Superheroes Ltd — Legacy Forums

Ace at the garage

#41

Ace waited at the exit ramp of the underground garage. He should be flying on ahead, but he is standing there adjusting his glove idlely. He is waiting for the crew to assemble itself and then stuff its plastic covered hides into the UltraVan. Sure he could fly there fast and alone. He could also become a statistic just that fast, not knowing anything about who he was fighting.

"Kid get going..." came a yell from the area of the car. Ace could not tell who.

"I'm waiting for you to all to get going. If someone thought I could take this guy alone, they wouldn't of assembled all of you. Sure I am going to get there first, but you are only going to be a couple of moments behind me. " He then adjusted the little head set radio they had given him.

The vehicle rumbled. Ace's mind waundered to the sound bit. "Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed. Roger... ready to move out".

Ace took to the air, slowing gaining altitude. Nothing was worse than flying into a power line or a phone line... or more embarassingly - a light pole. As the "car" "flew" out of the ramp, Ace flew forward. He pressed the speed, and was suprised that the Ultra-craft was not that far behind him. The Siren and Red Light seemed to be working, though Ace thought he heard something about the traffice control system.

They soon came upon the area the Xeo was sighted. Nothing obvious... yet.

Superheroes Ltd

#42

"Jeez, turn that racket off!" Arazi said as the hover-tank skimmed across the surface of the bay. The ride was similar to driving a sports car with the suspension and wheels of a shopping cart. The entire device vibrated and shuddered, but it was quite fast, clocking nearly 70 MPH over the widest part of the bay. Perceptor scowled at the upright steel housing that seperated the turbine engine from the crew compartment. The engine was whisper quiet, drawing on a steady supply of aviation grade jetfuel to feed it.

The polyceramic rotors that created the air cushion under the craft, and the vectored thrust to accelerate and maneuver were another matter all together. The ducts vibrated the worst, making the contraption seem moments from shaking itself to pieces. The siren and the lights went out, much to Spruance's dismay.

"You really are a wet blanket for being a fireball flinging chick." he said, more to himself than to anyone else.

*****

The air grew noticably more foul as Ace entered the Coal Harbor area, he could almost taste the hydrocarbons in the air as clogged scrubbers failed to clean the emissions of the refineries below. A dull roar and a black and orange ball of flame rose to the south, near the trainyards. A second pall of black smoke hung in the air, previously obscured by the perpetual haze of the area.

Buckethead, for lack of a better name, hung motionless in the air. He was clad in a suit of some black material, with some flashing of chrome. A corona of xeo power flared around him, it wasnt some jet or other hypertech device keeping him floating...he was actually flying like that. A staff hung loosely in his left hand, a strange fluted design.

He pointed the end towards a storage tank and a lance of bright light erupted from the end, piercing the steel skin of the storage tank and igniting the contents, creating another eye-searing orange blast. Buckethead seemed oblivious or immune to the heat.

Okay....

#43

Ace gained some altitude quickly as he saw the casually caused explosions. It allowed the hovercraft to make the range. His mind whirled. The little ball came up black as it stopped. It was probably just a focus, but maybe we could get lucky.

*Ace to crew, Ace to crew... I need some ranged stuff from you guys. Wait for my move. Then, Fire - hit him. Zero - cover the prize in as much ice as you can, if I get it away from him." Ace took two or three hyperventilating breaths. "Mark". Then he moved. He dove, not for Buckethead but his staff. He poured on all his speed plus gravity's acceleration. He was counting on speed and suprise (with a pull of super strength) to seperate the prize from him. Unaware the mike was still on, he quiety whispered, "oshitoshitoshitoshit" as he dived. Then he was quiet as he approached.

"And Dad says watching too much Animal Planet won't do me any good..." he thought. He struck like a raptor in flight, high and from the sun's angle (not that it was really that sunny on this side of the bay). He was right on target... the staff. If he was lucky it would reduce his powers. If he hit it. If he could get it away. If. If. If. *WHAM* he hit the field surrounding "Bucket Head". It was like slamming into a wall of water. The non articulated thought of "force field" was mashed through his head. Literally. He was slowed greatly, but he still managed to reach the staff. He angled slightly. Using his strength and his rotational momentum, he was able to strip the staff away. Once he moved outside the force field, his speed returned.

Ace spiralled away, not in full control of his flight. He managed to throw the staff over his backside into the ground.

The staff was thrown into a pile of railway iron, imbedding halfway through the pile (obviously slipped between).

Ace "spun and fell" a bit farther, mostly to avoid the helmet head's attention. He began an arc up. If it worked once, and if he was distracted, maybe it world work again.

http://www.wingmasters.net/falconry_history.htm

Superheroes Ltd

#44

Meanwhile,back in the Hovercraft,George lifted one of the windows and peeked his head out. What he saw didn't exactly reassure him. Ace was clearly having a hard time with BucketHead. The kid needed some help fast if he was to survive this airborne encounter with the crazed xeo encased in metal.

'Ok,George,time to do your thing',he muttered to himself,trying to work up enough courage for the dangerous risk he was about to take very soon,much sooner than he liked. But that couldn't be helped. It was either that or just sit on his ass and watch idly as Ace battled for his life. This was the kind of thing that Dr.Hoffman would have done for him.

Reaching his hand over the pilot's seat,he tapped the man on his right shoulder and shouted his request over the roar of the vehicle's engines. 'Hey,could you try to fire something at that loony so that you can draw him close enough to the Hovercraft for me to demonstrate my little trick to him? 8 or 9 feet would be nice. It's about time to give ole Buckethead a taste of the Empath.''

Superheroes Ltd

#45

"Excellent trick, boy." buckethead said in a menacing metallic growl, followed by a pop and hiss. "But too slow." he folded his arms in close to his body, and dropped after Ace, falling like a meteor that was intended to crush the hero's avian flight maneuver. Ace felt a shadow pass over him, instinctively he knew that the villian, of that there was no longer any doubt, was close behind him. All too many times he had felt that sensation, that impending feeling that come a moment before he was ungraciously lifted from his feet and deposited head-first into a school trash bin. Except this time, it wasnt a jock bully, and the steel rails and iron-hard railroad cross-ties were no trash bin.

*****
Arazi grabbed a cumbersome looking weapon from the weapon-locker, a recessed bay perhaps eight inches deep and as long as a rifle. She popped the top hatch of the hovercraft, steadying herself as the craft took to the land again. The air howled as the craft rocketed across rail tracks and switching yards. She pointed the bulbous nose at the villian as he sped after Ace. She felt a sick lurch, she had never actually faced another xeo in battle, just training droids and petty thugs.

The weapon expelled itself in a roar of compressed air, launching a weighted net across the trainyard. Buckethead was thrown off balance as the net twined around his legs, and his line of attack against Ace was fouled. The black clad villian pulled away from Ace, cutting the net away with what looked like a laser scalpel in one of his fingers.

"You know, we're all just fraggin nuts..." Perceptor said, looking between a riot-grenade launcher and a long range stun gun.

Superheroes Ltd

#46

''Allright'',George said,choosing to ignore Perceptor's comment,even as his own mind screamed at him that what he was about to attempt,was nothing short of sheer sucidal lunacy. 'You've managed to grab the psycho's attention. Now we hope that he falls for the bait and comes swooping towards us. When he's about 8 or nine feet away,I'm gonna hit him with a crockload of of fear and uncertainty. Let's see how scary he is when I'm messing with his emotions.''

Superheroes Ltd

#47

Zero lurched to his feet off the shuddering floor, and swung himself halfway out of the top hatch. He could now see Buckethead (funny how these names became official) putting the smackdown on the flying kid.
"Fuck, man. Can you slow this thing down?!" he shouted, and hurled a heavy glob of ice in the metal fiend's direction, where it shattered very far off the mark.
Perceptor offered him a heavy-looking mass of gunmetal.
"I don't wanna' use a gun. I never have, never going to!" spat Zero, firing a large shard of rime which missed again. "Bad memories."
He sent a volley of sharp ice daggers in Buckethead's direction.

Remembering Ace's instructions, he hunted for the area he had seen the staff fall. There it was, a pile of steel girders and half-stripped logs.
Shutting his eyes in concentration, Zero's fingers clawed as he outstretched his hands towards the pile, his body shaking with exertion. There was a noticeable drop in temperature, and the air around the pile became foggy and dense.
Zero gave a hoarse shout, and the air around the pile (and the staff) froze solid in a weeping mass of jagged, irregular ice.
"Shit, man. Takes a lot out of you," he growled.

Ace

#48

Ace put on as much speed as he could. "BucketHead" nearly had him, but the rest of the group distracted him. He slalommed between flaming oil tanks and non flaming oil tanks in an attempt to lose BucketHead (or at least his line of sight). Fear added speed to flight. It seemed to work. He was panting. he was leaning flat against a non explosive building, fifteen feet up, covered by the roofline. He slid a sly look around, and managed to see BucketHead floating there, with his back to him. Ace could barely see the Hovercraft's trail off to the side, closing slightly with him.

He didn't know what to do. But he would know when it was time.

Superheroes Ltd

#49

The villian cast off the remnant of the webgun and looked towards the speeding hovercraft. The craft was fast, but it was throwing the ice-man's attacks off the mark badly. Too much of that sort of action would leave him exhausted, easy pickings. Falcon-boy had escaped, weaving between the tanks, vanishing from his vision. Even the enhanced vision offered by the visor couldnt penetrate the thick smoke from the burning tanks, or the residual amounts of trace elements floating in the air. In a flash-freeze, the stockpile of trainrails that held his powerstaff was frozen.

He uttered a mechanical curse, his voice synthesized by the mask and the pop-hiss of the air regulator. The air outside the mask must be certainly foul for the device to be making such a racket. A quick check to the spectrometer showed near lethal amounts of CO2, and a melange of other petroleum based pollutants.

It was a simple thing, adjusting the balance of xeo-energy, to resonate even through the mechical shell. He pivoted and accelerated towards the hovercraft in what looked like a game of chicken. There was no doubt in his mind as he accelerated, reaching a speed that Ace could hardly dream of outside of a dive.

Only seconds seperated the two from what could be a critical, and lethal impact...

Superheroes Ltd

#50

Now was the moment were everything hung on a very slender thread. If George and his companions were to survive this encounter with Bucket Head,he had to act faster than the crazed madman hurtling towards the hovercraft like some great bird of death.

Flipping off his emotional shield with greater alacrity than he had ever done,George forced himself to focus on the looming form of Bucket Head that was rapidly expanding to fill his view at an alarming rate. He could feel it now,Bucket Head's maddened urge to slay them all.... It emanted from the psychotic xeo like some toxic black cloud,invading every cell of his brain with it's dark,murderous urges.

George focused all his concentration on the blazing core of that terrible rage and fury,willing his own emotions to shape and manipulate it. The tremendous fear and near panic that assailed him,he gathered all of that and hurled it at the seat of Bucket Head's homicidal wrath, greatly diluting the other's resolve to do them harm with the naked desire to flee and live. For all their sakes,he hoped it had been enough to halt Bucket Head's flight of destruction...

Superheroes Ltd

#51

Almost too late, both swerved from their paths. Spruance pulled the Hovercraft into a hard turn, making the vehicle vibrate twice as hard as it usually did, which was indeed saying something. Buckethead faltered under the empath's assault, breaking away, fortunately in the other direction. George could feel the malice radiating from the villian, but there was a hint of something else, a hint of pleasure, elation. The monster was playing with them...

Arazi aimed the netcaster and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Realizing that the weapon was a one-shot deal she threw it down and cussed a word that would take a few bars of soap to wash out of her mouth. Ignoring weapon and reason she pointed her palms towards Buckethead and screamed as she focused her power.

A jet of flame erupted from her palms, blistering the paint on the hull of the hovercraft. Buckethead's cape ignited, but his armor only glistened under the onslaught. Undaunted, he cast off the flaming cloak and lifted himself into the sky, out of the range of the earthbound hovercraft.

"Maybe next time, kids, maybe next time." he said in an oddly musical, albeit, synthsized, voice.

Superheroes Ltd

#52

George heaved a heart felt sigh of relief as Buckethead sped away into the horizon. ''I though we were gonners there for a moment. Good for us that Bucket Head thinks we're make great sport. You should have felt that twisted feeling of pleasure emating from him... I guess that's how the sicko gets his kicks,by spooking a bunch of super hero wannabes like us. ''

ace

#53

Ace saw him threaten the hover craft and without thinking, for if he thought he would of hesitated, streaked towards him. At full speed.

Even though he did not see the speeding Ace flying at him from his four, he few away.

Unfortunately for Ace, he didn't impact him like he hoped... to kill his momentum.

He flew straight on.

With a loud crash.

Ace shook his head and slowly stood up. He would of swore, but his mother raised him better. He took the sky in a wobbly fashion to give chase.

Superheroes Ltd

#54

Arazi pulled herself out of the hovercraft, and hopped down onto the ground. "Praise God, land." she said, glad to be out of the out of control dryer that was the hovercraft. "That was one of the roughest ride's I've ever had." She gave Zero a look to make sure he didnt make any sort of derogatory comment.

"We should get his staff, it might have clues," she said. "Damn, did I really just say that?" she said, "What do I think this is, Scooby Doo?" she asked rhetorically, as she tried flaming the pile of ice that encapsulated the weapon. Rather than melting, the ice seemed to flow into a glass-like state that ablated the heat of her flame into the ground. The interaction...she forgot.

"Hey Ace...nice landing...wanna do some superhero-kung-fu and break the ice?"

Superheroes Ltd

#55

"Aaah... Shit."
Zero stumbled behind the hover and puked. Taking a seat on a rusty girder, the pale man cooled himself down by chilling the metal.
"What the hell was that? Did your trick work, mental boy?" he said towards George, rubbing his brows.

Superheroes Ltd

#56

George wrinkled his nose as the sour smell of puke wafted up to his nostrils It looked like tough guy Zero did have a very major flaw after all:a weak stomach,hence the vomit that he had just so liberally decorated the foor of the Hovercrat with. Not that he blamed the ice man. He himself was close to swooning,and if wasn't for the girder he found himself clutching,he would probably be sprawled on the floor right now.

''Well,the answer to your question would be yes and no. Yes,as in I managed to instill intense,irrational fear in his mind for a few seconds,thereby averting the lethal collison,and no,as in the effect on Bucket Head didn't last very long. He recovered so quickly,that for a moment,I found myself wondering whether my litttle trick had actually failed. Needless to say,I've never seen anything like this before. Obviously,this guy is in a league of his own.''

blah!

#57

Sullenly, Ace helps break the ice.

He was hoping that deprived of a focus, "BucketHead", might be weakened. That was not the case. So now all he managed to do was create a clue for Perceptor to follow. It was not a total loss... so why did he feel like he was.

"Next time, he is going to clean my clock," he thought.

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Superheroes Ltd

#58

"So George," Spruance said, bumming a smoke from Perceptor, "Did you get any good pictures of Buckethead? And come on, you're the writer journalist here, this guy is a sicko in a black suit, we gotta call him something better than Buckethead. If we call 'im that he might hunt us down one by one, just to make a point of it." he said, drawing heavily on the cigarette. He wished that Zero hadn't puked, but it was sometihng to focus on other than thinking about the Fast Responce team that he had been a member off. Those ppor bastards, even a full squad of geeked out police SWAT didnt stand a chance against a zeo like Hellbender.

He held his head for a moment, trying to block out the images, so many had died, some consumed in flames, others had been crushed under flaming debris. One, a blonde woman he had considered dating died the worst, the fiend liquified the steel girder that pinned her down, cooking her legs and...

*****
"Well, at least no one got hurt right?" Arazi said.

"My sense of well being was murdered." Perceptor said. "What do you think Ace, we need a follow up plan, it seems obvious that Buckethead is less than friendly, and blowing up stuff doesnt make him much of a good guy."

Superheroes Ltd

#59

"Huh? Oh. Um." Ace looked up with a confused expression at Perceptors question. Ace blew on his hands to warm them, and to buy himself some time to think.

"Well we know he is a psycho of somekind. " Now we need to either find out his problem or find him, which ever is faster." He responded to Perceptor's rolling of eyes, "If we know his damage, we will know what will set him off and where he will probably be next."

"However, I am betting on finding him." Ace pointed at the now released staff lying among the powdered ice. "Perceptor can you check this out for ... fingerprints, energy signature, dirt smudges that might identify where the stick has been, composition so we can backtrace a source... anything your xeosenses can figure out. Then maybe our good friends can use their resources to track down the details.

The same with Empath. Maybe you can get a lock on him or some psychometric reading."

Ace took a deep breath.
"Once we have an idea on how to find him, we can consider how to take him down. Does that thing, he pointed at the hovercraft, have an anti-tank rocket option?"

Superheroes Ltd

#60

"Rocket launcher, huh?" Spruance said, patting the side of the hover-tank. "She doesnt have one, but I dont think it will be hard to get the boss to pony up the money to put a TOW missle launcher, or maybe something lighter like a Dragon missle in the gun rack." he stubbed out the cigarette that Perceptor had given him. The new focus seemed to help him shake off the case of nerves from facing Buckethead.

"I bet while I'm at it I could get the gearheads back at the concern to mount a heavy machine gun on the coupola. So, something like a M-60 with belt fed ammunition. I dont think that it would do much against him, but I bet it would it would make him think twice about getting too close. Old Hellbender wasnt hurt by machine guns, but when the lead started to fly, she took cover. Guess bullets still hurt, even if you're bullet proof." He looked over to Ace.

"Anyone every take a pot-shot at you, kid?" he asked.

*****

Perceptor scowled, lighting what might be his forth or fifth cigarette since exiting the craft. He wanted to track Buckethead, but his xeo-sensitivity had been all but blinded by being too close to Arazi, and Zero when they let loose with their power. It was like sitting inside of a lightbulb trying to see what was on TV. Impossible. He could still feel the ghost images of their xeo-coronas. Still, somewhere he knew that he could feel Buckethead, terrible and irresistable as the sun itself.

"My power focuses more on sensing xeo-energy, maybe George got a better fix on our new nut-job. All I could see was Arazi's ass, if you know what I mean." he said. "So, maybe if you can do psychometry George, we should let just you pick up Buckethead's stick. I hope it isnt booby-trapped." he said with a acerbic smile.

Superheroes Ltd

#61

"Anyone every take a pot-shot at you, kid?" he asked.

Ace nodded. He rubbed his hand absently across his chest where the sting of their impacts was his first reminder that he was bullet resistant, not bullet proof. Sure they would never penetrate his skin, but they would still pass on their kinetic energy.

Ace knew he could duplicate that forcefield, if he freed up a full slot of xeo-energy. Unfortunately, using the forcefield would limit his offensive options.

Superheroes Ltd

#62

"Pssh. Serves him right, the little show-off," grumbled Zero under his breath, and went to sit on a heavy metal girder.
The white-haired man produced a small metal flask, as if from nowhere, and began to swig from it.
"Let's all get poisoned, eh?" he growled, letting the liquor spill down his chin.

Back at the Center

#63

The ride back to the center was quiet, or as quiet as riding in the ill fated offspring of a lawn mower and a power blender could be. Arazi was silent, her eyes had what some would call the 1000 yard stare. Spruance laughed and took a swig from Zero's proffered flask, knowing all to well what happened to those saps who dwelt on what happened too much.

George was left sitting with Buckethead's staff, not quite sure if it was metal, or a superdense plastic. The entire thing resonated with the self-aggrandizing malice that was Buckethead. It made him feel vaguely nauseous.

Ace was left with the thought that out of all of them, he was the one that the villian had looked dead in the eye...the one that he spoke too.

Superheroes Ltd

#64

George finally broke the silence. ''I think I may have a way of tracking the Dark Nemesis down. Dark Nemesis,do you guys dig that name? Sure sounds a lot more sensational than Bucket Head,doesn't it? But to get back on subject,I may be able to identify the goon's whereabouts. Certain emotions,if they are strong enough,give off an unpleasant odour. In the case of Bucket Head's staff,the smell is so bad,it smells worse than dog poo,which must explain why my stomach is suddenly churning.''

Superheroes Ltd

#65

Zero snickered at the thought of the psychic smell of dog shit.

"That's... quite the description, thinking man. Can you back it up? Are you sure you can track that fucker by his emotions?" said the albino, frosting over a metal panel with his handprint.

Superheroes Ltd

#66

George shrugged. ''I could try. I can't promise you we'll find him,but there is a good chance I might be able to discover a trail.''

Superheroes Ltd

#67

"Lets see about getting a more stealthy vehicle than the floating lawnmower." Spruance said.

"This bucket of bolts is giving me a migraine." Perceptor nodded in agreement, as he tore the cellophane off of a new pack of smokes.

*****
Back at the Braggadaccio Center
Perceptor and George had a better look at the staff. THe weapon was placed in a psychically insulated container that vaguely resembled a telephone booth lined with floral styrofoam. Perceptor scowled.

"I'm not getting much of anything off of it, the residual xeo-power has drained off too much." he said. George, on the other hand a perfect view of the weapon. He could seemingly feel the bitterness and malice of Nemesis, the heartless cynicism. He was male, and older than they were, that was easy to tell. As for his appearance, that was harder to tell, it was as if he had only bathed the weapon in his aura of evil, but had never touched it with his own hands.

*****
"When you have a moment, Mister Cranston would like to see you in private, Ace." the recpetionist said.

*****
So, it's been a while Zero, how've you been?" Arazi asked while the two brains had their go-over with the staff.

Superheroes Ltd

#68

"Sssure," Ace said. He walked away calmly. His stress only betrayed by the amount of sweat he was producing. The pounding of his heart might give him away as well.

His mind was running a mile a second. "Oh-my-God! Oh-my-God! Oh-my-God! I must of screwed up. I am so screwed. I really should just go home and forget about all this. I can't talk to him. Oh-my-God! Oh-my-God. I am so unworthy. He probably wants to tell me to hang up might tights. He is the Big Guy. I can't face him. I don't wanna face him. Oh-myGod- I am so screwed. I screwed up. "

While his mind was checked out, his body walked slowly on autopilot to Crantston's waiting area.

Superheroes Ltd

#69

Ace had to wait for half an hour while one of the nurses looked in on the old man. She was polite, but adamant that he would have to wait. Pushing past her would have been easy, about like hopping over the velvet rope in a movie theatre. It might as well have been a twelve foot barb wire fence with cyclone wire wrapped around the top. After a nerve wracking wait, the nurse gestured that Cranston was ready to see him.

The old man was the same as he remembered, still hooked up to the banks of machines that beeped and whirred, keeping his body alive when any normal human would have been two years in his grave. He fixed ace with his eagle's stare, and he could see that there was weariness in his eyes, a tiredness that seemed to permeate his frail body.

"I've been briefed. I understand you were face to face with the new xeo, and it seems he is less than noble in intent." He said, a glimmer in his eye. "Tell me about it boy, I've not been able to fly in years and I think that's been the worst of my losses."

Superheroes Ltd

#70

Ace just stood there. He was in the presence of greatness. Here was his chance to show himself off, to learn at the feet of a great hero. And he stood there like a total idiot. Of course, he had let the buckethead get away. He had gotten his butt kicked. Oh sure it was a tactical retreat to line up another suprise shot. But really, he installed the wiggens into Ace.

His mouth must of been moving with no sound coming out, Cranston responded. "Was he your first boy?"

"My first xeo no. The first possibly more powerful than Hellbender Xeo, yes. " Ace took a deep breath. "He is not Evil, a demon or anything. He is just super confident in his powers which are pretty extreme, much more than mine. The Forcefield takes much of what I can dish out. His energyblast is an entire level of magnitude than mine. He can fly faster too. He might have Xeo senses, but can't tell. The Bucket might have be a power source, as the staff we took isn't. "

Ace stared off into space. It was less distracting .

"I just wish I knew what drove him. He's a people and people have reasons they do what they do. So what has he to gain from blowing up the oil refinery? Is it money? Does he have a beef with them. Did they fire him? Is he an eco-terrorist? Does he have a solar technology put out of business by the oil company?"

"I discarded the idea that he was looking for something under the field. He was not searching. He was just destroying. He could of been being flashy, to see what kind of resistance he drew out. "

He took another deep sigh. "I don't know. I don't know where he will strike next. I don't know why he is doing this. I don't know how we are going to stop him. I don't know if I can do this. " Ace's face went blank. He hadn't meant to say that. It just slipped out.

Superheroes Ltd

#71

Zero grunted in a fashion he supposed the most manly possible.
"Yeah, a while," he said, tossing white hair out of his eyes. "I've been... Fine. Uh, fine."

He sat down in a plush red-leather couch, and put hands behind his head, fogging the stylish metal wall. "Been boozing. Fighting. Y'know. Just general fucking around. There isn't much to do in this city when you're a xeo. Plus they kicked me out of the XXX-Mart. Said I was spending to much time there. Fuckin' bullshit that is." He turned a pale eye toward Arazi.

"How 'bout you?"

Superheroes Ltd

#72

"Hmmm." Cranston muttered, tapping his one good hand against the point of his chin. There was a fire in his eyes as he pondered the ceiling. "You say he is more powerful than you, that might be the case. Experience and age can make us stronger. You are still quite young and have grown to the full of your potential. It sounds like this xeo is well into his prime if he can perform as you have described." The pop and hiss of his resperiator was loud, an almost uncomfortable distraction.

"From what you have told me, it seems that his goal seems to be simply power. Destroy things and people pay attention to you, they will watch you. If you do it well enough, they will come to follow you. Hellbender was strong, but it was only in the last confrontation that she was alone." Cranston said. "She had a certain charisma that drew others to her, other weaker xeos."

*****
"Well, I was promted into the Special Affairs department of the Cranston Concern," Arazi said. "I was used to recruit xeos and on occassion help some of them get help, even if they didn't want it. There was this kid in Austin Texas who could phase through walls, neatest thing really. Except that he was only interested in breaking into peoples homes, stealing from them. It was kind of funny that he could shift through a wall more than a foot thick and he was stealing a few hundred dollars here and there from houses. When the police raided his house, they found out he had been stealing panties, of all things." She said. She really had missed the foul-spoken xeo. She was made uncomfortable by the fact that she could feel the reserve of thermal power inside of her wanting to reach out around the cold kernel in Zero and destroy it. He was probably having the same feeling.

"They've discovered a xeo-inhibitor." She said. "Dependant on the dosage it can reduce or completely suppress xeo powers. They give it to the kids who arent able to cope with their newfound power."

*****
"The Staff," Perceptor said, reading from a handout that a technician handed him, "Is of a unique carbon polymer that was created under enormous physical pressure, and then extruded like a piece of wire. It has a very high metallic content, likely to conduct xeo energy. It has no power source, no points for power adaptors, or any other mumbo-jumbo crap." He lit a smoke and puffed on it a time or two.

"So, it seems that he uses it to aim his attacks. Odd, given his strength." He stubbed out the smoke, having whittled it down to ash and butt. "Another thing, all of the buildings destroyed belong to the Cranston Concern, it seems that this guy might be trying to draw Ultraman out of retirement. Either that or he is an investor who really lost his ass when Endron tanked." He said mostly to George.

Superheroes Ltd

#73

''Ok.'' George replied. ''So is it safe for us to assume that Nemesis either has a grudge against Mr.Cranston or is simply plagued by a burning desire to succeed where HellBender failed? If that's the case, we'll need to take him down. Barring of course,the last possibility you mentioned. That was supposed to be a joke right? Or is it something we should explore? ''

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#74

"Investors are all insane, at least that is my opinion." Perceptor said, "Besides, if it is an attack on Cranston, Nemesis is a bit behind the times. The board of directors ousted Cranston from his controlling interest of the Concern. He's still the head of the Carravaggio center and the departments that deal mainly with xeo-science. The rest, the ship yards, and oil investments, the Concern and the Board all have controll over that." He puffed on his cigarette.

Arazi brushed her hair back, catching the last part of the conversation between the two. "Yeah, it was a little hairy for a while, I thought we were all going to be unemployed." She shot a hot look at Zero, "This was during one of your porn and booze benders so I don't expect you to know anything about it."

"Yup, we were all thinking it was going to be looking for a real job after that, but the old man pulled it together and had one of his nurses roll him into the board room so he could shout at all of the self-absorbed assholes in there. It was classic Cranston, I mean he was like back in the old days when he kicked ass and took names. It really took alot out of him too."

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#75

The doors of the suite opened with a soft whisper. Three men in dark suits, carrying attache cases the way a soldier would carry an M-16 walked into the room. The lead man wore a pair of wire rimmed bifocals, his blonde hair gelled back into a bomb-proof comb-over. The other two more nondescript, with similar brown hair and almost matching cornflower blue ties.

The man in the glasses snatched the forensic report from Perceptor with the speed of a street magician removing a tablecloth from a loaded table. He fixed them all with a stare that would have melted lead and softened steel. "This material belongs to the Cranston Corporation, not the Concern. We will be taking care of this matter ourselves and dont require the...assistance of the Concern. It is only be our great respect for Cranston and what he used to be that we have allowed him to retain control of the the Concern." He folded the paper and tucked in into his attache case.

"You are all formally reminded that you do not have permission to trespass onto Cranston Corp. property and should you choose to do so, any damage inflicted during your stay you will be held accountable for. This includes collateral damage, punitive damages, and compensation for loss of profitabilty on the part of the location's damage."

"You xeos are relics, a by-blow of the atomic failure. you should have the good grace to let your legacy go with the great heros. All you are doing is making yourselves all look like fools." He said.

"Good day."

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#76

George's mouth dropped open in outrage as the retreating backs of the suits marched out. Of all the nerve! Who the hell did those corporate bozos think they were,to just troop in like that and snatch away the staff that he and the rest of the team had wrested from Nemesis only with dire risk to their lives? The least those ingrates could have done,was thank them. But no,all their hard efforts had been rewarded with,was a nasty slur against xeo kind.

His teeth gritted,George let out a snarl. ''Want me to f@#4$ up their emotions,Perceptor?''

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#77

"I don't think it would do any good, Kid." Perceptor said, stubbing out another cigarette into what looked like a mother-of-pearl ashtray. "Those sorts have their emotions cauterized when they get fitted for the suits. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't bleed, or were made of bags of cow manure and sawdust wrapped in expensive suits."

He coughed once as he let out a sardonic laugh.

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#78

Zero stared dispassionately after the sararimen as the doors swung smoothly closed.
"Fucking assholes."
He turned to Arazi. "Well, that puts us back one, I guess. Bureaucrats. And to think I was actually polite to those people."
At the red-haired woman's disbelieving glance, he said: "What? Even I gotta' file my xeo-registry."

Superheroes Ltd

#79

"Hmmm. I guess we should of told them that he might come back looking for it. We should of. Oh well, maybe they can try to sue him."

Ace took a big heavy sigh. Combined with the look on his face, one did not need to be an empath to understand somebody's illusions have been dispelled and the cynicism of highschool just flooded in.

"So, that still leaves us without a strategy to find Ol'Buckethead. Or our only clue. " He looked around the room. Everyone was still shell shocked or annoyed beyond belief with what happened. "Unless we want to release it out to the world where it is and wait for him to reclaim it." A wry smile crosses his face, "after it leaves Corporate grounds of course... don't want to be sued or anything. " He gestured with his hand in a non communicative fashion, waving them mindlessly while he spoke, "Nah... but what other ideas do we have?"

Two beats go by. He began to smile ear to ear. "Hey, anyone want to get them busted? That staff is technically stolen merchandise or evidence in a crime. We were "on our way" to delivering it to the police when these people took it from us. It is petty I know.. but we are doing our good deed."

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#80

"That is actually one of the best ideas I have heard yet." Perceptor said with a laugh. "Reminds me of the time that Ultraman ended up stealing a nuclear sub from the military because no one believed that the captain was going to go all Red October to the North Koreans."

"I dont remember that..." Arazi said.

"Before your time and that little tale doesnt get much play time. The military brass is still in a huff over that. They dont like outsiders having to police them, especially their elite stuff." Perceptor said.

"Besides, most security in places like this is mostly intimidation and show. There really arent crack teams of combat troops, this is the real world man, not the Matrix." Spruance said, coming out of his silence for a few seconds.