EPIC M&M: Issue 7 (IC)

[Dalamar]

Remembering the hole made by Jackson and Anna before their last mission, Johan suddenly has a very urgent need to stop Jennifer from getting a hold of said robots. He quickly scoops up (with a smattering of hesitation when it comes to the garments) everything left behind of Michelle's and dashes to get those to her room, an interesting sight, that.
The memory of Monica doesn't exactly help his speed. One memory conjuring up another, Johan almost stops as he ponders back on her interest and rather beguiling commentry towards his, now lost, duplication ability. With a shake of his head Johan focuses back on the task at hand and pushes the memories to the back of his mind. For now, at least.

Dumping his carryings to Michelle's bed, Johan then takes to the wires and heads to the workshop, fearing the devastation that Jennifer and Mr. Bunny will most likely have caused in the time it has already taken him. Even in his hurry, he takes the time to choose an exit that will produce the least expenses.

 

[Velmont]

Jay stays down in his chair and smile at himself for a quick moment.

Just hope it will be better for him like that. At least, he won't tell himself he could have done something. He will have done it.

 

[Mimic]

"Wow." Is all she says as she enters Dara's room, she spends a few minutes going through the racks choosing an outfit that wouldn't look to provocative but still be able to turn a head of two, if she wanted. "I'm a hottie, why not show it off every once and a while." She thinks with a smile.

"I really got to ask Dara to make me some of these." She thinks as she puts a dress up to he self and look at her reflection in the mirror. "Wouldn't hurt to try to be friends with her either, especially since Tara isn't talking to me at all... not that I blame her." she thinks sighing softly replacing the dress back on the rack.

Noticing the time she quickly dresses, heads back to her room to dump off her night clothes and robe and head out to the runway.

 

[Calinon]

EPIC Headquarters
Mega-city of New York
October 27, 2120

Michelle
You get back to your room to find the door open. There's a faint static discharge you can hear, but nobody is in the room. On your bed is a pile of probably 3/4 of your jewelry and a lone pair of underwear. After taking a few moments to tidy up a bit and get some shoes on, you head down the hall towards the exit.

You pull open the door and run into Tara, literally. The two of you bounce back a foot and freeze in mutual surprise.

Vince
...just kind of stands there drooling at the monitor?

Sanjay
"Mate," Rebound says with a defeated look in a hushed voice. "Have you ever tried to tell Monica to not do something? I mean, I've tried everything short of tying her in a sack and dropping her in the river to keep her out of here. Me and Anna set up an elaborate lock system; she picks it. Hell, we even set up a good alarm system to make sure I wake up; she shorted it out! I had Loki hide the bloody door!" he says, then sighs. "She came through the window.

"It aint easy for the fat kid to get a girl, so I thought it was great at first. She's like super hot and doesn't care about this," he says, jiggling his belly. "But it's like I gotta have her approval for dating and crap. I've tried telling her off, but turns it around on me and makes me feel guilty. Crikey, I like her and all, but I can't get her to leave me alone! You gotta put out more or something, mate; keep her occupied in the mornings. And now this," he moans, setting the food down. "Man, what am I gonna do!"

"About what?" Monica says, finally coming into the room. "You know, you really should have told me you were seeing Crystal," she scolds.

"If you're still here when I find my <censored> clothes, I am going to kick your <censored> <censored>, <censored>!" comes an angry and colorful scream from the bedroom. Monica calmly sets a set of girls clothing on the table near the door.

"Nooo, that's not going to happen," Monica smirks. "So, she's kind of cute. Is this a serious thing?"

Jackson just looks at you and gives you a resigned sigh.

Johan
You pop out into cyberspace and zip on over to the workshops, picking a simple to replace and pretty unimportant outlet to exit from.

"Don't move, or the bunny gets it!" comes someone in a very recognizable voice. Your voice in fact. Rounding the wall you exited from, you see your alter-ego holding some sort of non-functioning ray gun on a large stuffed pink rabbit.

"Wraaaaa!" cries Mr. Bunny, quite distraut, obviously oblivious to the fact the gun won't have any effect on the stuffed rabbit.

"Do you think he knows that ray gun doesn't work?" you hear Jennifer say in an exagerated whisper. Off to the side, you see Jennifer standing on a workbench looking at what Anna is working on, which appears to be a pair of metallic gauntlets.

"No," Anna replies with a shake of her head. "And don't touch those!" she exclaims as Anna reaches for the gloves. Too slow... with a flash of energy, Jennifer and one of the gloves vanishes, reappearing, you notice, on top of one of the battle robots recovered by EPIC for study. Anna looks around, spotting you as she spots Jennifer. She frowns slightly.

"Johan..." she says with frustration.

Aboard the EPIC Jet
Approaching New York

Michael
"Shhhhh!" Dara says, pushing you off her and straightening her outfit, looking over her seat past Kodiak as X12 goes off.

Kodiak sighs. "I think I preferred being Mr. Happy Bear."

Jay
You can't help but pay attention to X12's ravings.

X12
The plane goes fairly quiet at X12's sudden outburst. Thunder turns slowly back around and lets X12 finish his rant before, showing an immense deal of personal control, replying.

"First, yes. I call being trained to kill or be killed 'special forces training.' You may think what you went through is worse than that, but it is the same process the military uses. The American military uses holograms and virtual simulations to train their special ops teams, and rest assured, the training is frighteningly realistic. And the military uses punishment as part of their training. It's harsh and brutal, but it serves its purpose.

"Second," he says intensely, taking another step forward to you, and forcing you to inch backwards towards your seat though you don't realize you are. "You obviously can make your own choices. You chose to join EPIC instead of the NAA military forces. You chose to help your teammates fight people that you should have no interest in fighting. You chose to heal the sick and injured, when you could have just left them to their suffering.

"Third," he says, taking another step, forcing you farther back. "Your memories are fragmented, so you have no idea what Prophet's actual goal in creating so many clones was. You have no idea if he has killed any of the others like you, or if they all escaped him. Not yet.

"Fourth," he says with another step. "EPIC are the only ones who can combat the power Anarchy has. There is nobody else you'll find to help you. The mercenary companies wouldn't take on Anarchy for all the money in the world. The nation's hero teams can't even hold a candle to EPIC. Even without the veterens of EPIC, not a single national hero squad can compete with the power you teenagers have. There is no fame and fortune for taking down Prophet for anyone else; just a lot of dying. And if you think of dragging anyone down with you, remember that Kevin didn't die fighting anyone nearly as powerful as Anarchy.

"Anarchy wasn't always the toughest bunch of terrorists out there. There were a dozen villains and villain groups out there bent on world domination, or destruction or simply wanting to prophet at any expense. And after Anarchy eventually falls to the wayside, and it will, another group will surface to take their place. Killing one man, no matter how powerful, won't stop the evils of the world.

"And lastly," he says, stepping forward again as you fall back into your chair. "If I decide to stop you from leaving the base; if I decide to lock you up; I can. There isn't a damn thing you could do to stop me. Remember that if you decide to test my limitations.

"Now buckle up, everybody," he says, addressing everyone. "We'll be landing shortly.

 

[Agamon]

Sanjay only looks shocked momentarily when Jackson tells him he's been unsucessfully trying to rid himself of Monica. His shoulders slump and he rubs his forehead in consternation, pausing only to respond to the 'putting out more' comment with a look of disbelief.

Looking at Monica as she emerges, and back at Jackson, he rolls his eyes, muttering something in Punjabi that doesn't sound very nice. "Fine. Go do the damage control," he says motioning towards the door.

Assuming Monica allows him in without further questioning (and grabbing a muffin from his tray before he leaves with it), he turns to her. "Monica, this is getting out of hand. I don't get it. Why do you care if Jackson is seeing Crystal? Why does he need your permission? You are not his mom, or big sister, or aunt, or grandmother, or legal guardian, or babysitter. He's the same age as us, and he's not incompetent. And, most of all, he doesn't want you bothering him anymore. And, frankly, I'm getting tired of it, too. Maybe it's time to just give this up, y'think?"

 

[Dalamar]

Johan gives Anna an apologetic look and then walks over to Jennifer. He has a slight fear of the glove being operational and dangerous.
"Jennifer, I have been thinking. I'll take you back to Mr. Split today, after the plane with the rest of the team has arrived. However, there is a condition," Johan says, pausing for a moment. "You and Mr. Bunny must return everything, and I mean everything, you have confiscated from the others to their rightful owner. And you can start by giving that glove back to Anna."

 

[Mordane76]

"Go to hell, Kyle," X12 says and spits at the floor. "You're just too afraid to do what has to be done. If I want to leave, all you've got is muscle and electricity... two things I'm frightfully resistant to... and I haven't even started to test your limits." X12 then turns around and heads to his seat.

 

[Gideon]

Fenris

As the yelling between the two men slowly comes to a halt, Michael just shakes his head slightly and mutters to himself

"Wow...I think I liked Mister Happy Bear more, too. Dara can probably help you with that"

Michael knows when he sees two Alpha males fight. He has been one of them more than once when he used to go to school. X12 actually did pretty well for himself, well against Thunder.

Whispering over to X12 "Thunder's just angry cause he can't get none......sleep that is." With a wolfish grin and a wink, Michael turns back around in his chair and buckles up.

 

[Mimic]

Seeing that only some of her stuff returns doesn't make her any happier, and in the few minutes it takes to tidy up and get her shoes on she has come up with various ways of getting her stuff back. Each more descriptive and painfull then the last.

It was because of those thoughts that she probably didn't see the girl in the door way...

"Hey, watch where your..." She starts to say as she glances up at whoever it is that just bumped into her, a quick double take later the sentence is never finished.

"Tara?... um, hi." She states quietly. "How's it.... What have you... I'm sorry Tara, I didn't want what happened to happen, I just wanted to stop him, I couldn't trust him not to be influencing you somehow, I didn't want you to make a big mistake.... Please don't hate me."

 

[Calinon]

EPIC Headquarters
Mega-city of New York
October 27, 2120

Michelle
"It was my choice; my mistake!" she says sharply. "He didn't care about how I looked! He liked me just because! How many boys do you think look at these and want to go on a date?" she says moving her insect legs and arms. "And it's getting worse," she says with tears in her eyes. She takes off a few little jewelry items she has in her hair, holding it in place, and a pair of tall antenna spring up. "What am I supposed to do now!" she says, bursting into tears.

At least she's talking to you huh?

Sanjay
"I... he's... I'm not bothering him," Monica says in denial, looking at you like she's been slapped. "I'm not. I'm just looking out for him. Nobody else does," she says, her voice getting bit thin as she says that. "You're mad at me?" she squeaks with a stunned expression. "Over Jackie?"

At least she's not bursting into tears.

Johan
"Johan," Anna says again as you get over to the robot. "Your other double is here." It is instantly obvious she was talking to him, not you.

"Aw man," he says, tossing the stuffed rabbit to Mr. Bunny.

"Wraa!" Mr. Bunny exclaims happily, crusing the stuffed rabbit against his chest in a big hug and plopping down with it on the floor. Both Anna and the other you come up to the robot as well.

"Aw man, you brought that little squirt with you? Sometimes I don't think you have the brains afterall," he says tauntingly as he and Anna come up to the robot as well.

Jennifer hits something inside the glove and it starts glowing bright pink. "Ooo, pretty!" she exclaims. "I dunno... it's a pretty nice glove," she says to you. "You really gonna take me home to Mr. Split?" she asks in that 'I'm not as dumb as I seem' voice she uses time to time.

"Take her back to Split!?" your other self exclaims. Anna tries to give him the signal to shut up, but he misses it. "Yet more proof I'm the smart one out of us! Thunder will never let her go back to that turkey."

"You were lying!" Jennifer wails, breaking into tears.

This one is the queen of the instant waterworks.

Anna covers her face in her hands and curses in Russian. "Look, Johan... Johans... Jo... argh! You be quiet and stop upsetting the poor girl!" she scolds the other you. "And you... I don't even know what I'm supposed to call you! Both of you better listen up! I spent the last week perfecting those gauntlets, and if anything happens to one, the other is useless. So get it back! Now!"

Aboard the EPIC Jet
Approaching New York

"Indeed, Michael," Thunder sighs before speaking to X12 again. "However, muscle and electricity are far from my only tools. I have flight and gadgets and super speed; and cold and fire and wind and sand; I can transform the very essence of matter, transverse cyberspace and make an army out of a single person; I have insects and vampires and werewolves and tigers and even a giant bouncing ball. And of course, telepathy."

"Ooo, that's me!" Dara squeals, bounding over to X12. She claps his face in her hand and squeezes his face together. "Ooo, I'm a telepath," she says to X12 "Scary huh? Nappy time!" she squeals and X12 gets slammed back into his chair by a powerful mental blast, then slumps over unconscious.

Heh, a bad sense motive roll, and while you could spend a hero point to re-roll the save and have a 50-50 chance of succeeding or so, there's no real point.

"How'd I do?" she says, beaming a big smile at Thunder.

"Uh... I was kind of thinking Empath might do something without actually hurting him. But that works," he says with a half smile. "He'll likely be rather upset at you."

"Not a problem! I can make him think he's a ten year old girl!" she says, skipping back to her seat.

"We'll talk about doing things like that later, Dara," Empath says, hiding a smile behind her hand as she quickly turns back to the cockpit.

"You must join me in my next argument with Trailblazer, comrade," Kodiak rumbles from infront of Michael and Dara. "It would be nice to get the last word in for a change."

The plane banks slowly and begins a somewhat sharp descent. You see the buildings of New York pass beneath you as you head in towards the tarmac of EPIC HQ.