turned to face the arrival.  Ah, yes, Darklight knew this one; a small time super named Decay.  He had the power to, well, decay any substance, organic or not.  Sadly, he had to touch the object to rot it.  He would have amounted to something if he hadn't been an ordianry thug when he received the powers.  Suffice to say, Darklight had met with, fought with, and beaten Decay many times.  This time was no different.  He wasted no time in sending an arc of golden energy towards his enemy, not staying still long enough to be caught by the crook's sickly green hands.

Decay lunged for him, his ever-present sickle flashing in the dull moonlight.  Darklight nimly vaulted over it, sending a bright flash of light at Decay's face, temporarily blinding him.  A blast of power from his hands sent the crook to the ground, where a sledgehammer of energy struck his skull, knocking him out cold.  Luckily his power prevented such injuries from doing any permanent damage; Darklight didn't want to kill the fool.  With his first criminal of the night defeated, he flew off, leaving Deacy, and the ruined government property behind him, giving it no further thought.

Flame had been in the room for a while. He had had a beer, and looked to see what was on T.V. There was nothing, exept for a couple of re-runs and a "questionable" prgram on one of the higher channels that didnt intrest him at all. He began to leave, and he acidentally, hit the remote, which subsequently changed the channel. A made-for-tv sci fi was playing, one of the older ones, about some scientist who was turned into a horrible lizard like monster. This caused Flame to grin and laugh to himself. He left, and switched off the T.V.

As he left the room across the street he saw what was either a super or a vigilante who watched WAY to many saturday morning cartoons knock out a street thug.  He then flew off, eliminating the non super idea.  Flame walked over to the store the thug had tried to rob, and looked down at him. He looked at the store, and saw a grey trench coat inside. He grabbed it, and put it on, it was starting to get cold. He walked onwards, moving into an alley when ever he saw a cruiser pass by.

((Nah, Adeptus, I've given your guy just what it looks like I gave him: Protection. Ever heard of honor among thieves? :p And we are in the US of A, in the fictional city of Mission City))

Oni flew about the city, looking for fellow bads to recruit. In time, he found the beaten body of small-time baddie Decay.

"Hello there, Decay." Oni addressed the villian.

"Wh-who...?" Decay was still a bit groggy from his defeat.

"My name is Oni. I'm just like you, callously labelled a 'supervillian' "(On marked that last word with finger-quotes) " by society, when really I'm just trying to make a living. I'm putting together a little something-something at Happy Harry's on this coming Friday. The days of scrounging around robbing gas stations is over, big D."

"D...Darklight. I want Darklight dead."

"I know you do. Give it time, bubelah, give it time." Oni handed out another business card & departed.

Okay, so the night hadn't been very fruitful.  Decay had pretty much bene the highlight of Darklight's evening.  Which caused him to worry.  sually, at least three self-styled evil masterminds were out and about.  Lately, though, they seemed to be lying low.  Decay, the idiot that he was, probably hadn't gotten the mo from the super-villain union.  Darklight slightly regretted going so over-the-top against the guy, but hey, he was entitled to having some fun with his business.  And yes, at heart he was a horrible showboat; no one saw that side of him unless they were on the receiving end of his power.  Well, usually anyhow. 
He didn't mind the sudden super-villain shortage.  But the fact that they were completely going against their usual method of operation scared him.  And he didnt scare easily.  Granted, half of his mind was occupied with the disappearance of no less than three inmates from the prison, so he probably was over-reacting.  But still, THREE inmates.  And, from the looks of it, all supers.  The good thing was that none of them happened to be Voidhunter.  So long as HE was locked up tight, Darklight was fine.  THe man actually WAS a super-villain-genius, and his powers of darkness made him an interesting opponent on the many times that the two had fought.
He shook his thoughts into order, trying to find some pattern of the strange events of late.  Although he knew he as probably blowing everything out of proportion.  A long time of boring activity did that to a person.  Wait a minute...He recalled on the news that there had been one small-time hero mixing it up with the villains; aided by the cops.  No one could remember what had happened to him.  Darklight knew the man; they had run into each other a couple times before.  He was Jack; a guy who carried more weapons on his person than the whole U.S. military owned.  He tended to work the streets more than Darklight; maybe he knew what was going on.  He began to fly reconnaissance, now on a proper mission; searching for the trenchcoat-clad hero known as Jack.

Flame walked onward, once or twice he could feel the presence of the gold caped hero, however, his nearness proved to be a bad thing. Flame was passing a group of people, one of which was a girl around 19, who saw him and screamed. The men acompanying her then had a quick sudden urge, apparently, to kill the "freak". Unfortuanltely one had a wrench in his back pocket, and the other two had switchblades. They attacked, and the scream lured the hero Darklight, who assumed that Flame was the attacker. Flame quickly demonstarted his abbilities, which caused the thugs to back off momentarily. Flame held a fireball in his hand, and the chains on his chest crackled with their dark energy.

Okay, face it, it was inevitable.  Darklight told himself this same thing over and over again.  A villain had finally popped up.  But who would've thought that he would wind up standing...er...floating here facing a lizard-skinned man holding a fireball in his hands, and crackly little chains criss-crossing his chest?  Ah well, you meet all the weird ones in this business.  He charged his hands with golden light, and held his position, waiting for the lizard to make the first move.  To make sure that the innocents nearby wouldn't be harmed, he formed a quick bubble-shield of light around them, protecting them from possible future damage in case the going got rough.  He stared out at the lizard-skinned man from under the peak of his hood; waiting.

Flame stood silent, not knowing what to do. His tail swished behind him, scraping against the concrete. Darklight did nothing. Flame leaped at him and threw the ball of fire like a baseball.

(he does not have to do that, he just did now, for no reason)

((Dramatic effect, eh?))
The lizard man moved fast, faster than Darklight had anticipated.  He barely had time to roll to the side, the edge of his cape being caught by the passing flames, scorching the faric.  Great.  Darklight retliated with a blast of golden energy, one from each hand, aiming at the face and chest simultaneously.  He owed the lizard man for the future laundry problem (otherwise known as scorched cape).

One of the blasts hit Flame in the chest the other hit the chains and was absorbed by them, they then discharged this energy violently, causing Flame to fall, unconcious.

Jack sighed and explained the situation to Haze.  "So from what I've gathered from this card something big is going down at this Happy Harry's Bar,"  Jack handed Haze the card, "the Villians have been thwarted over and over again and it looks like they're tired.  Even you as a neutral of sorts can realize this wouldn't be good for you.  So we have about 2 days.  I say we go and grab some help.  And another question.  You saw back there how I was kind of thwarted back there by a physic attack.  You strike me as a tele-whatever.  Do you think you may be able to help me build some sort of defense?" 

Before Haze could say anything a blinding flash of light and he looked up and say a man in a golden cape fighting the lizard man.  He recognized the  man in the golden cape as Darklight.  They had met a few times before. 

Haze leaned over Jack's shoulder and said, "I think we may have our help."

Flame was a quick recoverer, and in a matter of moments he was staring up at Darklight. He was talking to the telepath and the normal man.

(ok, if you dont like how i type this, ill edit)

Darklight was listening to the others suddenley he heard a voice, not with his ears, but in his mind. "'Things are not always as they seem, Hero'" the word "hero" was spoken mockingly. The next thoughts came as images. He saw from the apparent prespective of Flame. He was walking down the street, when the girl screamed, the men looked, and attacked. This faded, and was replaced by another. He sat in a room, seemingly a abandond house's living room. It was light out. Suddenly, the door flew open, and three men, with guns came in. Once again, the image faded. The new was in another abandond house, this time tow came in with lead pipes, they swung at him, and he could actually feel a dull pain were they hit. this faded, and he found he was on his knees, the others looking concerned, and trying to help. He looked back at Flame, who continued to lie on the ground, not yet fullly concious.

(because of FLames current condition, he cant fully control this "brodcast" so your character might have recived a bit of that.)

Chromium stood upon a roof top watching the Lizard man and the golden caped titans clash below him. He hid in the shadows and all that could be seen were his eyes of pure white light. He had been observing various actions of  super heroes as well as super villains to help him decide which path to take.

After several moments the gold caped man knocked the lizard unconscious. Chromium waited to watch the aftermath. He was blasted by telepathic energy and thoughts flowed into his mind. They were the lizard man's....and he was being clearly mistreated. This made Chromium ponder for several minutes while watching the others recover from the telepathic message.

Darklight stood, and swayed, suddenly dizzy.  He hadn't expected to actually hit the man, and he sure hadn't expected the flood of images that followed soon after.  He didn't know what the images meant, but he could infer that they had something to do with the events of the evening.  He turned, and stared at the people still encased by the golden shield.  Was this what had happened to the lizard man?  If so, Darklight immediately felt sorry.  The man, if these were indeed his memories, must have faced a life of prejudice and hatred.  Darklight himself knew how it felt to go through that.  He wrapped the lizard skinned man in a cocoon of light, and flew to the roof of a nearby building, where he lay him gently down.  That should keep him out of the way of the citizens of the city.  As a last thought, he burned a message into the floor beside the man, intenfying his power to accomplish the task.  His message read, "We always have a choice.  Don't make one that you'll regret."  It was corny, it was cheesy and cliched  But still, it had meaning, and it applied in this instance.  With that, Darklight flew off the building, and landed beside Jack and the girl.  He recognized her; she called herself Haze.  She was a non-committed superhuman; neither good nor evil.  He decided that she wasn't all bad, considering she was with Jack. 
"So, what're you doing out here, Jack?"  He crossed his arms, and waited for an answer.

Chromium walked out from the shadows of the roof top, thank ful that the goldcaped man didnt sense his presence. He strode to the still unconcious lizard man and read the message burned into the concrete next to him.
"We always have a choice.  Don't make one that you'll regret." it read.

The message applied to him as well as the lizard man. He would take it into account. He walked into the shadowy area once more and watched the 3 supers who were left converse.

Darklight stared pointedly at Jack, until the man replied. He went on about some sort of super villain business card, detailing a meeting on Friday. So he HAD been right about the super villain unions... Anyways, apparently it was all going down at Happy Harry's Bar.  Well, this made sense; no wonder the evil supers were laying low.  Well, he hated to spoil a good time, but he really ddn't want that meeting to go through.  He had an inner feeling that it would end up badly.  He also knew that he couldn't take out a city's worth of villains.  So he asked Jack to help him.  The man didn't reply instantly, and said that he would need some time to think about volunteering for potential suicide.  Darklight didn't blame him.  Honestly, he was busy thinking of other posible ways to either throw a wrench in the works, or infiltrate the meeting.  So far he had one plausible idea.  He just hoped that there weren't any telepaths in the group, although he knew that there would be.  He put forth his ideas to both Haze and Jack, but told them not to rely on the plans, and to get back to him as soon as possible wih their answers. 

He was worried that HAze might turn sides, and tell his plans to the villains; which was why he had given them the idea to simply barge in guns blazing, like a rookie. His REAL plan was more thought out.  Of course, he was always open to new ideas...

Flame's eyes opened, he got up quickly, he was not where he was before. He got up, and read the words writen in the roof. He had a bad headache, and when he looked down at his chest, the skin where te chains contacted was burnt.He needed to try to find a way to get rid of them, another incident like that, could kill him.

"I was only coming to save your butt."  Jack smiled.  "Actually I came here looking or help.  He threw the business card to Darklight.  Darklight read it and pondered what it said.  "So you came looking for help assuming that there may be more than a few villians at this meeting."

Jack smirked, "Well Mr. Telepath. Yes exactumundo.  So as you so have accurately guessed it's probably going to be big.  A martial artist/ weapon master and Ms. tele-bleh aren't exactly going to be enough to topple a criminal empire.  So what do you say pal?  Friend, buddy, compadre, amigo, mon ami?"

"I'll help, sure.  But please, no criminal empires until we're certain we can win.  There's no point in fighting that many people; even we'd get wasted in the end.  We have to think things through.  Well, we just have to think.  Okay, I sound like a moron.  Point is, those guys can't get that meeting done without it going up in smoke, or a slight leak of information as to what the big idea is.  And my advice would be to lay low if we do fail at this; they'll be ound to want blood."  With that, he turned, and flew of into the night, leaving JAck and HAze to find their own ways back home.  He should've felt bad for doing that, but he was too busy thinking of some sort of useful plan.  He wished he could think straight; the lizard guy's images had played havoc with his thought processes.  Okay, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to risk life and limb for the rest of the evening in this state.  Well, back to home it was.  He flew across the sky like a golden comet.

Flame was standing on a different rooftop now, still able to watch. He assumed the woman was telepathic, or telekenetic or somthing of the sort. He was suprised she didnt seem to know he was here. He watched, and listened, it was one of the best ways to learn things. The actual best way was with his powers, but that would give him away with Haze there, so he watched, and listened.

Haze had kept quiet through the exchange. The thought of taking on the bad supers seemed to be rather suicidal. But then that tended to be the way of the good guys.

She had the feeling of being watched but since she wasn't a true telepath she didn't know for sure. She could feel objects with her telekinesis but it didn't mean they were easy to identify. She looked up to the roof tops and though she saw something but it was too hard to tell.

"You're friend seems a little unorganised," Haze said to Jack.

"He'll scope things out properly and give us a better plan." Jack replied.

Haze raised a brow, they didn't trust her. She didn't blame them, her neutral record was hardly a confidence boost to a couple of do-gooders. "You guys don't trust me, I can live with that."

Jack looked slightly embarrassed, "It's not that..."

"Yes it is. Wise move if I do say so myself," Haze told as she took another look at the rooftops. She could have sworn she'd seen something glint slightly.

The lizard man awoke some feet away from Chromium on the same roof top where he was eavesdropping on the supers. He was relatively well hidden though, the lizard man didnt really know anyone was there, his powers may have been temporarily dampered from the fight. The other telekinetic however, the attractive brunette, kept looking in Chromium's direction. He had been somewhat spotted it seemed. She looked unsure however so he didnt immediatly take action. He heard the conversation. It appears that the heroes will attempt to disrupt the meeting of the villains at Harry's. He would definitly be there for that confrontation. He admired them for such persistance. Just then his human side of him prevailed over the alien side and he decided that he might as well assist the heroes. When he was human, he always thought he would go the path of right when faced with evil. And he wanted to remain as human as possible these days. He would pursue the golden caped figure first, he seemed to be the orchestrator of this desperate attempt at the sabotage of the villain meeting. He watched the golden light streak through the sky and burst into the clouds with lightning speed, his silver streak trailing behind the gold one. The small sonic boom he left behind startled the heroes and the lizard man still there, he was long gone however.

Haze blinked and held her ears at the sudden noise, she looked up to see a silver streak. So there had been someone eavesdropping.

At that moment she saw the scaled man on the roof. She looked up at him and spoke to him with her thoughts, I'm starting to think you're following me.

Nah, we just seem to keep crossing paths. He answered.

Haze smiled and Jack looked at her funny. "What are you smiling about?" Jack asked.

"Oh nothing really, just thought I heard a voice," she said with a grin and briefly looked up at the scaled man.

Flame turned and left, lowering himself slowly from the roof. He began to walk back to the bar. He walked past a bar, where two police officers were checking out a disturbance one saw him, and alerted his fellow officer. They called for backup, raised their guns and told Flame to "freeze". Seeing as he techincally couldent do that, he ran. He could hear the sirens, aproaching, and within moments, they had him surrounded. A black S.W.A.T. van pulled up, and Flame could hear a helecopter aproaching.

Oni watched the entire confrontation, safely hidden behind his cloaking device. When Flame scaled a building and came to a rooftop, Oni decided to hide behind his scaled buddy to trick any psychics. He would have to have a plan to deal with these heroes. And he had one already.

"Damn! We lost him!" One of the cops heard a voice from her radio "All units, be advised, suspect located on roof tops heading north east  between Miller street and Washington Drive." another voice answered "I got him."

S.W.A.T. sniper Mike Ahbdul sta on a distant roof top, looking thorugh the scope of his gun. The .270 Kahine-Jhonson (woot fictional manufacturers) "Avenger" was issued to put down problomatic Supers, when arrest wasnt a good option. It was designed to kill. The shots mushroomed after entering an object, making a bigger exit wound. He aimed at the Perp, pulled the gun into his shoulder, clicked off the safety, began to breath and squees the trigger. Half way through his breath, the gun kicked and he saw Flame go down.

Flame was reeling. When he realized where he was and what had happened, he thought he was dead. He looked down, at his chest, saw he was bruised, and bleeding slightly. He looked down, and saw that the "O" chain link was broken. It had saved his life. He grabbed it, and ripped it off, the chain giving one last shock. He cast it aside, got back up, and continued to run, dropping into an alley, to avoid the sniper.

As the gunshots began to fly, Oni muttered several choice words not fit for print. His comrade was getting peppered, and Oni couldn't let someone so instrumental to his plans go down. As the dragon-man dodged the police onslaught, Oni caught up with him and, cloaker on, touched Flame's shoulder. The dragon dropped from all police surveilance. He had disappeared. Neither supervillain moved an inch until the police forces moved on. Then they shifted back into the visible spectrum.
"We need to get back to my base, Fireball. That little trick burnt out my cloaker. Luckily, I've got some spares back at double H's."

When they returned to the back alley behind Harry's, Oni input the special code(s) to access his undergroud base of operations. Everything was super sleek and cutting edge, with sliding doors straight from Star Trek and everyithing was colored bright chrome. Oni removed a spherical plate from his belt and placed a shiny one on in its place. He also gave a similar belt to Flame.

"What is this?" Flame asked.

"It's your very own cloaking device. Trust me, bubelah, you're gonna wanna use that during the daylight hours. Now, down to business. You're a psychic, right?"

"Yes."

"Nice. Say, have you ever....erased a memory before?"

"I suppose it is possible..."

"Good. At least two heroes know about our shindig going down on Friday, and that's 2 too many. We're gonna need to erase the thought from one of them."

"What about the other hero who knows?"

"Oh, well..." Oni's voice suddenly sounded much more devious. "The other one can be a cautionary tale."

"You realy think I can erase memories, on a permanate basis? I cant, I might be albe to cause a temproary amnesia, but that might not work, and if it did, it wouldent be permanate, I can try though."  He  looked at the small wound on his chest, lit up his finger, and cauterized it. There were scars and burn marks, exactly where the chains had been.

"Oh, don't worry, I just need the amnesia to last at least until after Friday's shindig."

"I cant garuntee that, I might have to do it couple of times. You have anything to drink? Almost getting killed made me thirsty."
"Here." Oni tossed him a bottle of somthing
"Now, how do you suggest we go about this?"

From an alley Drakeus watched a S.W.A.T van coming. This was his chance, he steped out into the road. The driver swearved and crashed into a firehydrant, it started to spit water all over the place. He walked up to the turned over van as the men inside started to crawl out. "Hey nut brain, didnt your moma tell you to look both ways before crossing the street?" yelled one of the troopers. Drakeus just pulled out his katana and beheaded the man. "I have no mother..." he wispered. to the corpse the others reached for there weapons, but Drakeus hit them with drain beams, and ripped there souls from there bodies before they could fire. Drakeus walked away from the crime and sliped into the shadows.

It was a usual night, like many before it, Happy Harry's bar was the place to be if you knew what was going on. I had a good feeling that would change soon. Oni had been handing out more 'buisness cards' than he normally would. How did I know this? Just a hunch really, all exept for the fact that back room door was getting more attention than a ball bark restroom on the 7th ending stretch, and that's not normal, even for this place. Not that there is anything normal about it or the people in it for that matter. Oni had given me one of those cards once, an I accepted. I know what you're thinking, I should use this to my advantage and try to bust this whole thing wide open. It's very risky, I know, but this could be what I've been waiting for. On the other hand, I could just join them and enjoy all the free benefits in working with Oni and his whole operation. But what would be the cost? How many people would suffer? What is the right thing to do? Should I go back to the old ways and relive the good times? Those are the questions I will need to answer on my own.

________________________________________________________________________________

Jericho was sitting at the bar at the at the far end looking out the small window into the alleyway. Sure enough, there went Oni and the Lizard-man into the fortified bunker of a base beneath the bar.
"It's too obvious." Smith thought. "I bet they've got more guns down there than the U.S. Border Patrol."
"Well, it's time to go."
He was just walking out the back door when the cops showed up. Jericho turned around and it looked like they brought the whole damn cavalry.
"Ha, they're wasting there time. That place is clean as a whistle." Jericho laughed as he got into his black 1967 Shelby G.T.500, started it up, and drove off into the darkness.

"There are people above us. Lots of normals, or a realy powerfull psychic. I think its a lot of normies, im getting alot of different thoughts. Unless its a schitzo." Flame looked up. Then finnished his drink.

"Well, that's no good. Wonder how that happened. Well, we can't kill them ,that would cause too big a scene, and we're just not ready for that. Not yet."
"Wait, whoever is up there is just searching the place."
"Well then, no trouble, Happy Harry's the most trustworthy guy I know, and none of our...esteemed colleagues hang out in the front room, and the po-po don't konw bout the back room. So we're clear.They won't find a thing."
"Now, what do you have in mind for the heroes?"
"Well, you said that wash-out Jack was in on this, right?"
"Correct."
"Yeah, he's the one who's slate I want you to clean. Best if he forgot about this. As for Miss Haze, I'm sure I can persuade with a little Oni man-magic, if you catch my drift..." Oni gently elbowed Flame in the ribs. Flame did not laugh at the joke.
"You don't date much, do you?" Oni couldn't help but ask. There was a short silence, deafening due to the awkawrdness.
"What about Darklight?" Flame asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, I've got him covered. Couple LED spotlights I installed in double H's will take care of him."
"The people up top have left."
"Well then, give em some time to make tracks and put some space between us, then we can bebop outta here and find witty Jack."

Drakeus decided he would have to cause mass amounts of panic and terror if he was going to draw all the 'super' heroes into one spot. He thought of a place were there would be lots of people to terroize/kill: a shoping mall. He started towards the nearest one.

"Ok, i think their gone. I'll go find him." Flame left and set out to find Jack.

Haze was intrigued by the silver streak. She wondered who it was, she'd heard vague rumours about such a person but this was the first time she'd actually seen him. At least she'd been told it was a 'him', the streak had been too fast to actually identify the being who'd created it.

Haze wondered if Jack knew, "Do you know who that was that just went chasing your shiny friend?"

Jack shrugged, "Don't know, but I'm sure Darklight can handle it."

"It could be an ally for all you know," Haze stated dryly.

Again Jack shrugged, "Hopefully."

Haze was getting annoyed by the vague answers, for someone who was supposed to be a chatterbox he seemed to have clammed up on her. Thankfully there was no real reason for her to stay with him. He'd been a convenient exit against a super she really didn't want to go head to head with. "I'll be catching you later." She said as she started to walk away.

"Wait, you're going?" Jack asked, seeming rather surprised.

"You don't trust me and frankly this is getting boring," She told with a yawn for emphasis.

At that moment she caught a glimpse of the scaled man a block away, now he was much more intriguing and perhaps he'd know of the silver man.

Flame Was getting closer. The point of this was not to be detected, so about a block away, he levitated/climbed to the roof tops. He then ran to the roof top above Jack. "Sorry, buddy, but I have a feeling you plan to kill me"  He then did his job. Jack collapsed, but got up moments later.  He began to walk back, and jumped down into the alley. He saw Haze. "'What, never seen a...er lizard guy before?'" He thought, not unkindly.

"Hold up, bubelah!" Oni yelled at Flame as he exited the base .
"Damn. Guy forgot to use his cloaker.I don't think flying solo was such a hot idea." Oni exited behind his ally, hoping to bail him out of any possible trouble. Oni found Jack just when Flame did, so when the hero collpased before getting back up, Oni could only assume the dragonman had done his job. On the way back, Oni saw Flame and Haze meet. They said nothing, but Haze seemed to hear something from Flame. Stupid psychics. Oni thought. "Hey baby, what's shakin?" Oni asked smoothly as he materialized behind the neutral.

Haze rolled her eyes, “Hey baby, what’s shaking? Are you serious?” To be honest, after that sort of statement from Oni, she found the scaled man more appealing. At least he wasn’t a jerk.

This loser is Oni, right? Haze asked with her mind.

That’d be him, was the answer from the scaled man.

What’s your name? she asked.

Flame, he answered.

“You two are talking telepathically aren’t you?” Oni asked.

“However did you guess,” Haze replied with just a touch of sarcasm.

Haze looked over to where Jack was slumped to the ground. She’d help him later, she owed him a favour for the ride.