Tim staggered leaning against a wall. He thought coming into the city late would help but there were still so many people. The bag in his arm fell to the ground as he started breathing heavily clutching his chst. Nearby a kid pulled his walkman out of his ears. "Hey man you okay?" He asked as he approached. The haggard man looked up muttering under his breath before launching forward and grabbing the young man by the face. "Just a taste..."<red> He said as the boy his eyes wide and his mouth open in a silent scream trumpled to the floor. SUddenly cakcling with glee the man leaped down from the top to the bottom floor of the mall into a crowd of people Suddenly they all fell to the ground as he pumped both fists in the air. <red>"YES! I CAN FEEL IT! FEEL THE POWER!"

------------> From Derring Condominiums ------------>

Ozzy skated towards the mall, reveling in the cold air that rushed around his face. He'd been skating for years, but even after all this time... the freedom of rollerblading was like a drug to him. Every morning and evening he was reminded of the hard truth: he wasn't normal, and probably never would be. But once he put his skates on, he could forget the truth, and go where he wanted, do what he wanted. He didn't need any special treatment, or a good parking spot, or anyone's pity. He was just like everyone else, more or less.

Ozzy stopped when he saw people running out of the mall. Not just, like, one or two people who were probably just in a hurry, but a bunch of people, like something was going south in there!

'Greaaat. Well, I guess this is my time to shine. Let's suit up and see what we can do... hopefully I can at least keep stuff from going further south until someone shows up.'

With that, he skated into the JC Penney, and dashed into the men's restroom. Moments later, he re-emerged as his costumed persona, his backpack covered in paint to make it look totally different, since he didn't feel safe leaving it behind in the mall.

When he got into the main portion of the mall, he saw a guy laughing maniacally in what looked to be a pile of corpses. The Painter just pointed at the guy, shouting, "H... Hey! You! Crazy dude! Why don't I paint you a picture? What's say you, behind bars, in an orange jumpsuit? I'll call it 'Twenty-five-to-Life'!"

The man looked up at the boy in the strange outfit.  "Behind bars? They could never keep me, might be nice, aolll those tasty sconvicts." Still Cackling the man dashed toward Ozzie at incredible speed, <red"Lets see how you taste!"</red>

Ozzy smirked under his mask and started skating forward, getting his speed up as high as he could.

"Chew on this, freak! Let's see how you like it when the other person is a para, too!"

With that, he brought up a force shield, using it in a sort of shoulder-tackle, hoping that the combined force of their impact would at least get the man dizzy. He didn't know what had killed all these people, but they looked plenty dead to Ozzy, so he wanted to be careful.

Still cackling the man pulls back his arm and unleashes a haymaker at the young mage but luckily hitting his shield. Ozzie's shield holds however he is pushed back a bit as the man throws his head back in uproarious laughter. "Oh this is going to be so much fun" HE chuckles a bit before leaping right up to the second floor of the mall. <red>Catch me if you can"<red>> HE says before rushing after the fleeing crowd.

Ozzy staggered back a bit from the impact, but doesn't let it stop him. When the crazy guy jumps all the way up to the second floor, Ozzy dashes forward, getting as much speed as he could before hopping onto the moving handrail of an up escalator, riding up it to follow Lifeleech's ascent. Once he reached the second floor, he started building speed again, forcing himself to go as low as he could to gain speed.

As he followed, he traced a rune with his right hand, quickly thrusting the hand out palm-first as a ball of paint shot towards Lifeleech. Whatever it hit, it would 'explode' into a net-like bundle of 'ropes' and attempt to entangle whatever had been hit.

"What's your hurry? Why don't you stop and smell the tile, dirtbag!"

  Meg settled to the earth outside the mall doors, looking around at the oddly deserted parking lots.  She shook her head, and then walked into the mall, frowning at the silence that lay under the cheesy holiday music.  Something here was not right.  She brought her ball bearings out of her pocket, and kept six of them in her hand, ready to set moving.

The ropes entangled the man but in a matter of seconds he breaks free. "Runnning low, need more." He says as he starts running towards the crowd and collides into the only person not running. Meg.

  Meg, being petite and a little on the small side, was knocked off her feet, simply because she was holding still and not expecting barreled into.  The iron ball-bearings went scattering every which way, and she flashed out with her power, catching them even as she picked herself up, saying "Good grief, what IS going on here!"

The man Getting to his feet begins cackling as he lunges forward at Meg. "YOu look delicious"

  Meg moved.  Fast.  She reversed gravity at about three gravities in a heartbeat, and flipped midair, used to going UP instead of down.  And the ball bearings shot in from all directions to alter his trajectory.  She said "No matter how tasty I might look, I take exception to some creep trying to manhandle me!"

(----> From Derring Condominiums)

Arriving at the mall a bit after Meg did, Rodger parked and got out of his car. He noticed a commotion outside, near the closest entrance (he never entered through a department store if he could avoid it).

What now?, he wondered as he started walking towards the entrance.

The Painter skated towards Lifeleech at top speed, glad that the paint-ball had at least slowed him down a little. When a woman broke through the crowd, and got attacked, Ozzy panicked, not sure what to do, but when the woman flew out of the way, he nearly jumped for joy. Another Para on the scene? This was looking better and better!

He dashed towards the criminal, drawing his hand along his arm again, this time activating the baseball bat rune. The bat formed quickly in his hand, and he came up towards the semi-distracted supervillain, swinging it at his head and shouting, "Hey! I'm the one you're fighting, freakshow! Why don't you stop running away?"

The man takes the baseball Bat and the Ball bearings like a trooper before he suddenly stops. Glancing around like some kind of trapped animal. His eyes close and he brings his hands to his face dropping to his knees sobbing. He begins muterring to himself those close enough can hear the words. "Why me, Not again, and Wish I were gone."

As he approached the mall, Rodger stopped one of the people fleeing from it, "Pardon, but what's going on? Why's everyone in a panic?" he asked.

Privatey, he hoped it had nothing to do with demons, the suits, or holiday sales promotions.

  Meg said "Hello.  Have you got him restrained, or should I stick him in a null-g sphere and come back down?"  Once the fellow attacking her had gotten high enough, she'd normalized gravity at floor level so that others wouldn't go flying UP instead of staying on the floor too.

Ozzy skidded to a halt, blowing just past Meg and the crumpled Lifeleech before turning around and stopping. Being slightly worried that this was just a ruse to get them to drop their guard, Ozzy did his best to get between the two, hoping that his armor would protect him.

"Don't worry. I think I can hold him, now. Though, if you want to go ahead and do that, too, then I've got no problems with it. Better to err on the side of caution, yeah?"

Deciding that it was best not to touch the supervillain before restraining him, since the man seemed to need to touch his victims, Ozzy fired off another paint-ball at point-blank, attempting to wrap the man up and entrap him once more.

"Thanks for your help, by the way. I was a bit worried about taking him on alone. I'm not sure what he's done to those people, but I think his power is, like, a Touch of Death or something. Though... miss, have you got a cell phone? Someone really needs to call 911, if they haven't all ready. I'd call the cops, but it's kind of, um, under my costume, and I can't really take it off without leaving, you know? The whole 'secret identity' thing."

Assuming that Lifeleech had not tried to break free and/or attack by this point, The Painter would then point his bat at the crazed villain and say, "Now, then... I see you even try to break those, and I'll start whacking you until you're unconscious, got it?"

  Meg nodded, and put a sphere of null-gravity around LifeLeech as she flipped down, landing expertly on her feet as she let her own gravity return to normal orientation.  She said "I don't have one on me at the moment, but I can hold him here long enough to reach the payphone over there."   She waved a hand at the bank of payphones and other kiosks nearby.

"Works for me. I dunno if any of those other people thought to call the cops, so if anything can be done for those folks, we need to make sure the authorities have been notified ASAP." replied Ozzy, nodding.

Ozzy then continued to keep an eye on Lifeleech, not willing to let down his guard. After all, if Ozzy was right about this guy, all it took was one slip and then it was Game Over.

 Meg nodded, and walked over to the payphones.  She picked up the receiver, and dialed 911, then waited for an operator while she absently started LifeLeech to slowly rotating.

The man is sobbing on the ground when the gravity is increased on him he curls up in the fetal position. "I won't try anything." He mutters. "Just lock me away...."

"Oh, we will, trust me. The cops are on the way. So while we're waiting, do you mind sating my curiosity? What did you do to those people? Can they be saved? And if so, how? Or should we tell the cops to bring body bags instead of stretchers?" The Painter asked, deciding that he'd try and get what he could out of the guy.

A blonde woman stops long enough to scream "Theres some kind of freak fight in there!." Before running off.

Freak fight? Oh dear.

Rodger approached the mall doors warily, not liking the sound of that. Then slipped inside past folks fleeing out. And cautiously moved deeper in to see what was going on. And whether anyone he knew was involved.

  Meg reached the payphones, and dialed 911, then waited for the operator. She watched Painter and LifeLeech out of the corner of her eyes.