The streets of downtown, close to the hospital, city hall, the police station, and all the little shops and businesses that clutter any downtown.  The large anti-parahuman rally has been scheduled here, and in preparation, there have been booths and concessions coming in to set up as street vendors on the sidewalks and all.  A rather dark and forboding type of almost street-faire.

  The crowds had been gathering, and the hotels were packed with these people who had come from all over the country to protest parahumanity's very existence.  Michael Gysbourne was scheduled to speak at noon, approximately the same time as the funeral for the heroine and member of Legacy, Mirage.

Michael arrived a good bit early, looking a bit aggravated, but otherwise composed. He was still a bit steamed about what had happened at the wedding, and the fact that there had been a wedding at all, but he'd be sure to tell the world about the unnatural things that were being allowed to happen in this city today.

  The stage was almost ready, with the podium already set up, and the sound checks being done.  Large signs that had the word 'parahuman' and a big red circle with a bar across it diagonally in the traditional 'no' sign flanked the podium on  both sides.  One of the organizers spotted Michael Gysbourne, and asked him "Are you ready to do your presentation, Mister Gysbourne?"

"More ready than ever. You wouldn't believe what I witnessed yesterday." he said, shaking his head. "The freaks are getting married, and even reproducing! We're going to be overrun!"

  The organizer shook his head, and said "Then we are just in time.  The podium is ready, and the crowds are rie to hear your message, mister Gysbourne.  Spread awareness of this heinous act, hand the dangers these freaks pose to decent, everyday America citizens!"  He led Michael to the stage, where the speaker's podium waited, with microphone and all.

  Across the street from the stage, atop one of the office buildings, a man was lying comfortably arranged.  His high powered rifle lay beside him, and the precious, all important dart-rifle lay before him, aimed at the podium of the rally's stage.  He slowly opened the rifle's chamber, and loaded the darts into it's magazine, one by one.  He had ten rounds loaded with mutagen.  He was going to make an example of this crowd.

Michael nodded and took to the podium, clearing his throat before saying, "Good people! May I have your attention? As many of you may know, my name is Michael Gysbourne. I am glad to see you all here today, to see that we, the people of this great nation, are ready and willing to take a stand! It is none too soon, I fear! Already, the freaks that wish to be thought of as 'parahuman', as if they are somehow 'just like us', are marrying and having children! Freakish children! Just yesterday, I bore witness to one such wedding! And one of the guests had a TELEPATHIC baby! Do you know how unnatural that is, for a child who looked to be at most a year old to be 'speaking' to me, in perfect English? This is utterly unnatural, and it must be stopped! But our government not only CONDONES this ABOMINATION, but PROTECTS it as well! I ask you, good people, is this right? Is the government doing what we elected them to do?"

He then paused, for a moment, to let the crowd respond.

  He heard a roar from the crowd, and they surged forward, clearly moved by his words.

  Atop the office building, someone was steadying the rifle.  A soft, pffffft sound, and Michael's throat sprouted a neon pink fluff as a dart quivered in his throat.

Michael grabbed at his throat, trying to croak out SOMETHING as he pulled the dart out, but words wouldn't come. Panic started to overtake him as he started to feel... odd, almost like an overwhelming sensation of... power. Raw, unstoppable POWER!

  Michael Gysbourne's skin darkened, becoming a deep blue shade, even as his eyes turned to a brilliant, glowing blood red.  Every scrap of clothing on his body ripped to shreds as his body swelled, becoming approximately eight feet tall, and six bony, whipping, writhing tentacles peeled out of his back, looking like spare spinal-growths that whipped around.  Between them were long membranes he could glide on, and from the base of his spine, a long, wasplike stinger sprouted.  Reason and sanity flew away, and the crowd screamed and rushed backward, even as someone else let out a roar, their body sprouting fur and claws and growing to eight feet tall.

Michael roared as well, and then started firing mutagen-laced darts into the crowd with reckless abandon, wanting nothing more than to change all the people he could, to share his newfound gift with them!

  The people all spazzed, beginning to run every which way, panicked screams and running throngs and nobody having a clue which way to run safely with NEW monsters popping up every time they turned around!

  The sniper fired two more rounds, and another wolflike creature, and then a large, almost pterodactyloid mutant roared up from their positions.

Ozzy had been nearby, since the bastards had had the gall to have their protest close to Mirage's funeral. He'd heard the screams, and fought with himself about it as to whether or not he should go see what it was. Deciding that he wasn't THAT much of an arsehole, he headed over to see the chaos ensuing.

"Well, @#$%. This looks nasty," he sighed as he saw the various monsters popping up.

  Clarissa blinked, and asked him softly "Umm.  Ozzy?  Wasn't your father supposed to be here??"  She was sitting on his shoulder (her new favorite perch) and she could see a bit further than he could, from her slightly higher vantage point.  "Umm.  Big, ugly, blue, naked, and I swear he has a facial resemblance to you . . . "

Ozzy looked up to the podium, where Michael was still firing into the crowd, and snarked, "Ha! Serves him right, he got mutated. Still, I guess we better go stop him before he makes MORE monsters. You may wanna get down, love, this is going to get bumpy REAL soon."

-> From Kattakara Estate

Fiona walked down the streets, guided by Wind-in-Bamboo, hoping that things wouldn't get too bad downtown. But the noises she heard from afar dashed those hopes quickly. Nevertheless, she walked on; in her current shape, she wouldn't be hassled too much, she hoped.

For anyone who was flying or just very tall, it was hard to miss the gigantic dragon even from afar. Rather uncharacteristically, it was walking down the street rather than flying.

  Clarissa nodded, and fanned her wings, lifting up and shifting to perch on a streetlamp instead, even as she answered him {{I'll perch up here, I'm clearly a mutant, and this way the idiots down there can't try and lynch the harmless looking little catgirl while you tango with the big blue meany.}}

  Wind looked at the chaos, shifting to his small-dragonself, and flying up to see, and said "Oh my.  Remember Ozzy told you he'd been hit by a mutagen?  It looks like someone's having a field day with the stuff on the parahuman haters."

Fiona's eyes widened, and she reared up the front of her body, standing a dozen feet tall. "Oh no... this is terrible!" she whispered to Wind, as much as a creature as big as her could whisper. "What do we do?"

Ozzy nodded and said, "Sounds good, love. 'cause I swear, if they actually lynched you, I'm pretty sure I'd go nuts and start smashing shit up."

With that, he took to the air, flying over the screaming crowd and coming down towards the transformed Michael with a good amount of force. Michael, having not quite recognized the big green monster, hand't worried about him until Ozzy came crashing down on top of him. Michael then snarled up at Ozzy and growled, "YOU.... WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? HERE TO RUIN MY SPEECH!?"

  Wind said gently "What you choose to do now, Fiona, will determine your own future.  If you do not wish to be a hero, stand here, out of the fight, and do nothing other than calling the police.  Any other course, except perhaps to run away, will lead you down the road to becoming a hero."

  Clarissa stayed perched on the streetlamp, and played 'eye in the sky'.  She warned Ozzy {{Ugly and hairy coming at you from about your five oclock or so.}}

It took Fiona only a moment to think. "You go call the police," she then whispered to Wind. "I'll see what I can do here." Taking a deep breath to gather her courage, she began moving forward, towards where she could hear the noises.

  Indeed, one of the werewolfish types was coming at Ozzy from about the five-oclock direction, and their pink-slavering jaws were lined with impressively sharp looking fangs.  Of course, they were laying about them with claws as they went, injuring people and sending them flying this way and that.  Three more 'mutants' roared up as they finished mutating, having been on the edges of the crowd, and they, too, were surrendering to the urge to mutate everyone they could get.

Ozzy grunted as he and Michael started trading blows. He was trying to restrain his father without doing any permanent damage, but the man's mutant form wasn't making it easy, and Ozzy had more than a couple of darts in him from Michael's tentacles. As tall, dark, and ugly started to come at him from his back, Ozzy grabbed Michael and spun, hurling him at the oncoming wolf-like creature.

{{Thanks for the warning, babe! It's a real monster mash down here!}} he thought in reply.

  The one he'd hurled Michael into let out a sort of surprised "Awoof!!!" as both it and Michael went off the front edge of the stage.  The podium itself was smashed, and the audience had scattered.  A good thirty feet of space surrounded Michael and the wolfy one, and several more mutants were around.  Another one had those tentacle-dart-shooters, and was trying to pepper the crowd with as many darts as they could, but apparently each tentacle could only hold about six darts.  So they ran out of darts relatively fast.

  Another neon pink fluffy-tipped dart appeared, this time on Ozzy's left shoulder, but the stuff wasn't effective on the already-mutated.

  Fiona could see the 'mutant monsters' rampaging through the crowd, making MORE mutant-monsters as they went.  She could also see Ozzy on the stage, apparently combating two more, and Clarissa perched up above on a streetlamp.

"STOP!" Fiona shouted in a booming voice that made the ground shake. She wasn't at all sure if they would listen, but at least it would get their attention. At the same time, she ran towards the crowd, trying to put herself between the mutated and the humans.

Ozzy winced as the dart thunked into his shoulder, then turned, looking at the skyline to where the shot had to have come from, seeing if he could see anything. With his enhanced vision, he hoped he could find whoever had started this mess.

As the melee at the Anti-Para rally commenced, not far from that spot was a funeral that the Legacy was holding for their fallen friend, comrade and teammate, Mirage. Donald Derring sat in the front, Lady Psyche sat next to him, then Nokomis. The casket rested close by a podium, and Dragon Fist sat in a chair not far from the podium.

  The mutants were still running rampant, but Ozzy could see the faint gleam of sunlight on metal, the office rooftop that had a perfect line of sight to the speaker's podium where Michael Gysbourne had been speaking when the mayhem had begun.  Several more mutants were closer to the edge of the crowd where Fiona-Dragon was.  If she wished, she could wrap them in her lng, elastic body like a giant constrictor-snake and hold them from doing anyone else harm.  All of them seemd intent on mauling, shooting, stinging or something the crowd of anti-para rally attendees.  And each mauling or other attack seemed to spread the mutation to another person.  A theme was emerging, however.  The mutated men seemed to get bigger, with more frightening visages, and the some stayee their normal sizes, but got other mutations.  One of the mutated ladies was pitting some sort of sticky webbing-like stuff to pin normals so she could claw them and mutate them.  Another woman, shot by two bony-darts, was screeching, and things were beginning to break from the sheer volume.

Even though she hadn't had the opportunity to really get used to her new body yet, Fiona moved through the crowd with great agility, separating the mutants from the humans. It was terrible what was happening here... all she could do was try to minimize the harm that was being done. Her massive body coiled around the crowd of mutants, holding them in place.

Ozzy took to the skies, heading towards that gleam of metal, glaring intently at the top of the building. Whoever was up there was in for a bruising when he got there, assuming they didn't see him coming and run for it.

Of course, there were only so many ways off of a building that tall. It would be hard to escape him for long.

  The sniper wasn't thinking about any if the 'new mutants actually coming after him, there so many juicy targets already down there and close at hand. 

  Fiona, holding most of the mutants, got stung and darted, but she held them away from the civilians with the rubbery coils of her Dragon-body, stretching out even longer as she worked to keep the innocents safe.

Fiona roared in pain as some of the attacks stung past her scales, but she kept herself wrapped around the crowd of mutants, gritting her teeth as they attacked her again and again.

*Mirage's Funeral*

OOC: Thought tagging the post with the location would make things less confusing ;)

Dragon Fist slowly approached the podium, looking out amongst all those present. The Legacy were here...but Captain Jordan was also here, along with a good portion of police officers. The turnout for this funeral was truly amazing, and it was unfortunate that it took the death of one of their own to garner this type of recognition.

He looked down at the speech he had written and then looked out at all assembled.

"Ladies and Gentlemen...we are gathered here to pay our respects to the one who is only known as Mirage. Every day and night, she scoured the city, fighting for those who could not fight for themselves. And for those of us who knew her...there was a lot more to her than the mere surface. Under the crimson exterior was a heart who yearned to see the right thing done. And it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our friend, teammate and comrade. Her presence is sorely missed, and honestly, we are unsure as to how to fill the void."

He looked down at the casket, and then put his head down.

"I'm sorry we did not have more time, Mirage. But in the moments that we all shared, our lives were immensely enriched every single day we all knew you. I wish you a fond farewell, and may we meet again on the other side."

Ozzy turned for a moment, wondering what the hell that scream was coming from, when he saw. The screamer seemed to be a pregnant woman. Ozzy just rolled his eyes and thought, {{Great. Pregnant woman got hit with mutagen. I wonder what effect that's gonna have on her kid, eh?}}

He then turned back toward where the sniper had been, flying quickly towards them with retribution on his mind. Even if those people were para-haters, they didn't deserve THIS.

  The sniper hadn't noticed him yet, and he saw two more muzzle flashes from the rifle.  The sniper was covered in a tan gilly suit that was colored to blend into the building he lay upon, and had Ozzy not had heightened senses, he'd never have spotted the fellow from where he'd been.

  Clarissa asked him mentally {{Want me to throw some crystals to knock some of these guys off their feet?  Michael's getting up, shaking his head, and I think if I'm careful, I could bean him good on the noggin.}}

{{If you think you can do it without drawing too much attention to yourself? Go for it.}}

He swooped down towards the sniper, attempting to grab him and carry him up into the sky, hoping that the threat of being dropped might get him to talk.

  She promptly began to substantize white crystals that were perfectly round spheres, and began to chuck them.  Which let her trip Michael good, then bonk him one so his eyes crossed and he sat down hard, looking thoroughly stunned again.

Fiona's gigantic body was scratched, bitten and punched, as the mutants did everything they could to try and get free. But she gritted her teeth and refused to let them go. Hopefully reinforcements would arrive soon.

"What are you waiting for? Run away!" she hissed at the few humans still remaining at the scene.

You rolled 294 using 5d100 ((99,33,74,35,53)).
00:09, Today: Fiona Reinhardt rolled 73 using 1d100. Yet another percentile.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:05, Fri 03 Aug 2012.

Funeral

  Even dressed for the occasion, suit and Stock Photo Man holographic disguise and all, Matt couldn't help but think his presence at the funeral might be in slightly bad taste.  Not because he never knew Mirage, someone who had apparently done as much as her deserved even complete strangers missing her.  More because here was someone being put into the ground that had done so much, while he had crawled out of it having done so little.

  Matt had enough common sense to not feel guilty over that sort of thing, sure.  But even if he never advertised his recent passing on national television like a certain someone, it just felt like an awkward conversation conveyed via face punching waiting to happen.

  Ozzy had the sniper in hand, and Clarissa had beaned a couple of the mutants, keeping them distracted from pursuing the civilians that had still been running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Ozzy carried the sniper up a bit and hovered over the street, well away from any buildings. He then grinned and said, "All right, asshole. The rally near Mirage's funeral was bad enough, but you went and turned it into a goddamn Monster-Riot. So who the hell are you working for?"

  He said softly "My  boss wanted the para-hating normals to learn that we are ANYONE, anywhere, any time!!  And that we can be YOU!  Although you're gruesome enough, you look like you should be one of the rioters!"

Ozzy said, "Technically, you DID hit me. But I've been changed by that shit before, and while it was permanent on me, it also made me immune to further doses. You wasted a shot on me. Now, I don't like those bastards one little bit. The only reason I got involved was because in those forms, they'll SPREAD that shit, and chaos will ensue, possibly hurting people I DO like. So who's your boss? Whoever it is has to have some serious dough. That stuff is a grand a dose!"

  He chuckled, and said "Because my boss DEVELOPED this stuff!!"

Ozzy chuckled, "Good, good. Now answer the question. Who is your boss?"

He then tossed the sniper up a ways, catching him on the way back down as he said, "Ya better not keep dodging the question, or else I might become a butterfingers..."

  Fiona had the majority of the newly-mutated contained, although there were still a couple trying to get past her.

  The fellow Ozzy had, dangling by an ankle, said yelped, and then said "I can't tell you his name, I don't know it, but he'll fix YOU.  Apparently it needs a little more refining!!"

Ozzy grinned and said, "Oh, I've been this way for a good day or so now. I got turned when two guys who bought the shit turned and started attacking people. I defended the normals, but got turned in the process. I managed to control the initial urge, and defeat the other two. While I do like that this stuff let me keep my original powers, I have a complaint as to the permanency. You've likely just ruined several people's lives, asshat. And I'd like to see your boss try. I'm a mage that's strong enough to turn an engine block into a pancake, with all the effort you'd use to stomp an empty coke can. If you can't tell me where to find HIM, though, tell me where to find the next man up. I'll go sort HIM out, and work through the chain of command."

*Funeral*

After Dragon Fist gave his speech and sat down, Captain Jordan came up and said a few words. Stating that he had always worked in an unofficial capacity with the Femme Fatale, he was intrigued by the strength she showed. Her unwavering devotion to seeing the bad guys fall and the helpless be avenged.

Donald Derring looked on, his facial expression saddened as Nora held Diantha. Diantha was stoically quiet, only happening since she had found out about "Auntie Lena's" death, the young mind visibly troubled by the loss of a great anchor in her life.

Katy and Nokomis were also silent, their heads bowed as Captain Jordan continued on with speech, both he and Dragon Fist saying what was already on their minds at that moment, and at the present time, unaware of the anomaly that was Matt Matthews.

*  Funeral  *

  There were a number of the New Age Defenders there as well.  Jack and Penny, dressed nicely and sitting quietly to pay their respects.  Andy.  Megaira, wearing a solid black silk dress. Bella and Bill and Darren.  All of them dressed nicely, but somberly.

Although Fiona was too big and strong for anyone to get past, their attempts were starting to get bothersome. With the end of her tail, she swept into the crowd of mutants still attacking her, trying to knock them out.

  The rally-goers who hadn't been mutated were pretty much all in hiding now, and while Ozzy had the fellow who had been snipering it, Fiona had those who were mutated contained in her coils.

Ozzy growled and gave the sniper a good shake as he demanded, "I'm only gonna ask one more time, scumbag. Who. Do. You. Work. For. I don't care if it's the head honcho or whatever, but I want to know who you report to. Otherwise, I'll excuse you while you kiss the !#%&^*( pavement."

  He yelped, and said "Alright already!  Just set me down SAFE and I'll give you a flipping address!!"  Clearly a bit worried Ozzy really WOULD drop him.

Ozzy grinned and touched down on the street, a ways away from the building the sniper'd been shooting from, saying, "All right, we're on the ground. Now before I let you go, what's that address?"

  The police had arrived, and were letting Fiona hand them any mutants who had been knocked cold, and were calling for vans and such to be brought to take them to a holding area.  The fellow rattled off an address in the bad part of town, where the crack-houses and such were too.

Ozzy grinned and said, "Thanks for the address, jerkwad. Now, then, I think I hear the cops. Let's go hand you over!"

With that, he flew over to where the police were rounding up the mutants and said, "I've got the guy who started all this. If you want, I can take somebody to the rifle he was using to do it, too."

  The officer in charge nodded, and had another of the officers come over.  He gave Ozzy a rather trepidacious look, and said "Okay.  You take me to the rifle, but do it without any real acrobatics, or I'll get airsick on you.  Fair?"  The sniper was being cuffed and stuffed into a patrol car.

Ozzy grinned and nodded, saying, "So long as we don't come under fire, no problem. If he's got a buddy, though, I'll take your puke over a bullet, 'kay?"

With that, he grabbed the officer and took off again, taking him to where the rifle was.

  The officer nodded, and said "Yeah, I'll take puking all over you to getting shot too.  But I wanted to warn you so you can't say I didn't tell you just in case."

Ozzy laughed as he touched down on top of the building, saying, "I tend to not do anything too fancy when I'm carrying a passenger. Well, except my wife, but she's an adrenaline junkie like I am."

  The officer closed his eyes, and said "The other thing is, heights make me slightly queasy.  So, yeah.  Sedate flying is good . . .. "  The dart-rifle was there, as well as a loaded sniper rifle that hadn't been fired.

Ozzy grinned, "So they volunteered you to come up on top of the high building? Damn, dude, this is your lucky day, ain't it?"

He then asked, "You want me to get this to them, and you can take the safe way down? Or what?"

  The officer slid on a pair of latex gloves, and tagged and bagged both guns, then the rest of the stuff.  He said "Tell you what, you take this stuff down, and come back for me.  That way, if my stomach thinks it's going to send everything back, I don't hit the evidence."

Ozzy chuckled and picked up all the evidence in his massive arms, then flew off to take them down to the other officers.

{{Caught the guy who was doing the shooting, love. And got an address to find the next man up the chain.}}

  The officers on the scene were happy enough to accept the evidence bags, and one teased him "He get airsick on you yet?"

  Clarissa glided over, and wrapped her arms around his waist to give him a hug, telling him softly "I'm glad they couldn't do you real damage, love.  We're both fortunate to be immune to the mutagen!"

Fiona was glad to hand her captives over and un-stretch herself. With the situation under control, she walked over to Ozzy and Clarissa as they came back down, but not to brag about her heroics. "Hey, guys... um, do you know where I can find Megaira, or Lin?"

The black and gold dragon standing before them was gigantic, but she wasn't one of the dragons they had seen anywhere around town before.

  Clarissa tilted her head, and said "Meg was attenting Mirage's funeral.  Which is probably why she didn't turn up here.  I don't think Ozzy put the mindworm message out.  You okay?"

Fiona shook her head, which was larger than all of Clarissa. "I... well, I'm not supposed to be a dragon. Remember Fiona, from yesterday?"

Ozzy nodded, "Yeah, I thought you sounded familiar. So you're turned into a dragon, now? Awesome. I can call them if you want, though. I didn't put out the mindworm message 'cause I didn't want to disturb EVERYONE at the funeral. We had this handled, looks like. I just didn't know the dragon was you and not one of Lin's."

He then turned to the officer and said, "Nah, he's good. It's why he sent me down with the evidence first, though, just in case. He's a good CSI, it seems."

He then bowed to all present and said, "Speaking of which, if you'll excuse me for a moment, I hate to leave a brother hanging. Especially when it's at the top of a skyscraper."

He then flew off to get the officer as he sent a mindworm message to Megs, letting her know Fiona was a dragon and was asking for her or her mom.

Fiona shook her head again, a pained expression on her giant face. "I didn't... well, I didn't mean to. I just woke up like this, and somehow, I can't turn back now... I was hoping that Meg or Lin could help me."

She raised her head and glanced around, gritting her teeth a little - she had been scratched and injured in a lot of places, although hardly anything was visible now. "Have you seen Wind-in-Bamboo anywhere?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 11:40, Wed 08 Aug 2012.

  The officer was happy to get retrieved, but he kept his eyes closed as Ozzy gave him a lift down.  He told him "I'm glad for the lift, the elevators in the building are out at the moment.. . . "

Ozzy chuckled and said, "That would be the luck, wouldn't it? Well, no worries, I'll get you back down nice and easy."

When he landed, he set the officer down gently before turning to Fiona again, noticing the pained expression she had.

"Man, some of those things must have been as strong as me to get through dragonscale," he said with a wince.

A slight smile played over Fiona's face. "I'll be alright, I think... shapeshifters heal super-fast, right? So once I get back my shapeshifting... I hope Lin or Meg will know what to do."

Ozzy grinned and said, "They tend to, yes. Then again, healing factors are common as shit around here. I'm glad I finally joined the club myself, even if it is a slow one. Being the 'squishy humie' on a superteam can get kind of embarassing when you're the only one who can't either take or dodge bullets."

Fiona's face suddenly dropped as she realized something. "Wait... you said the other day that whoever gets changed by the mutagen... they get the mutagen in their claws, don't they? So... all those mutants that attacked me..." A shiver ran down Fiona's long body.

  Wind-In-Bamboo came darting up, and said "Both Lin and Megaira are at the funeral, and will be here as soon as it is over, Megaira's less than her typically serene self.  She was there when Mirage passed, you see."  He landed on Fiona's nose, his two-foot-long form so tiny compared to her own currently.

Fiona gulped, and her face was trembling slightly as Wind sat down on her nose. "I got attacked by so many of them... what's going to happen now?" She wasn't sure how the mutagen worked... but this couldn't be good, she knew that much.

  Clarissa leaned against Ozzy's hip as she said "Well . . . MOST of the time, it seems to drive folks temporarily nuts.  So maybe they didn't get you with the mutagen?"  She patted Ozzy's knee behind her butt as she spoke.

Fiona shook her head a little. "I'm not sure... I guess if I had been hit, something would already be happening? How long until we know for sure?" She turned her head (slowly, so as not to throw Wind off) and looked back at herself, to see if she still looked the same.

Ozzy smiled and said, "If it was gonna happen, it would've by now. I don't see any wounds, so while they may have hurt, I don't think they actually broke your skin. Just bruised you and scratched up your scales a bit. Or maybe because you're a shapeshifter, you're immune to it."

Fiona exhaled softly, visibly relieved. "I hope you're right." She looked around a little. Hopefully Lin and Meg would be here soon.

Ozzy nodded and said, "I hope so too. There's been enough people turned today, and as far as I know, this shit's permanent. It is for both me and Clarissa, anyway."

He then picked Clarissa up and asked, "You all right? None of them got you, did they?"

*Funeral*

After a few words were said by the minister overseeing the service (a very endearing eulogy to the enigma known only as Mirage), it was time to put the Femme Fatale to rest.

With their hearts evidently heavy, even under masks or helmets, Dragon Fist, Captain Jordan, Donald Derring, and several of the fine officers of the Weston PD (including one up and detective named Esteban Martinez) carried the casket to the hearse, where it immediately made its way to the local cemetary, where a greatly decorated headstone could be seen honoring the Lady In Red.

  Clarissa leaned against him, smiling, and said "None of them got me, I'm good, love.  We'll have to see how many of them change back, if any."  She was perfectly happy to sit on his forearm and lean against his chest.  Those wings of hers folded neatly behind her, and her tail wound around his wrist like a fuzzy shackle.

  Meg sent to Ozzy {{Just at the graveside, Ozzy.  I'll get there after that, and you can tell her I'll bring Mom along.}}

Ozzy said, "They're at the graveside now, Fiona. They'll be here shortly, I hope. Wish we could be there, but we need to stay here, I think. Folks might get freaked out, and there may be some kinda plan B. Who knows?"

He then hugged Clarissa and said, "Sucks about Mirage. She was really cool, ya know? I worked with her a couple times. Her and Dragon Fist actually gave us Defenders a chance to prove ourselves, instead of just talking down to us like Lady Psyche did."

Fiona curled up her long body, like a gigantic snake. She was still feeling rather shaken from the fight, and from knowing that if she'd been hit a little harder, or if she had been in a different form, some of the mutagen might have gotten through and she'd have become like them. She was glad that at least some people had gotten away without being mutated and that the crazed mutants were being locked up, but she wasn't feeling like a hero right now.

  Clarissa nodded, and said softly "Some of us ARE relatively untried, you know.  Gods know I am.   I'm just glad I've got my own personal hero-trainer."  She looked up at Ozzy as she mentioned her own 'personal hero-trainer', and them kissed his chest, and looked at Fiona.  "You okay there?  Ozzy and I are happy with our mutations, but I doubt that many other people would be."

Fiona turned her head towards Clarissa and sighed softly. "I'll be fine. I'm just... I've never been in a fight. Not one like this, anyway." She hugged the end of her tail; her body was still trembling slightly. "I just felt, when I saw what was going on, I had to do something, since I'm in this big and strong body... I wasn't feeling scared then, but now..."

Ozzy smiled and said, "Hey, you did good. Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to act in spite of it. I know it's rough, being in your first real life-or-death scrap. Just let it all out."

A few tears rolled down Fiona's cheeks. Right now, she didn't really look like the gigantic, regal dragon she maybe ought to be. She sniffled, stretching a forelimb up to her face to wipe the tears off. "I'm sorry..." she whimpered softly and buried her face in her coils.

  Clarissa nodded, and said "Ozzy's got it dead on the mark.  It takes some adjusting.  I know I'm still not very used to it, but then again, I kept MOSTLY out of reach of everything but a flying anything.  Wings are nice for that."  She arched one wing, showing Fiona her source of 'courage', aside from her big, green-skinned husband.

Fiona looked at Clarissa, her face still full of tears. "Heh, I wish I could fly right now... but as a dragon, I guess you need magic for that. I don't think I could have done much from the air, anyway." A soft chuckle escaped her. "I wish I could hug you, but I don't want to crush you." Considering she was almost as wide as Ozzy was tall and as long as several buses, that fear was probably justified.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:43, Wed 08 Aug 2012.

  Clarissa said "Hey, no apologizing.  We all start out new at this stuff, and it can be SCARY.  Ozzy's had to rescue me a couple times from this and that already.  Don't be upset because you FELT scared or anything.  You still *acted*, which is a big one up on MOST people."

A small smile appeared on Fiona's face. As gently as she could, she brushed her giant snout against Clarissa affectionately. "Thank you," she rumbled softly in her deep, draconic voice.

   Clarissa patted her nose, and brushed that wing along her cheek, a soft caress that felt very good.  She said "More than welcome, Fiona."

Ozzy smiled and, "You've definitely got your control down. You practice martial arts or anything? It was interesting adjusting to THIS body. You've probably had one hell of a time getting used to being that big. Not to mention strong enough to hold all those mutants."

A small smile crossed Fiona's face. "Maybe it comes with being a shapeshifter... being able to adjust to different forms. It wasn't easy when I woke up like this... my room was way too small for me. I'm glad I'm still elastic... otherwise I might have broken the walls down."

Ozzy laughed and said, "You're preaching to the choir, sister! I swear, ever since I got this big, I've been feeling like the whole world's a few sizes too small. Must've been really interesting for you getting out of there. It's good you didn't break your house, though. That would've been bad."

He then grinned and said, "Still, thanks for saving the day. Without you containing the mutants, the sniper would've likely gotten away, and who knows how many of the mutants would've gotten out and spread the mutagen to people who weren't at the rally? The whole city could've become a war-zone!"

If Fiona's face wasn't covered in black scales, it would have turned slightly pink. "I... I just did what I could to help. I felt like I had to... as big as I am, there aren't many people who could have done that."

Again, she smiled slightly. "I guess we can be glad that we've got Meg. If I have to stay like this, at least she'll have a place for me where everything doesn't seem like a tiny-scale model."

  Clarissa smiled, and said "I'm sort of lucky, I stayed little enough that the world didn't change sizes for me.  But I have my Ozzy, who is big and snuggly and makes me happy as can be."  She grinned up at him and gave him a wink.

Ozzy smiled and said, "Well, I wouldn't have thought any less of ya for not doing so. Nobody HAS to be a hero, no matter how big or strong."

He then wrapped his wings and arms around Clarisa and said, "And I still have you, my dainty little darling Clarissa. We're an awesome combination, love."

Fiona shook her head a little. "If I hadn't done something, and all the mutants had gone out to cause havoc... I'd be beating myself up forever for not helping. Maybe Coyote knew this would happen, and made me like this on purpose so that I could help..." She shrugged a little.

  Leaning happily against Ozzy, smiling as she spoke, Clarissa said "We may never know.  There's a lot more going on in this world than a lot of us suspect until it sneaks up behind us and bites us.  I had no clue Ozzy was a wizard until he rescued me from a bad situation, but I'd been sweet on him for ages.  I didn't think he'd give me a second look, until he rescued me, and I just knew he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  And here we are, happily married!  I startled him, coming up in the mall and asking HIM for a date!"

Fiona had to grin a little at that. "I really hope that I'm not stuck like this forever, then. I doubt anyone would go for a girl that's a two hundred feet long dragon. Except another dragon."

Ozzy chuckled and said, "Hey, maybe Lin could set you up, Fiona. She seems to know plenty of dragons."

Fiona stuck out her forked tongue and flicked it at Ozzy. "I'd rather have someone a bit more humanoid. No offense, Wind," she immediately added to her dragon companion.

  Wind said calmly "Some of us do marry humans.  But we normally don't tell the humans in question until much, much later.  If ever."

Ozzy grinned and said, "See? Dont be hating on our scaly buddies. Then again, I may be biased, since Ive got one on each arm. Me and Tats have been together since I was little."

  Zhang 'peeled' off, puffing into three dimensions, and said (in a shockingly deep voice) "Indeed.  And yes, I AM precisely what I look like.  Young Wind-In-Bamboo is your advisor.  But I think I may be able to teach you how to fly as a Dragon.  I taught Tats and Ozzy both already."

Fiona smiled a little, eyeing the tiny dragon as it puffed up, no bigger than one of her eyeballs right now, but her face visibly brightened when she heard what it had to say. "You can? That would be wonderful..." She wasn't entirely sure whether it was going to be successful - after all, she wasn't a 'real' dragon, and didn't even have any magic - but was certainly willing to give it a go.

Ozzy nodded, and Tats peeled off as well. They then explained in stereo, "Yeah, just start undulating your body. You'll start to feel energy gathering beneath you, but don't be afraid, because Eastern dragonflight is powered mostly by magic, so that just means you're doing it right."

"Um, alright..." Fiona began uncoiling her long body and turned her head, making sure that there was nothing in the way that she might smash; fortunately, a large area had been cleared for the demonstration. So she began moving her long serpentine body in a wave motion, slowly at first. "Like this?" she asked the two much smaller dragons.

  Zhang nodded, and peeked around, then undulated off of Ozzy's shoulder, and then was suddenly his FULL size.  Which was easily a match for Fiona.  He coiled himself neatly, and added "Feel the nature of the water and air within your body.  Feel those elements, and let them lift you, as the cool mist floats through the air.  Let the mana become as the air lifting the water in the mist itself . . ."

Ozzy nodded, and Tats joined in, deciding that he needed the practice himself, the little dragon hovering off of Ozzy's shoulder amd towards Fiona.

Fiona's eyes widened as the tiny little dragon suddenly blew up to many times that size, and she suddenly had a face in front of her that was just as big as her own. But she coninued undulating in place, and closed her eyes to try and feel these elements within her body. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to look for, but maybe it'd come to her.

Ozzy could feel Tats channeling the mana, and he could sense it moving through Zhang as well.  Fiona could FEEL something, but it tingled and made her whole body seem to thrum in answer to it.

Keeping her eyes closed, Fiona concentrated on that strange feeling that was making the frills along her spine stand up. Was that the water or the air that Zhang was talking about? She continued her motions, trying to grasp that energy she was feeling coursing through her body.

Ozzy grinned and said, "You should be feeling it, Fiona. I'm certainly detecting it around you. You're doing good! Keep it up!"

Fiona was feeling something, but having never used magic before, she wasn't sure what it was that she was feeling. All she could do was to keep up what she was doing, and focus on this strange energy, try to channel it.

  Zhang purred, and began to undulate, his body rising effortlessly into the air as an example for them all.  He was HUGE!!

Fiona concentrated and tried to direct the energy she was feeling. There was a lot of it by now, but a dragon as big as her probably needed quite a lot to lift herself up. She imagined herself becoming as light as the clouds, the wind carrying her up in the air...

*Funeral*

The funeral procession soon arrived at Weston City Cemetary. Dragon Fist, Hunter, and the others soon came to the funeral plot, which was donated by the city, which also showed some photos of the Femme Fatale. Most of the pictures were obscured due to the randomness of her appearances, but the fact that they were there was a testament to the wondrous enigma known only as Mirage.

A priest soon said a few words, wishing Mirage safe passage into the afterlife. Dragon Fist seemed to be silent throughout the entire proceeding, as well as Hunter, Psyche, and young Diantha. Nora clinged to Don in a show of support, and Detective Martinez put a comforting hand on the Champion of Light's shoulder.

The procession soon ended, and everyone went about their separate ways, except for Dragon Fist, who kneeled at the headstone, his head bowed.

*Funeral*

Dragon Fist kneeled silently at the graveside of Mirage, his grief was silent but all too evident. The turmoil in his soul may have been eased by Kimeran but the turmoil was still there. He still wondered, that even though he was the Champion of Light, and helping to save Weston, why those close to him were hurt and killed because of it.

Inwardly, he also wondered if Mirage, like himself, would make the unlikely passage beyond death, and return to the mortal plane. Lucas was fully aware that he didn't cheat death....death HAD indeed taken him...until a purpose was revealed for him. The purpose hadn't changed....the tenets still remained...no matter what happened.

"My love....I'm sorry...I only hope that you can hear me somehow, and know that my love for you has not diminished...only that there is a void that I don't if it can be filled or not. Vaya Con Dios, Amor..."

Standing to his feet and sighing, he extended his wings, and flew towards familiar spots.

>>>>>>>>>>To The Dragon And The Tiger>>>>>>>>>>>>

Fiona's eyes flickered open again to discover that she was rising up into the air, slowly but surely. It didn't look nearly as elegant or effortless as with Zhang, but she was doing it! Foot by foot of her long body left the ground and undulated up into the air. "Whoooaaaa!" her deep voice rumbled, and her forelimbs paddled a bit comically in the air, like those of a swimming dog.

Katy walked.

So much had happened in such a short time, from her turning on her closest friends, discovering a futuristic daughter, and the latest: The death of her mentor, her friend. There were few things in the world she understood more than the loss of a partner. Being in the Weston PD, to be considered a veteran you had to lose at least one partner. Psyche had gone through two. One killed by a Para who didn't have full control over his powers, the other caught in a crossfire between rival gangs.

Still, having been through it before didn't make it any easier. Helena was her closest friend and ally. She'd snatched Katy up right as she was discovering her powers, helped her hone her ability to control it, direct it, help people with her ability, and eventually to join the Legacy. She believed in Katy when no one else would, when no one else would believe in her. Katy could count on Helena to vouch for her, no matter what it was.

She sighed as she walked, fighting back the whirlwind of emotions that threatened to burst forward. She was frustrated that everyone she knew was being cut down, or being taken away from her. She was tired and hurt that she was still recovering from her attack from Brain, and she couldn't help.

Katy put her musings aside, taking in the metropolis of Weston Downtown. Simple, people going about their business, not even paying attention to the off-duty officer in the blue blouse and ripped-at-the-knee-jeans. But they were paying attention to an apparent draconic being floating up into the air.

Sighing and shaking her head, Katy looked up and stared directly at the being, smirking slightly and shaking her head. A slight movement of her hands and the dragon-being would feel a telekenetic force bearing down on her. Almost seemingly unawares of the others flying, or outright ignoring them completely, An extremely powerful mind-voice bespoke the Dragon (Fiona).

Weston's a strange place, to be sure. But being seen in public in such a large form is...disconcerting to others. Please move your friends and yourself somewhere else, away from...prying eyes. She bespoke.

With considerable difficulty (she was new at this, after all), Fiona had just managed to lift her entire body up into the air. Her expression was like that of a child at christmas - amazed and delighted and full of wonder. She smiled at the other gigantic dragon and danced around him a little, slowly of course. But when she heard the voice in her head, she stopped in her motions, and seemed to stumble in midair, although she didn't fall. "Who's that?" she asked no one in particular and looked around for a moment before thinking to look down.

When Fiona started looking around, acting as if she'd heard something odd, he shrugged and said, "I didn't hear anything, and I've got super-hearing. Dragons must have better, I guess. I dunno. Or maybe someone sent you a telepathy-gram. Have you been wormed, yet?"

As he looked around, however, he did spot Katy in the crowd. Figuring that it worked with Penny, who was also a telepath, he sent via mindworm, {{Hey. How was the funeral? Sorry I couldn't make it. Some asswipe decided to turn the anti-para rally into a monster mash. While I don't mind him interrupting the rally, he used a mutagen that makes mutants who then spread the mutagen further. And, as far as I know, the stuff's permanent. Lucky for us, the new girl contained the mutants, and so it didn't spread beyond the para-haters.}}

  Clarissa looked around, and said quietly "Do we want to get me wormed, love?  Or am I good just linked to you?"

Ozzy answered his wife quietly, "It may be a good idea to get you a mindworm, just in case I do get in trouble."

Katy grimaced for a moment, then bespoke Ozzy, The funeral was......More than I could have hoped for. The ceremony was beautiful. That was all she said for a moment, though even in the tone of voice, heck, even the feel of her thoughts suggested buried emotions threatening to burst forth.

She turned her attention back to the group as a whole, disappearing in a purple mist and reappearing in front of the Dragons, walking in midair on seemingly nothing. Now, would you mind taking this party somewhere else. There are several rooftops where citizens would be far-fetched to see you.

  Zhang puffed air at her, and said "I am teaching this young one how to fly so she is not stuck WALKING down your city streets.  Which is more alarming?"

Fiona flinched a little, seeing the girl disappear and reappear right in front of her. Even after everything that had happened, some things still took her by surprise. "I'm sorry," she said softly after a moment, and nodded to the girl in front of her face that was about as big as her snout. "We'll go somewhere else." She raised her head and started flying upwards, like a serpent slithering on invisible ground, but a good deal slower.

Ozzy nodded as he sent back, {{Good. I'm glad she got the sendoff she deserved, even if it came way too soon. How're you guys taking it? It's got to be pretty hard, losing a teammate like that.}} She could feel he was definitely concerned about the Legacy, especially Lucas.

  Zhang nodded to Fiona, then he shifted to his smaller form, and coiled around Ozzy's other arm (the one Tats wasn't on) and became a tattoo once more.  Of course, Ozzy was still huge and green, with demonic-style wings and a big scorpion tail, and escorting an adorable-looking catgirl with white fur, white and silver wings, and a long mane of brown-black hair.

Fiona watched as Zhang shrank down to a more portable size, making her once again (presumably) the largest creature in the area by far. "Well... let's go to Meg's place, I suppose?" she rumbled softly at Ozzy and Clarissa.

She was just about to start moving when another question came to her mind. "Is shrinking down like that and turning into a tattoo also something I should be able to do? Or is that more advanced dragon magic?"

  Zhang answered "It is more Dragon magic, but it is magic we learn early.  I will endeavor to teach you, but I am not certain how well you can learn it.  But I will not say it is impossible."

Katy nodded to the dragon, disappearing in a plume of purple smoke yet again, and reappearing in her original spot.

We're Okay. Hunter's taking death like he usually does, but to be honest, Lucas and I aren't doing so well. Mirage was my friend, Ozzy, the person who taught me how to do everything I know and more. But Lucas has me scared for him. He loved her, that much I'm sure. Not to mention...

Her mindvoice wavered to a halt, tears threatening to burst forth, as she glanced Ozzy, the older woman seemingly unperturbed at his changed appearance.

Ozzy turned to Fiona and said, "We'll meet you there, Fiona. Do you know how to get there?"

He then looked down at Katy and asked mentally, {{Do... do you need a hug or something? You seem like you're about to cry. And... have you got any idea where Lucas might be? If he's taking it that hard, I'm worried for him, too.}}

  Clarissa, who had been standing, decided to cheat, and used her claws to lightly hook into his clothes, and climbed up his side to sit on his shoulder, her tail winding around his upper arm to hold her in place.  She leaned against him, comfortingly.

Although Fiona couldn't hear what was being said, the expression on Katy's face told her a lot about what was going on. "I... I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't know Mirage personally or anything... but I know that she was a truly great woman. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to have lost a friend like that."

Katy smiled slightly, shaking her head.

No, Ozzy, I'll be fine, she bespoke him, making a valiant effort to hide her pain, and succeeding somewhat. A mental image of Ozzy giving Katy a hug was broadcast, and she seemed to find some amusement out of it, however. I've got an idea of where Lucas would be, but Hunter made me swear not to bother him for a couple days. I wouldn't be surprised if he had Hotwire monitoring me, or Nokomis lurking about. It was obvious who the Heart of the Legacy was.

"It's alright," she told the young dragon, then looked her directly in the eyes, "When you find a friend as close to you as I was with Mirage...cherish every moment. Don't take them for granted."

Ozzy looked quite serious as he thought back, {{He made YOU promise. Not me. And even if he had, I'm not afraid of Hunter. While I don't think Lucas-sensei is the type to do anything STUPID, I'd like to at least offer him a listening ear. If he wants me to leave, then so be it, but nobody else is going to get me to turn back.}}

A slight smile spread across Fiona's snout, and she nodded solemnly. She didn't know how close they had been, but she could imagine.

"Right... I'll see you all at Meg's place," she said softly to the assembled party, before flying off. Even if she wasn't very good at it yet, it was still faster than walking, and she was much less likely to bump into something.

-> To Kattakara Estate

Katy grimaced ever so slightly as she shot back: Ozzy, I know the New Age Defenders prefers the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach, and I know you tend to be one of the more cool-headed ones, but listen to me right now: Give him some space. Believe me, if Hunter hadn't bound me, I wouldn't leave Lucas' side right now. But trust me when I say he needs some time alone.

I don't care if he's your friend. Give him a few days space. That's all I ask.

Ozzy sighed mentally and said, {{All right. I'll give him a couple of days. I'm just worried. What if the Dark Champion strikes at him while he's grieving? Makes him give in to the Dark Side, or whatever? Agh... sorry, my paranoid side is kicking in. I'm just worried that if we leave him totally alone for a while, something external might come in and push him over the edge, and we won't be there to help counter-balance it.}}

  Clarissa patted his shoulder, a gentle caress, and said softly "Don't worry, love.  We won't let him tip over."

Katy smiled slightly. Ozzie, give me some credit, she told him mentally, Do you really think I wouldn't bend my restraints as far as I could? She tapped her temple a few times, I've got an eye on him at all times. His thoughts get even remotely alarmed, I'm there as soon as possible. Plus...I hear he may be taking on a new student.

Ozzy smiled and thought, {{Good. And if you even THINK you'll need a little extra muscle, do not hesitate to ask. I've got plenty to go around. I'm not sure about the upper limits of my strength quite yet, but I smashed an engine block flat like it was an empty coke can, so... yeah. And I have gotten it controlled enough to where I can not, you know, break people if I want to not break them.}}

  Clarissa giggled, and patted his cheek as she said softly "Yeah.  You don't break ME, after all!"

Katy smiled. Thanks for the offer, Ozzy. I may take you up on it if things go south. That does remind me: My daughter, Vaan, is going to be occupied for the rest of the day, but come tomorrow, would you mind giving her the grand tour? I don't think she's experienced Weston without doom and gloom surrounding her. It'd be worth a couple hundred dollars to me.

Ozzy smiled and thought, ((Hey, just because I'm a mercernary doesn't mean I'm greedy. Keep the money. I can give her the grand tour, no problems. I know these streets like the back of my hand. Anyplace in particular you want me to take her? Or is there anyplace you want me to avoid?))

Katy nodded, Thanks, Ozzy. I appreciate it. Just show her everything, from the biggest beauties in Weston to the small, cozy little places. She's kinda from a time in the future she can't get back to, and from what she's told me, I probably wouldn't let her if she could. Oh, and feel free to take Clarissa with you, too. Don't want it to seem like I'm setting you up on a date now, do I?

She grinned slightly.

Not that she'd be much of a date anyway. She'd probably be too busy taking in the new sights. From what she's told me, Weston was basically a warzone.

Ozzy nodded and said, {{Well, duh, I'm taking my wife. And sure, I can do that. I've been all over this town. But, wow. So she's from the future? And Weston was a warzone? Hrm. Sounds like a bad one. Let's hope we avoid it, yeah?}}

He then smirked and added, {{Man, this place is really becoming a hub for time-travelers, yeah?}}

Katy smiled. Yeah, great way to find out you have a daughter, huh? That does remind me, though: If you could avoid the area around the Tanaka Dojo, I'd appreciate it. I...haven't exactly let Aaron know we end up married and with a kid. Even as she told Ozzy, the feeling of slight satisfaction and comfort came over him at the thought, as if Katy was reassured by something.

Ozzy smiled and replied, {{I can do that, hehe. But don't think that just because you married and had kids with him in one timeline means that things will automatically turn out the same way here and now. Or that they'll happen at the same relative time. Unless she remembers an older version of herself in her native time, then there's already ONE change. It's like Grandpa always says, nothing is set in stone. I'm sure more than a few Seers predicted that the world was supposed to end when Konnish attacked a while back.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is: don't get complacent. If you want that future? Work for it. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that relationships do take work. But take solace in the fact that, apparently, you and he can be happy together. If you both want it.}}

Katy smiled, nodding, I know that, Ozzy. I hate time travel, but knowing what the future could hold is comforting, nonetheless. It is frustrating, though. Do you know how hard it is to keep from reading someone's mind during the middle of a date? Especially if you want the relationship to last? But when I have to tell him about my gifts...well, that's going to scare me to death. Just knowing we can be together eases that worry on my mind, Ozzy. Your generation doesn't exactly have to deal with it, but mine? Well, let's just say we're more reserved and close minded when it comes to strange things.

Katy shifted slightly, unsettled a bit. And I still have a date with him tonight.

Ozzy replied, {{I *guess* I can kind of relate. I mean, I could've ordered Tats to sneak into the girls' showers during gym at school and gotten an eyeful of whatever I wanted. That was pretty damn tempting at first. But I don't know about having to resist reading minds. That's not really one of my 'things', you know? I mean, you COULD potentially pick through their head, find out the perfect things to say and all that. Which has to be pretty tempting. I'm glad at least Clarissa gives me pity laughs for all the stupid crap *I* do.}}

He grinned and hugged his wife, and thought, {{And true, my generation's a bit more open-minded, usually. Though the ones that aren't also tend to be more unabashed about being assholes about it. Teenagers can be cruel, and I'm sure you've heard about all the bullying-related suicides and crap in the news.}}

  Clarissa poked him, carefully NOT using a sharp claw tip as she said "Bull!  I never give PITY laughs.  I laugh when you're funny, and I'll throw tomatoes when you are not.". She couldn't help but reply to that comment, what with the dedicated mind link her mutations had given her with him.

Katy smiled slightly. It used to be a huge deal to me. When I first developed my gifts, it was hard to learn to filter out what was me and what was other people. Heck, when someone's got something on their mind, whatever's bothering them usually sticks out like a sore thumb. If I were talking to you ten years ago, I would be reading your mind as well. It's how I got my crush to go with me to my senior prom. Knew exactly what to say and do at the right times.

But once I straightened out and realized that the mind is someones only true private sanctuary...well, it didn't make the temptation any better, but it was easier to control myself.

She paused as if seeing or hearing something. Seems like one of the Defenders had my same idea. Lucas is over at Andy and Victoria's place if you want to visit. She chuckled a little. Apparently scared the crap out of my teenage daughter.

Ozzy grinned and replied, {{I hear you. We're all presented with unique opportunities every day, things no one else could ever do. I'm not so sure I should tell you this, but while we're confessing, I used to be something of a graffiti fiend. Nothing offensive, mind you, I was always beautifying the city. Just, ah, didn't really care so much about asking for permission, first.}}

He then nodded and thought, {{Thanks. I'll head over that way.}}

  Clarissa slid down to rest on his hand, and prickled his shoulder very lightly as she said "I take it we're going visiting?"

Ozzy nodded and said, "Yep. Besides, I didn't really get a chance to see him at the funeral, no thanks to a certain asshat with a sniper rifle."

He then turned to Katy and thought, {{Seeya later! The mindworms seem to work well with telepathy, so if you need me, just send me a mind-message.}}

Katy smiled. I understand, Ozzy. It's just one of those things teenagers do growing up. Anyway, feel free to stop by the precinct or my house anytime. Don't be a stranger. That goes for you to, Clarissa. I may be a bit older, but if you ever want a girls-night-out in a pinch...well, let's just say Meg and I could pull it off pretty well.

Katy watched as the younger heroes left to visit Andy's place, then resumed walking along the streets, musing at what she was going to do for this date tonight. Tonight she was going to tell him...and see where it went from there.

But until then, she was content to browse the streets of Weston, window shopping and trying to maintain a semblance of a normal day.

Ozzy chuckled,{{Hey, I'd KEEP doing it if I had the time. The kind of stuff I do, you normally have to pay for. It's a public service, really. Anyway, later.}}

With that, he took off, headed to Sutra's Apartments, Clarissa cuddled against his chest just how she liked.

>>>To Sutra's Apartments>>>

Word had reached the NPA of a foreign dignitary visiting the city. Bonez stood on a rooftop binoculars in hand standing next to vanish. She smiled as she spotted the limo. "That one Sal, bring us in there." Sal nodded and with a pop the two women appeared in the limo with the elderly chinese man, his guards dead from Bonespikes in their chests before they could react. "Come on null, the superior species has need of you." ANd with another pop the three were gone.

>>>>>>>>>From Legacy HQ>>>>>>>>>>>

Dragon Fist soon arrived with Knight Errant and Meg.

"This was the place where the kidnapping was reported.." he said, keeping himself alert.

  Meg nodded, and stepped close to the limo, inhaling deeply.  She said thoughtfully "If we can open it up, I think the scent will be clearer.  I'm catching edges of it, but I want to be sure I have the right one."

Dragon Fist looked at Meg and asked "How do we open it up?"

 Meg blinked, and said "I was thinking we ask the driver to unlock it personally, but I;m open to other ideas."

"It would look a bit odd, and I believe the embassy is on edge at the moment. But it is worth a shot. Knight, cover our backs.." Dragon Fist said as he approached the embassy (and knocked if he wasn't stopped by embassy security).

Knight Errant nodded staying on the back of his phantom steed as they approached the limo. When DF and Meg went up the stairs he stayed at the stairs watching the area for trouble.

  Meg greeted the Ambassadorial staff in polite Chinese, and explained that they needed access to the limo so that they could attempt to locate and rescue the Ambassador.

Dragon Fist nodded at Meg's statement, then turned to the embassy staff.

"Rest assured, we're here to help.." he told them.

  The staff traded looks, then a fast discussion ensued, but it ended with one of the staff offering Dragon Fist the keys.

Dragon Fist nodded at the staff as he accepted the keys, then went back to the limo, and opened up the drivers side door.

"It's been a rough week. Hopefully this will give you a better tracking point to start with," he said to Meg.

  Meg nodded, and he heard her bap the unlock button, and she opened the back door, and poked her head into the passenger cabin.  She inhaled deeply, then said "I have the Ambassador's scent."

The Mystic Knight watched as the others came back out to search the Limo. His phantom steed trotted over to the two heroes as they stepped away. "So which way? And on street or sky?"

"Good work, Meg.." Dragon Fist replied, a grin evident even with the distortion in his voice.

"Best to assess what we're dealing with once we find out where they're holding him. Meg, lead the way. Knight Errant, follow by air and keep a short distance behind us and cover our backs. I'll take point with Meg."

  Meg half smiled, and said "I'll just bring you with me."  She wrapped them both in her fields, and took them up with her into high atmospheric elevation, holding ground-level atmosphere around them as she opened out, her senses flaring and her eyes turning a solid green-gold as she began a detailed GEM scan of the entire area around Weston.

Dragon Fist knew better than to buck against Meg's fields. He let the young girl lift him up, and prepared himself for the battle to come.

Turning to Knight Errant, he told him "Just relax. Meg has us in good hands."

THe phantom steed vanished as Meg lifted them leaving Knight Errant standing amongst the other heroes while they headed up to scan the city. "So how exactly does this work?"

"Meg is amazing. She can pinpoint where the ambassador is, along with how many guards he has around him," Dragon Fist said. "Once we find that out, we can figure out a way to snatch and grab him."

He then turned to Meg.

"Are our good friends Gargoyle and Black Jaguar available? I wanted to keep the circle small, but rescuing the ambassador is high priority."

  Meg said "I'm not sure, but we can always ask them via the wormnet.  You know Gargoyle's not usually busy, he just putters around with engines and such while he's not busy."  She was narrowing down the area, and said "You going to be ready for a parafight?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, Meg," Dragon Fist said. He then glanced over at Knight Errant.

"You ready for this? Because, for you, this is where it all begins."

Knight Errant nodded at Dragon Fist. "Ready as I can be. Not that I ever expected this to happen when I took the security job out of college."

  Meg grinned at them both as she refocused on the 'normal world', and they all descended toward the seedier side of the docks.

Dragon Fist looked around warily as they landed, ready for any sign of trouble.

  Meg pointed off to the left, and said "Warehouse 27."

Dragon Fist nodded at Meg, looking towards the warehouse she pointed out.

"OK, good job Meg. Now, the next step will be to get the Ambassador out of danger. Can you pinpoint his location? I'll try to communicate with Andy on the wormnet and see if he can help us out."

  Meg nodded, and said "I have it.  He's in the upstairs overhead crane control booth, and he's in one awfully uncomfortable position."

"Help is on the way. I just got a hold of Andy."

"So whats the plan after he grabs the amabassador? How do you want to handle this?"

  "One presumes after I grab the ambassador, and take him away, you guys raise some hell."  The deep, rumbly voice seemed to come from thin air before a shape faded in, and Vic was revealed as Andy shifted to his humanself.  Shades already on and covering his eyes.

Victoria arrived, not far from Andy, as was par for the course. She was wearing the rainment of the Black Jaguar.

"Caught wind of the events this morning. It looks like the Ambassador's kidnappers will be dealt with after we snatch and grab him."

She looked over at Knight Errant.

"You have a great deal of magic radiating off of you. My name is The Black Jaguar, and if you need any assistance with finding out more about your magic, I can aid you."

Dragon Fist nodded as Andy and Victoria.

"Knight Errant....these are two of my closest friends...Andy Black and Victoria Castillo, both extensively skilled in the ways of magic. Victoria knows much about the magics of both our world and others, and can help you find out more about your amulet. For now, though...the plan is to snatch the Ambassador, get him to safety, then we'll deal with his kidnappers."

  Meg smiled, and said "Are we ready to orchestrate this?"

"I believe we are," Dragon Fist said, ready to get underway.

  Andy nodded, phasing as he prepared to blink aft the ambassador.

Dragon Fist waited for the signal from Andy, his hands now glowing with chi, readying himself for battle.

  Andy blinked in, and they heard {{Got the ambassador.   And about six feet of logging chain.  Where do you want him again?}}

"If you can get him to the Chinese Embassy, Andy, that would be great. Thanks again for your help. Things are about to get heated here, so if you want in some action, I certainly won't refuse a hand."

  Andy chuckled, and blinked the Ambassador to the embassy, then reappeared, LOOKING human as he said "So let's put some bootprints on here."

"We're going to put some boots to asses," Dragon Fist said. "Did you happen to catch a glimpse of how many people were guarding the ambassador?"

Victoria's eyes became a solid irisless azure, and her hands glowed with eldritch power.

  Meg said "Let's do it."   That said, she began walking forward, her own eyes gold-green as the door in front of her literally collapsed into a small baseball sized sphere.  Then it dropped to the ground, out of the way.

"Knight, Andy and myself will take point and draw their fire. Meg and Victoria, come in behind us."

Dragon Fist took point, entering the building and waiting for the first of the NPA combatants to engage.

Several "standard" guards came out, dressed in black jumpsuits to meet and greet the heroes who came in.

Meg and Victoria could see a shimmering orange-red energy beginning to pulsate above and around them.

Dragon Fist went and combatted some of the black-garbed guards, but it was painfully obvious that this was a distraction, as it seemed the ones behind this were making their escape.

  Andy had gone for the ambassador, scaring the whey out of him by accident, but it worked to get him out of the line of fire.

The fight progressed, as the perpetrators behind the kidnapping escaped, as their guards were left to take the fall.

Dragon Fist, Knight Errant, Meg, Victoria (and soon Andy) stood triumphant, but the nagging sensation that this conflict had just begun remained steadfast on their minds.

 Meg said quietly "You know, I have the feeling things are about to get bad."

Dragon Fist crossed his arms and nodded in acknowledgement to Meg's comment.

"I agree. If nothing else, they've proven they can strike pretty much wherever and whenever they want."

Dragon Fist turned back to Knight Errant.

"You did good back there, and your skills will only improve with time."

He paused for a moment.

"You owe it to yourself to find out more about the amulet that grants you the power of the ancient Knights. If you find out more about the amulet, it may help you in the future."

"Any ideas on how? The museum still thinks those kidnapers took it. Its not like I'm a historian, just a security guard."

Dragon Fist thought for a moment.

"There's a person I know that may be able to help. She has a very extensive knowledge of the occult. And she's a great person to boot."

He turned to Meg.

"Thank you for all your help, Meg. Do you know if your Mom is presently engaged with anything? My friend here could use some assistance."

  Meg said "I think Mom should be getting back to the house about now . . ."

Dragon Fist nodded at Meg, then turned back to Knight Errant.

"Well....what do you say? Are you up for a little information hunt about your amulet?"

The Knight nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

  Meg asked "Shall I take us all there?"

"That sounds great, Meg. Let's be on our way then," Dragon Fist said, taking one last look around.

Knight  Errant nodded. "Lets get moving'

  Meg gently grasped them all, and lifted them up, soaring through the sky toward her home once more.

------------Kattakara Estate

Victoria declined to go with the others, as she explored the sight where the battle took place. Something was not right here, there was something elusive about this conflict.

She had a thoughtful look on her face before her eyes went a pupiless blue, surveying the area and looking for magical signatures.

"Someone wanted this fight here, Andy. The question is who.....and why?"

  Andy hugged her, and said softly "I don't know, but I assure you, when we figure it out, we'll get to the bottom of WHY."

Victoria smiled at Andy, hugging him back then went back to surveying the sight.

"Hmmmmm.....this isn't good. There are residual traces of chaos magic. Our friends and their opponents are pawns in a much bigger game. But what?"

She sighed for a moment.

"It's difficult being the Defender of the Realm, seems opponents come at us from all sides."

  He kissed her temple, and said "Of course they do.  If it was easy, they wouldn't need US."

"You're right about that, Andy," Victoria said, her eyes now returning to their pupil state.

"Let's head back home, get some rest, and then we can put our heads together on this mystery."

  Andy smiled, and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hot kiss as he blinked them back to the apartment.  He said softly "At least we can usually get away without being followed, right love?"

Victoria smiled as they appeared back in the apartment.

"It's one of the many benefits of being magically inclined," she said as she briefly sat down.

"I only need a few minutes, then we can start figuring out why there's Chaos magic lingering around."

Andy sat down, and cuddled her close, then kissed her temple.  He said "Take all the time you need."

Victoria laid her head on Andy's strong shoulders, sighing happily, now resting comfortably.

After a few moments, the young woman felt reinvigorated and refreshed. "Much better...I needed that."

  He rumbled with amusement, then said "Sometimes, it's the little things in life that. Make huge differences."

Victoria kissed Andy on the cheek, and made a "token" effort to get up from his strong arms.

"You always know how to invigorate me. Now, let's see what we can find out about this presence of chaos magic."

 Andy smiled, and held her close to kiss her lovingly before he rose, then gently set her n her feet.

Victoria smiled after the kiss, going over to her workbench. Incense soon filled the room, as she closed her eyes.

"The Forces of Chaos and Strife precipitated the conflict in the streets, as they push both Paras and humans to a state of war. The Champion is called away...protectors are still here...the beginning of new life."

She breathed heavily.

"Agent of Chaos, reveal yourself to me."

Both Victoria and Andy could see a shadowy visage of a head, but nothing more. An eldritch bolt shot out, hitting Victoria and sending her to the ground, though she was able to get up easily.

"Couldn't see...who...it...was.."

  Andy wrapped his arms around her, and rumbled "Whoever it is, he's going to have a major health problem if he hurt you."

Victoria got up with Andy wrapped around her. She stroked his cheek fondly.

"Thank you Andy. The bolt didn't hurt terribly. But whoever that was, they had some strong protection around them."

  He kissed her temple, then whispered "I will always protect you."

Victoria smiled at Andy.

"I have strong protection as well," she told them, then looking back at the workbench.

"As for this other matter, now we know that there is SOMEBODY behind this. Someone extremely powerful. Any ideas come to mind, Andy?"

  Andy shook his head, and said "Not off the top of my head, but I am no expert on mages."

"I'm not so sure it was a mage," Victoria said as she started thumbing through several arcane tomes. "Call me crazy, but there is much more to this. Someone wants this war to happen, for the sake of the chaos it will bring."

  Andy rumbled and said "Gods above and below, don't we have enough Chaos in Weston??"

Victoria closed her eyes, her hand shimmering with magical light.

"This city is a focal point for Chaos. We have to stop it before it boils over and envelops all in its path."

  Andy leaned against the wall, propping it up nicely as he rumbled "You know how this works, love.  Point me where you want objects destroyed or monsters slain, but you have to know where to point me."

Victoria nodded at Andy.

"Maybe it's time we pressed on some of our snitches in the magical community. I'm certain that there are plenty of favors owed to us."

  Andy nodded, and said "Lead the way, love.  We need information."

"Follow me then..."

Victoria closed her eyes, teleporting to an alleyway below, waiting for Andy to arrive.

  He blinked almost as fast as she did, his wry smile clear.

Victoria looked back at Andy, pointing at what appeared to be a sleeping hobo, and she then approaced him slowly.

"Watch my back. You know how jumpy these Changelings can be."

  He moved to stand behind her, his hands gently on her waist, clearly marking her as his own, even as he kissed her temple while she poked the changeling.

"Snitch..." Victoria said, gently nudging the changeling. "We have need of information....and you owe us."

  Andy loomed quietly behind Vic, his presence a silent warranty of protection for her.

The hooded hobo looked up, his face had pupiless green eyes, no nose and a small mouth.

"Chaos looms....this city focal point....someone want to push tensions over edge....Paras, normal....threaten to overwhelm all."

Victoria smiled, seeming to be pleased with the changeling's answer.

"Can you tell me who this someone is?" she asked him.

The changeling looked past Victoria at Andy, a fearful expression on his face, then answered "Not know who...but definitely someone....someone who wants to see Order toppled and Chaos reign supreme. Did see something...a gateway...shimmers here and there...but if you find gateway, you find Agent of Chaos. Please, no more questions."

Victoria nodded. "Thank you. May Sanctuary continue to be conveyed on you."

She then turned back to Andy. "At least we know someone is behind it. Apparently someone is using a gateway to travel between planes. If we can find one of these gateways, we find our aggressor."

  Andy nodded, and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to his warm chest as he said "I'm right by your side the whole way, love."

"I know that Andy. But it does feel good to hear you say it," Victoria said, hugging him back. She then looked around.

"Let's get back to the Sanctum. Once that gateway materializes, we need to be ready."

  Smiling, he tugged her close for another one of those hot kisses, and blinked them back to her sanctum while he did it.  She'd ASKED to go!!

Victoria continued the hot, lingering kiss even after arriving in the Sanctum.

Smiling, and reluctantly disengaging from the strong man, she closed her eyes, producing three eldritch spheres of light, and dispersed them.

"These spheres will alert us when the gateway is used. Then we will find out the identity of this aggressor."

  Andy chuckled, and said "Good.  We can kick some ass and leave a dead body in our wake, love.  I'm none too fond of extradimensionals of any stripe causing more TROUBLE."

"Especially considering that this one is deliberately causing trouble," Victoria said, now beginning to concentrate.

  He stood close, but out of the way.  Silent as could be so he wasn't distracting her.

After several moments of concentration, Victoria opened her eyes.

"Found the gateway. It's not far from here. I don't know what we're facing, but be on your guard."

  Andy kissed the side of her throat, and whispered "When am I ever not ready?"

Victoria smiled as she teleported from the Sanctum to what appeared to be an alley, and a shimmering portal could be seen by the both of them.

"Show yourself, Agent of Chaos," she said with a serious look on her face.

A taloned gray-skinned hand could be seen, slowly emerging from the portal.

  Andy kissed the side of her throat, even as she felt his body shifting, changing from human looking to his Demonform, those long black talons on her hips as he watched that hand.

The hand soon gave way to the figure that it was attached to. A grey skinned humanoid with the head of a ram, barechested, but wearing what appeared to be leather pants, and on its chest, several runes could be seen.

http://static.comicvine.com/up...__earth_616__002.jpg

"Well well well....so the Defender of the Realm shows herself? It really was too bad that you and the forces of Order stopped those idiots. But somehow Order triumphs, only for the time being."

Victoria narrowed her eyes, her hands beginning to glow with eldritch energy.

"But I suppose you want a name to the face, don't you? You may call me...Anarchic. And this city will be enveloped in the pure essence of Chaos."

  Andy's deep, rumbling growl was clear, and he said "I don't like you."

Anarchic chuckled at Andy.

"Wow...this is amazing. A demon thrall....what does she do for you? I mean, you obviously are the servant, and she is the mistress."

"Shut your mouth!" Victoria said as she levied a blast of eldritch energy at him.

  Andy smiled, and said with a laugh "Something you never could.  So get ready to get your ass handed to you."  He stepped around her, his scales glittering as he half-spread his wings, shielding Vic from this creature's sight as he snarled.

Anarchic chuckled as he paced back and forth, like a lion getting ready to jump on its prey.

"Do I sense....LOVE? A truly chaotic thing...one that I can appreciate. Love takes you off the focus of protecting the realm, giving you a choice...protect the one you love, or the denizens of the entire plane? A choice that, one day, may have to be made. But let's talk about today."

He then crouched into a running position, and then charged at Andy with his horns coming at the handsome demon-man.

  Andy simply smiled, and when he charged, he snagged his horns and shoved DOWN, even as his tail, that spaded-spiked whippy thing spun, carving a bloody hole into the thing's chest.

"Ooh.....yessssss...." Anarchic hissed as Andy's tail impacted his chest. "A challenge like no other. Truly YOU would make an excellent agent of Chaos."

Victoria yelled at Anarchic "Stop goading him! It's me you want!" as she hurled eldritch spheres of force at the otherworldly denizen.

Anarchic leaped away several feet and beckoned Andy again. "You should be the master, not the servant, denizen of the Lower Planes. Unless you are already in your proper place."

  Andy LAUGHED.  He told the creature "You just don't get it.  And you never will!  I am happy."  He waited for it to press the attack, smiling at him with those wicked sharp teeth, his ebony-and-purple-flame eyes laughing still.

Victoria stood beside Andy, an angry look on her face.

Anarchic merely grinned at the two. "Thank you for giving me a delicious taste of the Chaos to come" he said, shimmering from their sight a microsecond later.

  Andy said softly to her "Don't let him get under your skin, my love."

"It's the nature of chaos....to try to distract us from our purpose," Victoria said, slightly more relaxed. "He'll be back....we'll be ready for him."

  Andy rumbled, and said "He really is clueless."

"Let's go home," Victoria said. "We also may want to warn the others. If he got involved with the fight between us, he's liable to try to start trouble elsewhere."

  Andy nodded, and slid his arm around her waist, picking her up to 'port them home, adding, as he kissed her deeply "He had no clue that my 'proper place' is by your side, in your bed, in your arms, where we can love and live and laugh together."

Victoria returned the kiss as they arrived back in the Sanctum.

"I'm glad that our place is together Andy. I believe he was trying to promote strife between us....something he should have known is next to impossible, as our bonds are unbreakable."

  Andy smiled, and said "It is vanishingly rare for a True Binding to happen, love.  So when one sees a Bound Demon  . . . the almost logical assumption is that he is bound by sorcery, not the heart.  You, my love, bound me with the only way that is sure, with love, and that sort of Binding makes it a delight to be YOURS.  I know you don't look at it that way, but everyone who sees auras can see the Binds.  There is a REASON they are shaped like slave shackles."

Victoria smiled.

"I don't see it as you being a slave to me. In my mind and heart, we are equals, and I will always see it that way."

  Andy smiled, kissing her as he said "Love, that's part of why I love my 'shackles'.  I never want them off, and I never want to lose you."

"You won't lose me, Andy," Victoria told him softly. "Now...we've seen this Anarchic character and...he really infuriated me. I can't afford to let him get under my skin like that again."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Wed 30 Oct 2013.

  Andy kissed her, and said "That is why I laugh at him."

Victoria shook her head and laughed.

"Yeah, it's amazing that he thinks the power of Chaos is stronger than the bond you and I possess. I am concerned though that he may try to attack us using more...subtle...means. We may want to send a warning to the rest of our friends, just in case."

  Andy hugged her, and said "Yes, love, we should."

"Tell them through the worm network, love...leave anything of the magical variety to the magic-users," Victoria said. 'It will be tough but I'm sure that we, along with the Gysbournes, will manage."

  Andy nodded, and kissed her.

>>>After the Timeskip>>>>>>>

Time had passed on since the Legacy seemed to dissolve. The original members were either dead or retired. For the man known as Dragon Fist, the passage of time had not been altogether smooth.

Even with all of the loss in his life, Lucas managed to reconcile with his family. While gaining a family life again was a great gain, the great void left by the loss of Friday and Mirage was one that could not be filled.

Loss. Loss seemed to define him. Not one...but two women that he loved....both of them had been stolen from him. By various forces of evil. The who and the why didn't matter. What mattered is that the forces of evil had crossed the line one time too many. So there would be justice done.

But a new and brutal, almost savage, justice.

Dragon Fist was like a force unleashed, levying himself first against the street-level thugs, then slowly working his way up the annals of organized crime. His approach was one of brute force (though he still maintained his stance of not killing). There were, however, multiple trails of broken bodies, beaten within an inch of their life, all attributing the vicious deeds to "a winged freak".

This day....this day, Dragon Fist stood atop of one of the downtown buildings, looking down on the denizens below as they scurried about like ants as they went about their daily business.

This night was unusually quiet. Too quiet. That silence allowed Lucas to think. Or perhaps to overthink.

Weston had disappointed Dragon Fist. In need of a convenient denizen to take out his frustrations on, the criminal element seemed to almost hide from him.

And so Dragon Fist swooped down, and in an alleyway, re-assumed the form of Lucas Martinez. It was getting late. But he knew...he knew Weston would not disappoint him again. It was only a matter of time before one of his old enemies would rear their head.

He then proceeded to walk into the night, becoming of the denizens that he had previously observed.

>>>>To ??????>>>>>>>>

A man who looked like a skeleton wrapped in see-through glowing flesh stood in front of a building in downtown weston. He held out his hands and a blast of energy fired from his palms blasting a hole in the wall. "Reeve! I know you're in there! You're going to pay for what you did!"

2 days after the robbery at the museum...

Rodger's dingy old car pulled up to the curb inside of a housing tract. Parking, Clumsy Charlie the clown got out, checking both ways for oncoming cars and retrieved a package from the back seat before locking the doors. Harvey Dentman had left the henchclown trope a few weeks ago, blowing himself to bits for the last time in order to able to be unbonded from his suit and take advantage of a job he'd been offered in New York City. Now, re-programmed for a new character, and attuned to someone new, Rodger was delivering it to the fellow who was joining them. The new costume appeared, from what he could see of it, to be mostly furry, with a horned Viking helmet. So... some kind of clown Viking or clown barbarian warrior, he guessed.

But other than the name and the address, Rodger knew nothing about this fellow or what agreements had been made. He'd been mind-mailed a code phrase to tell him for recognition, and instructed to pretend to be robbing him and 'force' him to get dressed in the outfit. So he'd brought along a clearly (hopefully) fake pistol (a squirt gun loaded with 0 calorie raspberry flavored water) to use in the 'robbery.'

One white hand in his fingerless dark glove lifted to press the doorbell. And he waited.

Mittens is torn.  On the one hand, glowy skeleton guy is already getting violent.  On the other swanky party crashers are poised to possibly kill way more people than the skeleton guy who's after someone who sounds like he deserves what's coming to him.

"Have you considered taking legal action against Mr. Reeve?" Mits asks, munching on an hors d'oeuvre from the swanky party.

She's keeping a close eye on the party, but isn't intervening just yet, figuring that things might just resolve themselves without anyone getting hurt so long as a superhero doesn't show up and escalate things...  (Unless of course that superhero's name is Matt and he makes all the victims invulnerable, but we digress.)  But just in case, Miss Adventure is now dressed in a very fancy black dress and diamond necklace for in case she has to blend in with the rich people crowd.

The man jumps as Mittens speaks, turning to look at her. "Wha?"

But before he can say anything further he was interrupted from a voice from inside the building. "I didn't mean for this to happen John! It was an accident!"

The glowing man growls in response. "Accident!? It was your machine that did this Reeve! Turned me into a freak! And you're going to pay accident or not." He fires another blast at the building.

"Please John let's just talk about this! Let me help you!" The voice replies

"No! No talking! Now stop hiding and face your death like a man" The glowing man stalks towards the building, completely forgetting about Mittens.

Lifelight was flying to the scene because she heard the noises. Upon getting there, she sees the skeleton. Having heard the names involved, she now knows how to address each person. In her usual soft tone, "Hi Mittens." she says with a soft smile and a wave.

She looks at John and calls out. "John!" and begins to fly to him with a concerned look on her face. "What if it could be undone?"

Eek!  Sudden jump from PG to R-rated gore fatality over at the rich party!  Mittens freezes for a moment.  All the edgy stuff she was involved in over the past couple years usually involved dried green alien blood, which lessened the horror value a great deal, and Matt being around meant that the chunky salsa stuff never happened right in front of her eyes.  This hits waay closer to home.

So, kiinda distracting.  Hence Ray-John getting away with blasting the building again.  But yay!  Lifelight is here!  Maybe she's so super, she can save the guy with the chest cavity?

Mits pops next to Lifelight and opens a small portal for her to be able to see the hole in the rich dude's chest.  "Please tell me you can s-save this guy?"

With that done, she'll pop portals over at where she heard Reeve's voice coming from to find the guy and get him to safety.  (Safety meaning the inside of a para-resistant prison cell just in case he's a villain that gets his kicks out of turning people into toxic avengers.)

Lifelight looks over at chest-cavity-man and gasps! "I will need him and I to go to my lab." she reaches for the small portal as if ready to work on the man. Her intent: provide the man's brain oxygen to keep him alive for a bit until she can get him to her lab where she can give him the proper artificial heart or lung, whichever is needed.

But none of this will be possible without Mitts, so Ant is just kind of taking action assuming Mittens will do what is needed for Ant's actions to continue.

The man looks up at the flying woman. "C-can it be?" What can be seen of his face looks hopeful, but then Lifelight flys over to the cat eared woman and begins talking in hushed tones. "Hey! You can't just say something like that and walk away! You're messing with me aren't you!? I'll show you!" He raises his hands in the direction of Lifelight and Mittens and fires a blast of green energy towards the both of them.

  A line of spiny not flesh reaching down from the skyline intercepts the angry blasts, commenting  "Hey, I know it might be too little too late now that you are shooting up buildings and people."

  Matt swiftly lowers the rest of himself to ground level, saying "But one bootleg cenobite to another.  Putting on a brave face makes it less likely people will thank god they can guiltlessly forget you exist."

  He turns his head in the direction of Lifelight, dealing with where Mittens asked Matt to be, rather than where Matt stopped first. "Like why she left. Nobody will care if the guy punching gaping chest wound into people turns out to be secretly funding orphans.  All people will care about is they were 'some assholes shooting up a place.' "
This message was last edited by the player at 01:17, Sat 13 Apr 2019.

Mits was JUST about to answer The Lavish Legion's Boss (LLB) when John shoots at her!  Instinctively, she raises a shielding portal...  that connects to the one that was going to be her talking window to LLB.  Oops!  Good thing Matt showed up and blocked the blast when he did or things mighta gotten real ugly.

"Th-thanks.  S-sorry 'bout the um... stuff." 

Defensive portal closes.

"Here's the... the guy."

Even as she portals out of the scene, chest cavity man appears before Lifelight and Matt.  Just to be safe, Mits leaves a window open so Matt's influence can keep anymore hostages from being smushed.

Her voice can be heard coming from somewhere near the mostly dead dude.

"P-please don't shoot!  I'm on y-your side!"

"Hey John?  These two helped stop the alien invasion the other day.  I've gotta... go do something.  But they're way better at fixing things than me anyway.  Just give 'em a chance."

And to be sure that the voices of her friends aren't heard by the badguys in the hotel, Mits shrinks her portal to be tiny enough to fit inside her ear.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:14, Sat 13 Apr 2019.

Lifelight doesn't seem to notice the blast, but does get momentarily confused by the sudden dropping of the portal before chest-cavity man is now in her arms.

She then looks over to see Matt's rescuing headtail and gives a look of concern. "Hi, Matt. Thank you. Can you suspend the physical state of the man I'm holding until I can help him?"

Now John can see some richly dressed man with a hole in his chest in Antoinette's arms. She looks at John. "I'm sorry. This man needed me too. Will you go with me to my lab?"

She is losing altitude as she slowly carries hole-man to the ground. She also seems unaware that John is unstable or that he shot at her.

John stared at Matt as he landed, shocked at his appearance. "You....you too?"

He turned to Lifelight as she spoke. "You can seriously fix me? You're not lying?"

  Matt has found people start to get irrationally trigger happy when everything around them is Obviously Invulnerable.  While much less pleasant, 'wow, I can't believe they survived with mild injuries!' seems to make people less inclined to keep shooting at the same civilians.

  "Sure thing, Lifelight." Like Lifelight's request. When somebody with a big hole in their chest already has clear meta shenanigans going on around them, what's one more?

  "You have better odds than most there, John." Matt's awareness takes a moment to consider important questions like 'Did the guy John was yelling at already get turbo murdered cruel irony style', but research notes and materials are a non issue to recover even if John's anger was now towards a pair of smoldering legs. (It's PROBABLY fine, Nameless guy was still complaining after the last blasts toward the building)

  "It's apparently somewhat recent, you've got a lead on why, and people willing to help if you settle down. That's already way more information than I ever got." Even if Matt has come to take some comfort in the fact not even ancient wizards know what he's filled with these days.

  Figures it took becoming an inhuman monster to finally accept himself as a person. Most are not that lucky.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Sun 14 Apr 2019.

Lifelight says, "I can try to fix you. Fixing people is what I do. You can call me Lifelight."

She purposefully does NOT call out to Reeve. That would draw the calming John back to the focus of his rage, which could set him off again.

Lifelight then says, "We have two options. I wait for Mittens to be ready to teleport us to my lab. Or I summon my mecha to take us to my lab."

A tiny portal opens near Lifelight pointed at her ear.  The voice of comes in loud and clear for her, but for everyone else the sound is like listening in on someone else's headset

"Things just got really violent over here, Lifelight.  But someone's picking off the baddies, so I don't expect to take very long."

Meanwhile, with Rodger.

The door opened and a man stood in the doorway. He looked like he had just gotten home from work, he had removed his suit jacket, and his tie was loosened but he still had the shirt and pants on. He stopped, a look of fear crossing his face when he saw Rodger immediately holding his hands up. "Just take whatever you want!"

"Whatever's faster, I don't want to spend anymore time as this....thing then I have to." John replied.

Lifelights systems detect radiation coming from John, though Matt's influence is currently negating any effects.

  "Mecha sounds best for now.  Not because giant robots are cool" Which they are "But because those portals are still regularly having munitions and tear gas transported through them."  Matt has spoiled himself on instant travel through various means, but slower travel has it's uses.  An impatient radioactive man brought to a lab is better than 'five seconds ago, they were shooting you'.

  Oh, and there's also torso trauma guy.  But he's not dying so, uh. Sorry not sorry you are a secondary concern.

  "Also, John.  You've got a lot on your plate right now. But it would be wildly irresponsible to not mention 'did you know you are radioactive'? That's currently being handled in the short term so you won't kill the injured guy just for standing near him, as ambient radiation is easier to quick fix than BEING radioactive." Matt does a Forensics and traces the unique glowing skeleton's trail with his Awareness in the hope it leads to somewhere relevant.  While smoothing over any 'health problems' levels down to 'It's a Clue' levels.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:47, Sat 20 Apr 2019.

A mech comes flying in*. Standing at about fifteen feet tall and having treads for "feet", even though it can seem intimidating with its large, impressive arms and clamp-hands, it is clear the vehicle is not really a combat mech. No guns. Besides! It has a construction-vehicle paint job, so clearly it is meant for work and not war, right?

Antoinette says, "There it is."

With one of its arms, the mech grabs the currently (and thankfully) unconscious man with a hole in his chest. The central cockpit opens and Antoinette hovers, presenting the cockpit to the radioactive man. "You can sit here if you like."

*Like this, but with tank-treads for "feet":
https://i.pinimg.com/originals...a7a670af45e2af3c.jpg
This message was last edited by the player at 04:52, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

John shrugs at Matt. "Didn't know for sure, but kinda figured. What else would glowing green energy mean?" As the mech arrived John let out a low whistle before climbing in the offered cockpit.

Lifelight is happy John was impressed by the mech. Lifelight gives a small smile to radioactive man and then takes off with the mech. The cockpit closes, but the man can hear Lifelight through the machine's internal speakers (and likewise, she could hear him through her headset). "The more I know, the more I can help. Please tell me what you can about what happened up to the accident?"

She expects that either Matt's power to put dying on hold will keep till she makes it to her lab... or Matt will follow her. Either way, Lifelight trusts Matt enough to not feel the need to ask much more.

Speaking of Matt, he could easily be heard by John a number of ways; either speak closely to Lifelight's face or talk loudly near the cockpit.

  "Yeah, that's a fair assumption." Of course this is a setting where green glowing skeletons can a very wide variety of causes. So no wonder more holy types carry guns these days just to be sure.

  "I'll just hitch a ride on the outside." Matt could fit inside if he wanted to, but sudden Mac and Me impressions probably would not help matters right now.

John nodded. "I don't really know much. I was Reeves' assistant, one of them anyway. We were working on a new form of radiation therapy, for cancer patients. We were going to test it, without a patient, just to see how well it worked. I was in the room, doing some fine tuning on the machine when the door suddenly shut behind me. I ran over to it, but it was locked. Next thing I knew I woke up as...this thing."

Lifelight's soothing voice came through the speakers again, "Were there security cameras in the place you worked at?"

She then looked at Matt. "Matt, please bring Reeve too."

And with that, the bunch are headed off towards the lab Antoinette works at! It would probably take them 10 minutes to get there.

  Okay so Reeve would be... Man, While mittens makes the Deadpool jokes, Matt plays hot potato with a living narrative. "Unless the cops or worse will be angry, probably five to ten minutes"

  While Matt goes through the metaphysical equivalent of mashing the browser refresh button on Reeve as a person, he physically arrives in the (since repaired) former hiding place of the man.

  He hopes any attempts to dispose evidence (if there even is any here, as his awareness runs the Family Circus Trail back to the origin story of Radioactive Skeletons) was through physical trauma or digital button pressing.  It's a bit embarrassing retrieving the flushed kind.

OOC: "How did you find the records of the drug deals without a hacker?"  "I hit CTRL-Z on the universe" "How did you find the drugs?"  "I'm also a living roto rooter."

Reeves is confused to find himself in a cell, then even more confused to find himself back in his lab with no damage done to it. For a second he wonders if it was all a dream, then he sees Matt. With all the stress of the day, plus being confronted by whatever Matt is Reeves just breaks down, curls up in a ball, and starts crying.

While waiting for Matt Lifelight spots a cloaked figure standing on top of a nearby building, but strangely, he does not show up on her sensors.

  You would think having no physical breath would make resisting the urge to sigh effortless, but he still has to try real hard some days.  "Even with your life being in a better place now than it was ten minutes ago, that's an understandable reaction."

  Matt gestures towards the intact walls, "I can fix a lot of things, and I certainly know enough people who could piece together the how and why of what happened here today without your input if I left right now." some would probably do it out of boredom as much as any sense of justice.

  He takes a seat outside of arms length by Reeve, "But even if it turns out it really was an accident.  I can't cure most people of regret. Whether you avoid it, or even simply lessen it, that's up to you trying to help John. Even if all that amounts to is walking people through what you know."

  Matt does sigh now, adding "But I don't think John is in a state of mind where he realizes you giving a **** about him beyond sympathy, will end up more important than if he's stuck as a freak or not... You know, after you deal with your more than justified stress. I might actually slap someone if they act like you didn't just narrowly avoid getting blown up."

  Oh Matt, you were this close to a heartfelt speech.

Upon seeing an undetectable, Lifelight is curious. Since none of her sensors are detecting the cloaked figure, but her eyes are, she can't help but theorize the person either has powers or technology that prevent detection outside normal means.

She speaks to John. "I'm still with you. The mech you are in is going to fly ahead to my lab. I will catch up."

Lifelight heads to the cloaked figure and waves with a smile.

"It WAS an accident!" Reeves shouted in a high pitched voice. He sobbed for a moment before continuing. "He wasn't supposed to be in there! The room was on a timer! He must not have looked at the time and I didn't see him on the cameras till it was too late!" He buried his head in his knees continuing to sob, then added. "I-I Just went to the bathroom, but when I came back he was already..." He trailed off staring down at his feet.


The cloaked figure turned to watch as Lifelight approached. His face was obscured by his hood, and both hands were in his sleeves leaving no discerning features, not even skin tone. "Good evening my child, it warms my heart to see your attempt to aid your brother in the trying time of his transition. But I must warn you, once Pandora's box has been opened you cannot return what has been released."

Lifelight answers the cloaked figure with a smile and her usual soft voice, "Hi. I'm Lifelight." then tilts her head a little, as if to let the figure know she is pondering what he said. "Thank you. Please tell me more."

Meanwhile, her mech does as she mentioned and goes on ahead towards her lab. Lifelight had been sure to make sure Reeve would not be in John's field of view while en route, lest the guy loose himself again.

  "That would sound outlandish, if not for how common that sort of tragic timing seems to come up." Like stellar empires being unable to go five minutes without being re-conquered. No wonder so many ancient immortals are in retirement when even just a few years of work crumples the second you turn your back on things.

  "What was the intended nature of your project?  Simply going through your stuff won't have the same meaning as hearing it from you.  While a 'cure' may seem like a dim prospect to you, making his now radioactive nature only dangerous when he wants it to be, not simply for existing, is far more likely."  It's no longer 'tragic' if most people won't survive being close enough to hear you lament your fate, after all.

  Even if Matt is fielding that particular problem, he figures it is for the best to discourage a slow creep towards one day doing more work keeping things running than the laws of physics.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:48, Tue 07 May 2019.

The Hooded figure inclined his head towards lifelight. "I am The First. The machine is not the source of his change merely the catalyst for his awakening to what is known in modern times as a parahuman. Once a parahuman has ascended they cannot return to their former state. His gifts can be controlled, focused, but he cannot go back to the mere human he was before."


Meanwhile in the lab.

"The project was supposed to be a new radiation treatment, for cancer. I don't know how much help I can be, parahuman physiology isn't exactly my area of expertise."

Lifelight ohs. Then smiles again and says softly, "Thank you. Do you want to come with me and help assure John of what you told me? Or help with his ability to control it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:35, Tue 07 May 2019.

  "It does matter, because in the past we'd be having this conversation about smallpox.  I don't have any proof the universe was out to get you in this case, just as I don't have any proof people are very, very good at telling the universe to go **** itself." It shows Matt is new to this because he's not being nearly grandiose enough about the subject.

  "I'm running mostly on instinct and good intentions.  However, even if what happened to change John will probably be officially filed under 'irreproducible freak accident', the specifics will probably make a difference in John's ability to hold any semblance of a normal life." After all, the intended subject of research is how to use radiation without killing somsone... Even if something this extreme was never expected by anyone involved.

  "I can afford to fly blind because that can't hurt anyone. Very literally. But even something as little as a stack of printouts is reference that can help John come to grips with how to contain and shoot godzilla beams without irradiating anything but his intended target. Or twisting science's arm enough to avoid even that."

  OOC: For the same reasons 'and now, SKELETON!', a cliff notes out of date science textbook also probably works as Dumbo's magic feather if needed.  The ability to make physics cry was inside you all along, John!
This message was last edited by the player at 14:51, Fri 10 May 2019.

The Doctor stood, trying his best to pull himself together, and only partially succeeding. "I'll come along and try to help as long as you can keep him from killing me on sight, I can't help anyone if I get disintegrated."


Meanwhile

The man in the hood tilted his head as if considering it. "Not if your friend will be there. His creators and I had a disagreement many millennia ago that I am still not happy with. Besides that I am merely acting as an observer for now, my plans are not yet ready for me to begin interfering in this latest age."

Lifelight offers a card to the cloaked figure with an innocent smile. "I understand. This is my contact information. May I have yours?"

The card has a phone number, email, and a list of chat handles she is on.

  "Well Reeves, that much I've already done, and can continue to do so. But as a heads up, there is a stabilized victim of another incident that happened at the same time elsewhere along for the ride."

  He offers his hand, because he has the luxury time to let people brace themselves for his own mode of rapid travel right now. "Just say anything you need, and I'll bring that along too."

  His Instincts are as frustratingly vague as ever in reaction to nearby exposition, but are telling him the old game in town can be forgiven for still thinking it is the only game in town.

  OOC: In a perfect world, sometime The First will be mid dramatic speech when those he claim are responsible for Matt ask "Wait, who the hell are you talking about?".  Though it's flattering to have big names claim you are part of the cosmic grade lore.  I've had much worse retcons in my gaming life, after all.

The cloaked figure shook his head. "I think not. I know where to find you my child, I will be there if you need me." The figure made some kind of obscure hand motions and dissapeared in a puff of smoke.

Reeves shakily stood to his feet. "I don't think theres anything specific I need and wouldn't know what it would be anyway."

  Matt shrugs saying "That sums up everyone's life far too often, really." as he takes Reeve's hand in his own.

  His headtail politely waits an awkward pause's length after puff of smoke, to extend back to the Mech. Commenting out of poor Reeve's earshot "Hey, bringing Reeves too until it's certain he can't help. Shooting him won't kill him right now so keep all attacks to hurtful words at worst." before his humanoid form smoothly arrives with Reeves.

To the empty space where the cloaked figure used to be, Lifelight says softly, "Oh. OK. Goodbye."

Lifelight then looks to see the informative head tentacle going towards her mech. She takes off and flies towards the mech. But she can hear what the mech hears and so understands Matt was politely taking care of the task of letting John know Reeve is potentially part of the solution.

Once she catches up, she smiles over to Matt and then to John. "We're almost there."

Lifelight points at a large building just a couple miles ahead. It looks very much like some secure facility, and also has its own helipad.

John grumbled at the mention of Reeves, but seems to have calmed down slightly. The group is at LIfelights lab in short order prepared to do some science in the hope of returning John to normal.

  Matt resists the urge to shill for the coffee at Meg's place... Okay he knows Dane is passing up going to Apokryphos, but has overlooked Lifelight's convenient lab until now?  Just another day in the life for Matt's Awareness.

  "While on a case by case basis I'm not doubting the quality, but how is the place for multitasking?  Because otherwise, the guy with a hole through his everything should probably be taken care of first. No offense John, but you are not about to die without continued intervention."

A large ceiling door opens to allow for Lifelight and her mech to land inside the lab. She rolls a white table over to a spot near some equipment that looks both medical and scientific in nature. The mech lays hole-man on the table and Lifelight quickly begins hooking him up to life support systems and gets to work on rerouting the functions of what organs used to be in that hole.

Lifelight answers Matt, "I can multitask. John, please lay down on the green table. Reeve, please stand by."

There is an obviously green table over near some other equipment that also looks like a mix of medical and technological.

The green table has various kinds of scanners and once John lays down, the scanners begin scanning him automatically with every kind of nonlethal method of scanning. Lifelight will want to know what is going on inside this guy.

At the white table, Lifelight is pulling out some artificial organs and placing them in the hole while attuning them to the man's biology. She didn't exactly anticipate she would be using such things on someone with a hole this big, but she did anticipate she would need to do emergency operations that involved putting artificial organs in someone.

This is why you need a lab and people who are willing to fund you, folks.

John lays down on the table as instructed. The scanners let out a low noise as they get to work

The injured man's heart was almost completely destroyed but his other organs seemed intact. If Ant could get him fitted with a new heart and plug the hole, he should be fine.

The scanners find that John is primarily producing gamma radiation, but his body is also producing a variety of other types of radiation, just at lower levels than the gamma.

  Hopefully, the injury victim will not be disappointed to learn 'When you got maimed, we turned you into a cyborg' was in the most mundane way possible.

  "While I'm sure you are not surprised by the results John, this is the sort of thing where leaving it up to guesswork is best avoided."

Lifelight is grateful she only has the heart to worry about and is quickly installing an artificial heart, her gloved fingers getting soaked in the man's blood.

Upon hearing the report of her scanners, Lifelight takes a look at the x-rays and such to see if John's insides still look the same as normal humans or if they have changed noticeably.

Lifelight's eyes are still on the heart surgery as she says in her soft tone with a smile, "This man will make it. John, are you in any pain?"

John's organs have warped somewhat, but seem to be functioning for the most part, the x-rays aren't the clearest however because of the competing radiation.He appears to be immune to his own radiation.

"It.....burns, but not as bad as when I first woke up."

  Matt will give Lifelight a chance to adjust the phase polarity whatever before simply willing the incredibly boring but practical result of successful X-ray on X-ray action... Though that won't stop him from saving certain catgirls elsewhere in the city from physically embarrassing themselves further.

  "Not being a danger to yourself is expected, thankfully.  A large part of examining you is to get early warnings for if you are developing alternative sustenance requirements." If so, would John look good in a Hawaiian shirt, like that one guy from Captain Planet that ate radiation?  "Though this kind of output, it's more likely you are joining the food optional club."

Lifelight says softly, "I will do a series of tests to see what needs fixing. But there is a chance you are perfectly healthy and only need to learn to control your new powers."

Matt's comment about sustenance requirements has one of Lifelights thought processes go on a mini tangent about what all kinds of things would fuel someone going through metahuman changes. Might he require oil? Maybe he'll require so much mineral that he eats rock. Or maybe by some weird circumstance, he'll require living flesh. Thankfully, this is a thought process Lifelight has learned is best only shared if asked about. Granted, most of her thoughts are treated that way, but still.

Quickly wrapping up the man who used to have a hole in him, she calls the hospital to inform them she has a patient for them to pick up. Even as she does this, she begins grafting some muscle tissue into the areas needed. She figures the doctors can do the rest once they get a hold of this guy. She has done what immediate work she can for this guy. The rest is a long process and if she wants to keep John from panicking and hurting people, Lifelight is going to have to focus on him from here out.

Lifelight moves over to John and asks, "Do you have family I can call?"

  The little shop, a fairly recent addition to the neighborhood, was a small one.  It  carried absolutely incredible outfits, specially tailored to the person buying them, and custom made.  Each outfit sold came with a diamond accessory, and the accessory was a one-of-a-kind.  The proprietress was one woman who had an odd talent for tailoring and an ability to acquire diamonds like no others.  She had four outfits on display in her shop, each with their accessory.  Nobody had ever seen diamonds quite like those, with such vibrant colors, anywhere else.

  So when the silent alarm went off, the one she'd had specially installed (because she did have diamonds in the store) and the police were called, it was worrisome.  The outfit with the deep purple diamond was gone.

In a dark alley, near a popular Weston Nightclub, A woman in a black club dress screams in pure terror. She is backed against the wall of the alley as three similarly dressed women slowly approach her.

The other women's clothes are disheveled, their skin is unnaturally pale and they all have vicious bite marks on their necks. With wicked grins they reach for their former friend.

  People love to quote that one thing that guy said about fighting monsters and becoming monsters.  Well, clearly those who are already monsters have little to worry about, even if such sayings were probably not intended to be taken literally.

  Case in point and probably not helping the poor victim's nerves, Matt's most inhuman appendage slamming into the pavement between her and the Vampires. The rest of him hanging from his head tail a few feet above the pavement.

  "Hi, I'm Matt.  Just so we're clear, am I dealing with 'rejected humanity after their taste of power' Vampires or 'Husks of their former lives with stolen memories' vampires?" It's probably best to try and feel these things out before going straight for the moral and metaphysical implications around attempting to slice them to bits, or trying his luck at 'Undo: Vampirism'.