NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kidjake" data-source="post: 6661411" data-attributes="member: 6776876">It's been two weeks and thing are changing.The warehouse is in the middle of a complete overhaul, getting reinforced with Luvtech technology to become the pinnacle of modern engineering.   A stuffed and mounted Fenrir, mid-lunge, greets visitors as soon as they enter.Parks has a case of 10 Luvtech Mindcontrol Aversion Earpieces delivered to our heroes in appreciation for their past assistance, though warns them that with his position restored he won't be able to look the other way on their habitual misdeeds.They naturally have no idea what he's talking about.All said, these two weeks are good for McCrow and Friends, it gives them a chance to really sit back and rest for the first time in a long time.Once receiving word from Luvless that Ben's procedure was a success, McCrow celebrates by introducing his favored droplet Stallone to a bit of 'culture'.  By the end of these two weeks, Stallone has undergone a rather...drastic change. His sole experience with the outside world now being through 80's action movies, Stallone attempts to emulate his new heroes.  Using his malleable nature, Stallone becomes well over 3ft tall and appears heavily muscled.  He alternates between drinking with McCrow and lifting weights, though neither action actually does anything for him.  Regardless, he now has a cigar in his mouth 24/7, though regularly has to change them as they get too soggy to hold their shape.Stallone also develops a fascination with guns, the larger the better.  Naturally, he finds himself drawn to Chavenski's SAW as it's just sitting there not being used for anything awesome.  The other members of the team constantly wrestle it away from him, but Roger finds it adorable.Fanboy is also quite busy during this time as Luvless made good on his promise and delivered a brilliant blue bladed lightsaber as per their agreement, to Fanboy's great delight it's an exact replica of Luke Skywalker's from the movie, though rather than powered by The Force it has a simple A.I. built into it to anticipate Fanboy's movements before they happen.To the team's growing irritation, he practices with it nonstop.  The rule becomes "If you don't want it lightsabered, keep it in your room."While it's easy to imagine that the whole time is wasted, it does take every ounce of their diplomacy and connections to keep the national guard from coming in and burning down the park once Wilson's influence abates.  Neither Fanboy nor McCrow want to explain to Parks that they're working with Tree King, but they do manage to strongarm the mayor into running interference with the same governor he'd just finished begging for assistance.  At least for a little while.During this time, both Chavenski and Kavlight both wake up with very different experiences.Chavenski is immensely disappointed; he feels no different than he did before they gassed him and still struggles for every breath.  He becomes sullen and locks himself in a room to drink in peace.  Depressed at the thought of being little better than a cripple forever.Bradley reports strange phenomena outside Chavenski's door.  Floating silverware, feeling his feet are made of lead, etc...   However everybody has the decenty to leave Chavenski to his drinking in peace.Kavlight on the other hand claims to feel marvelous.  Once he wakes up they prod him for information on his power, but except for marginally increased strength they can't figure it out.Eventually, Fanboy starts to apologize to the good doctor for putting him in such a dangerous position to begin with.Kavlight waves him off, a disgusted look on his face as his eyes fall to the floor.  "Don't...don't apologize.  It was my fault. I...I was the one that told Depaliamo about the canisters in the first place. He-"Before Kavlight can say another word, Roger cracks him acros the jaw with enough force to bounce the shocked doctor off the off the wall and face face first into the floor.  Kavlight starts to stand up but takes a kick to the jaw that flips him over again."Cool it McCrow." Fanboy says, holding up a hand and gritting his teeth angrily.  "Let's hear what the dead man has to say first.""It's not what you think!" Kavlight says, rubbing his jaw but surprisingly not spitting out any teeth.  "He's got my daughter!  Had her picked up within hours of getting free...""You should have come to us!" Fanboy shouts in response."I couldn't!" Kavlight stammers.  "She's being held somewhere in Maryland, you'd never have gotten to her before Depaliamo made good on his threats...""We could have tried!" Fanboy retorts as McCrow runs his hand under the sink, grumbling angrily as the bruising heals itself."Like you tried with Bradley's dad?" Kavlight asks, looking up from his place on the ground.Fanboy opens his mouth to reply, but nothing comes out.  "That's why you don't use f***ing mobsters to do your taxes." McCrow growls, wiping his hands off."No," Fanboy sighs, rubbing his temples in defeat.  "That's why you don't let them go.""He doesn't know I'm alive yet.  Certainly not that I'm awake." Kavlight points out.  "I...I need to go look for my girl, before he tries to get in touch with me again..or worse, before he thinks I'm not useful anymore.""Absolutely not." Fanboy replies immediately."Why not?" Kavlight nearly shouts."Maybe because you just admitted you're a rat?" Roger does shout.  "You EVER step out of this warehouse again and it will be with a GPS rammed up your ass sideways."Kavlight starts to argue, but Fanboy waves him off.  "Wait..maybe that's not such a bad idea..."Kavlight looks at Faboy in horror."No," Fanboy replies.  "Not a GPS, but an escort.  Somebody to make  sure that you stay on the straight and narrow while you're out there.  Take the Beastman with you."Kavlight's eyes go wide and he shudders.  "How about Bradley?  Or Richard?  I'm not entirely comfortable with Beastman...""Beastman, or nothing." Fanboy replies.Kavlight sighs.  "Fine, I just...I always get the feeling that he wants to eat me, rape me or skin me."Roger hauls Kavlight to his feet and stares him in the eyes.  "You go running to Depaliamo again, he WILL."Meanwhile, the DHS is scrambling like mad to sort out their affairs.  After a lengthy and fruitless search for the escaped Wilson, Big Brother is called home for what they believe to be more pressing concerns and Michael and Mann are assigned to the case in his place. Thanks to their new budding partnership with Luvless, Michael manages to requisition a teleporter to help him keep up with Mann's ridiculous upgrades but their own search is equally fruitless.Dr Steinz was eventually declared innocent of the supposed atrocities he commited under Wilson, having argued that once the General stole HIS power he was unable to resist any command given.   It was a flimsy excuse, but Steinz sold it well even with his powers nullified.Their only lead during this time was a break-in at a National Guard Armory, though they arrived too late to stop it.  It was impossible to say exactly what was missing, because everything that wasn't stolen was severely burned; whatever accomplished this turned rifles into puddles and destroyed merchandise and records with equal impunity.Michael is disheartened, but over several days time Mann accesses every official shipment over the past 10 years and manages to piece together a reasonable proximity of an inventory.  After comparing the piles of goo they find to the piles of goo he expected to find, he comes to the conclusion that Wilson at least managed to get his hands on a few mortar launchers.Michael groans.  He preferred when he didn't have a clue what Wilson was up to.R&R is good for the body AND the soul, but eventually enough is enough and the waiting starts to get to you.   At the two week mark, Fanboy decides that they've reached this point and puts a call into Finch.The PR specialist is as charming as ever."My FAVORITE clients!  Now don't say no until you hear me out, but I hear that African children are very in now.  So, I was thinking that we could mosey on down to the Serengeti and-"  Finch begins."I'm going to just stop you right there." Fanboy chimes in, "I'm not interested in purchasing or...capturing, or whatever you were going to suggest, a small African child.  I have a different direction I'd like to go with this conversation.""Well shoot then Cowboy." Finch replies, trying out a halfassed nickname to hide his apparent disappointment at not being able to hunt the most dangerous game of all: Starving Foreigners.Suppressing a groan, Fanboy explains that he wants to bring another superhuman into their arrangement and wants a giant event to unveil him.   Finch doesn't understand why they'd want to share the limelight futher, and Fanboy doesn't want to explain that they just want to lure a superpowered serial killer out of hiding, so Fanboy blurts out:"Action figures.  When we release the line, we need a whole team right?""Optimistic..." Finch replies.  "But not a bad idea.  Who's this new guy?"Fanboy glances around the warehouse, trying to think of someone that Wilson would cut off his own arm to absorb and grins.Fanboy smiles while watching several Bradleys struggle to wrestle Chavenski's SAW away from Stallone as the morose Chavenski himsef watches nearby from a drunken stupor, empty bottles and broken glass floating around him, only to come crashing down again at random moments."The Magnificent Multiplying Man." he chuckles.They give Finch a week to work his magic and work on a plan of their own.  Finch is hastily assembling a superhuman expo featuring MMM and the World's Luckiest man among others, they've rented out a local convention center for this endeavor.After a week of planning, the best they could come up was 'Hide in the bushes outside and jump him when he shows up.'Considering their usual plans, they pat themselves on the back and declare the ambush prepared.The day of the expo arrives and as they're getting ready and discussing their ingenious plan with Prophet, the precog suddenly seizes up and falls over.  McCrow and Fanboy glance nervously at each other, knowing the nature of his powers.Fanboy offers to handle the convention and tells McCrow to stay with Prophet until he wakes up so that he can guard the warehouse if need be.  McCrow doesn't like being told what to do, but he likes the thought of losing his fancy new warehouse even less so he agrees.Fanboy takes to the air since it's faster than driving and curses his decision to provoke Wilson.  OF COURSE it would result in such massive backlash that Prophet would pass out from the strain of processing it.  What else COULD it have done?He comes down in front of the convention center like a bullet, prepared to search every square inch until he rooted out whatever nefarious  plan Wilson was concocting...but then notices the crowd.At LEAST 3,000 people had showed up and it's still early yet.  When Fanboy comes down in the parking lot there's such a thunderous round of applause that the sheer volume physically stuns him.With a start, he realizes the actual magnitude of this convention.   Superhuman are still new and shiny, maybe a thousand people the world over had ever personally seen one and NOBODY could truthfully claim to have really met one before.  Thousands would flock to Ventnor even at the last minute like this, all for the chance to meet men straight out of their comic books.He starts to shout a warning, that these people need to disperse for their own safety...but then a local girl shouts out "Oh my God, it's The Fanboy!  Can I have your autograph?" and he forgets what he was there for.Prophet wakes up to find McCrow sniffing a marker and watching him intently. "About time you woke up.  What's the damage?" McCrow asks, capping his marker and sliding it into a pocket for later.Prophet stutters for a moment, shaking the cobwebs out of his head before shakily standing on his one leg and snatching a pen and paper to doodle whatever it was he'd seen. "Don't you ignore me old man.  What the hell did you see?" Roger growls, glancing over his shoulder at a haphazardly scribbled map of the city with a number of question marks  quickly overlayed on top."Death..."  Prophet stammers.  "The whole city is going is to die in...two hours." he says, checking his watch.Suddenly the big black magic marker penises all over Prophet's face take on a very somber tone."Death?" Fanboy whispers incredulously, signing a young man's shirt as he glances around nervously.  "What does he mean death?  What kind of death?""Sounds Biblical." McCrow grunts on the other end.  "People burning, getting crushed and drowning pretty much to the last man.  Ventnor apparently just won't BE HERE in two hours.""Drowning?" Fanboy asks accusingly."Hey, don't throw that Minority Report BS at me.  I haven't done anything!" McCrow shouts through Fanboy's earpiece."I know, it's just...wait...Minority Report?" Fanboy asks."I have a T.V.!" McCrow responds irritably.  "S***." Fanboy curses, waving off his next request for an autograph.  "I'll be there in 10 minutes, we'll have to-""Just hold your f***ing horses there." McCrow interrupts.  "He's got some kind of map drawn up of the whole damned city, he's dividing it into grids or quadrants or something.  The convention center is the most likely target in the North West so don't let anything bad happen to it.  I'm heading to the hospital to check things out."No sooner does McCrow finish his rundown than he hears an explosion followed by panic shrieking on Fanboy's end."What the hell's going on?" McCrow demands.There's silence for a brief moment and Fanboy responds "Uhhh....I think something bad's happening."Everything's on fire.Well, maybe not everything; but definitely more than Fanboy would prefer was on fire.  The entire parking lot is a single concentrated inferno and it takes all of Fanboy's focus to keep the surging flames out of the convention itself.  He orders the civilians as far away from him as possible, just in time to be knocked off his feet as 15ft of fiery elemental fury forces its way inside.Fanboy pants as the air grows uncomfortably hot and glances nervously over his shoulder at the terrified masses, but to his surprise the creature doesn't immediately go for them.  Instead it pounces onto a table of comics to feed itself first and ensures that one unlucky collector will continue regretting this day for years to come.Seeing a brief moment of respite, Fanboy rockets himself to the back of the convention center begins a telekinetic barrage against the back wall. It doesn't take long to crack, but the Fire Elemental takes less time to nearly fill the building with heat and smoke.  Fanboy only barely manages to burst a hole large enough for 1-2 people to squeeze through at a time when suddenly he hears a hissing sound and a fine green gas begins pouring out of the ceiling.Fanboy watches in horror as it falls towards his fleeing fans before focusing his mind and extending his forcefield over a 20ft area to deflect as much of the gas as he can.  He screams for them not to breathe this stuff and to get the hell out of Dodge, but he still watches dozens of innocent people collapse to the ground gasping for breath; knowing that less than half of them even have a chance.He extends his power even more, straining it to the limit to provide protective bubbles over the largest  groups; but he knows that even the minor protection he CAN offer won't hold out long.The Fire Elemental slams a pillar of flame into Fanboy's chest which sends him flying across the convention center and causes one of his protective bubbles to pop.  Fanboy tries to leap to the citizens defense but is swatted aside once again.He glances in horror at the monster he and McCrow unleashed and the terrified spectators, dangerously divvying his time between them when he hears a familiar voice shout over his headset."I've got these guys." Bradley says and to Fanboy's relief the hole begins rapidly widening as half a dozen figures in S.C.A.R. armor attack it from the outside with sledehammers and fireaxes.The Fire Elemental also apparently notices this and lunges towards the fleeing civilians.  Fanboy lunges forward with everything he's got and the Elemental responds by hurling a ball of intense flame in his direction.Without even thinking, the familar childhood whomp-whomp of a lightsaber fills the air and Fanboy bats the attack away effortlessly.  The sound of a thousand nerds turning and gasping at once is nearly deafening and Bradley actually has to discharge a pistol to get their attention before they remember they're supposed to be fleeing.The Fire Elemental tosses several more blasts in Fanboy's direction, but the now smiling telepath sends all of them careening harmlessly in the floor or ceiling as though the force truly does guide his movements.  In truth, Fanboy himself has little to do with the lightsaber's movements; so long as he doesn't fight it the device attempts to anticipate and deflect attacks of its own accord.With a resounding battlecry, Fanboy lunges forward bringing the lighsaber over his head and slices down and neatly through the Fire Elemental...and then slams face first into a melting display of action figures as the mindless superhuman simply reforms."Oh, right...made out of fire." he reminds himself before leading it on a merry chase around the building, deflecting blasts and collecting fire extinguishers off of every wall until the thing grows tired of his shenanigans and turns back towards the makeshift exit where Bradleys are now dragging unconscious gas victims outside.Thinking fast, Fanboy hurls the six extinguishers he's manage to collect towards the Elemental's center mass and then exerts all of his telekinetic force to cause them to simply explode.The living flame wails as it thrashes about and begins to shrink even as it attempts to leap into the roaring fire around it to heal itself.  Pouring everything he has into a barrier in front of him, Fanboy flies towards the Elemental with his hands out Superman style, slamming into it with alarming speed and carrying it through the burning building, past the parking lot and into a nearby building where the force of the impact puts even more flames out.Now deprived of its flammable reserves, the destructive superhuman turns to flee but Fanboy lashes out with a telekinetic bubble to hold it fast and then hurls it bubble and all into a fire hydrant where a powerful geyser quickly extinguishes his nemesis, leaving only a charred and shrivelled corpse in its wake.Fanboy collapses next to it to catch his breath and dials Prophet to find out just what the hell's going on today.Agent Mann has not led a charmed life.Joined the Army out of highschool and got shot at a bunch.  Made Ranger just so he could get shot at some more.  In his life he's been shot; stabbed; strangled; burned; bludgeoned and even squashed.That last one, it should be noted, was by far the worst.  In a lifetime of traumatic and painful experiences, it came the closest to breaking him.  The closest to making him simply give up...Taking a breath to steady his nerves, Mann glances over his shoulder and around the corner to see all 40ft of Cottus standing atop Ventnor City Community College and brandishing an SUV above his head while ranting that 'The bitch wanted him, it wasn't right for him to lose HIS job over it.'With a sigh he checks his sidearm and shakes the uncertainty from his head before stepping out of cover with his gun held high.  "Put down the vehicle and step away from the premises with your hands up, failure to do so WILL be met with lethal force!" he shouts in his inhumanly loud voice.Cottus stops what he's doing and grins down at Mann below.  "Didn't I squish you once?""Kids gloves are off this time." Mann replies stoicly, showing no hint of the fear building in his gut as Cottus leaps nearly 60ft to land in front of him threateningly.  "Drop your weapon or I drop you."Cottus laughs before cocking back his arm and spiking the vehicle at Mann like a football.  It slams into the shocked DHS agent and nearly flattens itself from the force.  Cottus's smirk is shortlived however as Mann erupts from his steel tomb with a mighty leap, firing .45 caliber bursts into Cottus's chest the entire way.Cottus roars and bats Mann aside, however the agent twists in the air and lands feet first on the college's roof, digging twin grooves along its length from the force of his landing.  Mann continues firing imacculately aimed bursts into Cottus's vital spots even as the brute charges him.As Cottus leaps to meet him, Mann drops down 4 stories to the ground; only taking his finger off the trigger long enough to slap a fresh clip in and start up again.  Cottus is annoyed, but the weapon doesn't seem overly threatening to him."So, where'd your partner get off too?" Cottus asks.  "You're going to need him to scrape you off the ground again when this is done."Mann runs his clip dry, before stopping to reload and retorts "I told him to take the day off, I can handle you."Cottus crosses all three sets of his arms and chuckles.  "Oh?  What about them?"Before Mann can even turn around he feels a shooting pain in his good shoulder and as he slaps his hardlight hand to the location feels a playing card jutting out of his golden shielding.  He grunts in pain even as half a dozen volleys of bullets bounce harmlessly off the same protective aura.Quickly scanning the area Mann notices ten S.C.A.R. troopers emerging from the campus library and a pudgy, balding man in an illfitting suit smiling and shuffling  a deck of cards.In the blink of an eye, Mann barrels through the S.C.A.R. soldiers, snatching one as a human shield and pulling him inside the very library they just left before firing wildly into the doorway to slow their pursuit.Mann quickly takes stock of the situation and several things become apparent to him: 1. The man in his arms isn't here of his own volition, he's missing his protective earpiece.  2. Parks' contact in the warehouse was right, Wilson's planning something here.  3. Whatever it is the masterstroke doesn't involve Mann fighting a 40ft sex-offender in a community college's parking lot.Without missing a beat, Mann hurls his hostage through the open doors and spins on his heels to grab a heavy oak table from the library itself, without even straining he tosses it in front of the entrance and blocks S.C.A.R.'s entrance...for now."I found the target.  It's Ventnor College." Mann snaps into his earpiece as his augmented eyes scan his location for what Wilson's goons would have been doing in here.THERE!  Mann's attention snaps to the familiar outline of a stolen mortar launcher up above him.  It takes mere seconds for Mann to leap onto a bookshelf and catapult himself up a floor to his waiting target and almost as little time for him to disable the contraption that would allow it to fire remotely."The missing canisters have been rigged to explode and aimed over the town.  Wilson intends to blanket Ventnor." he says quickly, though misses the reply.He hears a violent crashing sound and Cottus's massive arm has forced its way through his barrier up to his elbow.  As Cottus withdraws, S.C.A.R. rush in.With a grunt of effort, Mann warps the launcher's barrel to make it unusable and slips out the window and around the corner, narrowly avoiding Cottus's gaze as the giant soars overhead, apparently looking for him.  Man hops to a new ledge and inside, where he hears the sounds of conflict emerging from a classroom.Drawing his sidearm, Mann kicks in the door only to find 4 terrified students cowering behind a makeshift barrier made of desks, three thoroughly beaten and unconscious S.C.A.R. personnel laying on the floor and a wide eyed young man with the same golden aura as himself standing over them.Mann is shocked by the display, and reminder that in this new world such things may just become commonplace, and tells young Ben to lock the door and stay quiet until things calm down.With that, Mann pads down the hallway once more; scanning for the telltale shape of a launcher.In fact, he's so focused on that one shape that he barely registers he's in danger until he's already in mid-dodge.  He leaps out of the way just in time to avoid being struck by a barbed tentacle that seems to be growing out of a young asian girl's forearm."And who are you?" Mann asks, raising his gun threateningly but realizing she probably isn't responsible for her actions.She smirks.  "They call me...Hentai."With a sigh of disgust, Mann shakes his head.  "Of course they do."Her smirk turning into a violent scream, Hentai lunges at Mann and takes a wild swing with her tentacle.  Mann manages to catch the wriggling appendage and with a burst of strength whips her through the air by it and sends her face first into  a water fountain with enough force to leave an imprint.Before she can manage to stagger to her feet, Mann shoots her in the back of the knee.She screams bloody murder, whatever mental commands she was given lost in the haze of pain.  She screams, she curses, she pleads and threatens, nobody in particular."You'll live." Mann mutters, starting to turn away just as a hand larger than himself bursts through the side of the building and drags him into the light."Which is more than YOU can say." Cottus chuckles, squeezing Mann so hard that the agent swears he can hear his protective forcefield popping.Mann attempts to break free, but Cottus is simply too strong and doesn't seem interested in giving Mann a chance to fight back when he's literally in the palm of the giant's hand.  He begins to see spots as he discovers he can't even draw breath anymore and figures that it's all over...Until a noise like thunder knocks Cottus off his feet and drops Mann to the ground below, where he lands wheezing and gasping for breath.Looking around for his saviour, Mann finds a scrawny teenage boy with his finger jammed into a nearby electrical outlet and a visible sphere of electricity crackling around him.  Richard Bronson raises his hand to fire another burst but it spikes wildly, singeing black streaks into the very bricks.S.C.A.R. erupts into the courtyard from the school itself, as does the master thrower Lonnie.  Lonnie's playing card is burnt to ashes before it comes close to reaching Richard, however the teen's triumphant expression becomes one of terror as S.C.A.R. shoulders their weapons to unload on him.Luckily a nearby drunk steps in the way, swigging from a brown paper bag and ranting about  how "We should keep this between us arright?  The missus jusht doeshn't undershtand but a nip here and there settles the nerves..."Richard tries to say something but Lucky Dan loudly shushes him because he isn't done talking yet and 6 S.C.A.R. soldiers open fire on the wannabe heroes... Only one survives, and to the end of his days he maintains that all five of his mind controlled colleagues somehow managed to shoot each other in the back, despite the fact they were standing in a straight line at the time and that he only survived because his gun jammed. Mann remembers exactly how it feels."Daniel!" Mann shouts, getting his attention.  "You need to search the clock tower, there should be an explosive device aimed out over the city in there.  You've got to disable it!"Lucky Dan one eyes the clock tower and shouts "How do I do that?""I..I don't know Daniel.  Just kick it and see what happens." Mann replies, putting his faith in Dan's luck to do the impossible, like usual.Lucky Dan charges the tower, but a flying truck slams into the doorway at the same time he does and everything goes quiet, until Dan drunkenly chimes "Help, I fell!  I think I'm shtuck!"Mann barely manages to climb to his feet and he notices that although his legs are just hard light prosthetics, one of them is going out.  He can feel it flickering and causing him to stumble every few steps. "Cover me!"  Mann shouts to Richard who unleashes a torrent of electricity at both Lonnie and Cottus to keep them at bay.Mann finally makes his way to Lucky Dan and with a burst of strength manages to lift the car even in his busted state, just enough for Dan to slip inside.  He turns around with a sigh of relief, just in time to watch Cottus punt Richard almost 20ft.   Mann shouts in outrage, but the teen slides to a stop still and unmoving.Gritting his teeth in pain and rage, Mann charges Cottus even though he stumbles the whole way there from his busted leg.  Just before they make contact, Mann rolls and fires up; directly into Cottus's oversized, poorly guarded testicles with a full-auto blast.Cottus roars in pain and falls to his knees, cupping his bloody manhood uselessly.  Lonnie cocks his arm back to hurl another card, but Mann fires a second burst into his chest; sending the portly assassin toppling backwards into the dirt bleeding profusely.Cottus starts to scream something, but Mann charges once more and launches himself directly at the back of the wounded behemoth's head; delivering a kick that propels his gargantuan face into the dirt below and knocking the sense out of him.Standing on the back of the unrepentant monster's neck, Mann aims at the base of the skull and fires several long, sustained bursts until the bastard stops twitching.His target neutralized, Mann stumbles over to where Richard lies and falls to his knees next to the kid to do what he can.  He's no medic, but he knows how to stop the big stuff and with more than a little luck (Rolled a Natural 20 on the heal check) he manages to stabilize Richard as Lucky Dan stumbles up to him, with a canister under each arm."These what you looking for?" Dan asks, roughly tossing enough chemicals to wipe out the surrounding area at Mann's feet with a loud clang.Mann sighs as he nods the affirmative.  Not a charmed life at all.Fanboy is still panting next to the charred corpse of the Fire Elemental and catching his breath when Prophet's voice appear in his earpiece."There's a problem in the park. It looks like-" Prophet starts but is cut off."Let me guess, Tree King decided it would be more worthwhile to just murder us all while we're distracted?" Fanboy asks."Yeah..." Prophet replies.With a sigh, Fanboy snatches the corpse and throws it over his shoulder.  "Why did I ever think he'd actually stop trying to murder all of us?" he asks nobody in particular and jets off before the dust of his last battle has even settled in front of the convention.He makes the trip in record time, but as he lowers himself through the curtain of killer spores so thick in the air they impede his vision, he wishes he'd had more of an opportunity to think about what exactly he's going to do.  Tree King or Brick on their own are at least an even match, together and flanked with a thousand clones...it's not good odds.Fanboy touches down near the giant Tree King tower irritably, however to hsi surprise Brick is also standing before it and bellowing loudly."This isn't the deal!" Brick shouts at the 60ft monstrosity of a plant growing before him.  "We were supposed to hurt the one that did this to us, not the whole city!  I've still got family out there!""Had family." Tree King replies dangerously.  "You're a monster now, and monster's don't have anything.  They all die.  That's the end of it.""I'll f***ing stop you myself!" Brick shouts and slams a hand into the trunk hard enough to cause a split.  Before Brick can throw a second however he's swarmed with Tree Clones intent on dragging him down with their weight alone.Fanboy sends them flying with a flick of his wrist and erects a barrier separating him and Brick from the clones. "Rethinking your partnership?"  Fanboy quips.Brick nods slowly.  "Yeah.  You?"Fanboy almost laughs as he drops the corpse to the ground.  "Yeah.""What's that?" Brick asks, nervously glancing at the tide of Tree Clones that threaten to batter their way through at any second."The end of this whole damned park." Fanboy says smugly, then realizes he doesn't smoke as he hastily searches his pockets for a lighter he knows he doesn't have."Crap, crap, crap, crap." he says, glancing around in a panick as the Tree Clones literally begin climbing onto their protective bubble to batter their way in.Brick obviously doesn't have anything as he's not even wearing pants and not for the first time today he wishes McCrow was here instead of him."Well..." Fanboy says.  "It WOULD be, if we could start a fire."Brick gawks at him.  "You didn't think to bring something turn your secret weapon ON?""Not as such....no." Fanboy replies as one of the Tree Clones manages to force his arm through the barrier.  Stepping back, Fanboy throws up a second, smaller and denser barrier in its place."I've got an idea!" Fanboy shouts.  "Why don't you bang your hands together and make a spark?"Brick continues gawking at him.  "That's...ridiculous!"As even more Tree Clones join the swarming mass, Fanboy shrugs.  "Worse case scenario, you die looking silly.  Best case, you don't."Brick sighs and kneels down next to the charred corpse, quickly striking his knuckles against each other.  He does this several times in rapid succession, but has less and less faith in this plan the more he does it."I told you, we aren't going to get a spark like this.  I wasn't much of a boyscout but even I...." Brick starts and then looks down at the smoldering corpse before him.  A thin trail of smoke rises from it and it twitches slightly."You did it!" Fanboy cackles, even as Brick shakes his head and steps back.The charred remains of the superhuman begins to scream, but is almost instantly engulfed in a small flame and its voice is drowned out by the roar of fire.  Fanboy suddenly realizes they're locked in here with something he just spent the morning kicking the crap out of and dives behind Brick as he throws up a barrier so small it leaves no room for such luxuries as turning around or not being pressed tightly against a giant rock man and dismisses his old barrier.There is...there's just so much fire.  In a matter of seconds the Tree Clones are consumed or driven away and the towering form of Tree King does nothing but scream and burn from the Elemental's misplaced fury.They stand in shocked silence until Fanboy sees an opening in the flames and flings both himself and Brick through it.  They land sprawled in the park, amid hundreds of tree clones who do nothing but gaze at their father[/i['s death.Fanboy spins around, on the defensive but none of them appear aggressive.  In fact....they seem confused.  They glance around as though seeing the world for the first time, poke and prod themselves as though not understanding what they are.One of them opens its mouth "What...what is this?" it asks."What is what?" Fanboy responds, prepared to turn the thing into kindling at a moment's notice.Rather than answer it looks around as though unable to settle on a single 'what' and just shrugs.Brick too seems confused.  He's been around most of these things since they were first planted and he's never seem anything but blind, murderous rage in them.  They've never been anything but vessels for the Tree King's ego.Fanboy probes the minds of several tree clones and is surprised to find actual personalities within them.  He'd figured that each clone was just another Tree King...but they aren't.  They have vague memories of Tree King's life both before and after the accident, but they're just glimpses."They're plants..." Fanboy mutters.  "He puppeted them the same way he did any other plant, that's why they were all of one mind."Brick looks around at the confused and suddenly frightened tree clones struggling to get free of the rapidly burning park and asks "So...what now?"Fanboy glances beyond the wall and slowly begins hovering in the air.  "Now you get a second chance to show the world you aren't a monster.  Be a leader. Get control of these people and take them to the street, today's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, so try and corral the civilians somewhere safer.""Where's safe?" Brick asks.Fanboy just shakes his head.  "I wish I knew."McCrow stares up at the familiar sight of Ventnor's largest hospital.  Ah the memories it brings back.  The gunshot wounds, kicking Tree King's ass for the first time, explaining to the authorities how his ex-wife had fallen down the stairs...He hears screams of terror inside and takes one last drag off his cigar before flicking it aside, catching Stallone doing the same.  The oversized droplet is fitted in modified S.C.A.R. armor and is hauling around Chavenski's stolen SAW."Yo boss.  We gonna do this?" Stallone asks in a comically deep voice. Ten normal droplets bouncing cheerfully behind him."The hell do you think?" McCrow responds, summoning water to himself from the hospital's decorative fountain until he's in his monstrous battleform.  Rather than using the door, he slams into the wall with ludicrous force and crashes into the lobby like a deranged Kool-Aid Man.A dozen brainwashed S.C.A.R. troopers and eight Luvbots are inside, they seem to be searching the place for something and opening fire on anybody that even thinks of looking at them wrong.  Roger's presence naturally upsets them.McCrow snatches a pair of Luvbots off the ground and bangs them together with enough force to cause them to pop in a shower of sparks, while Stallone opens fire on  a third but fails to pierce its armor.S.C.A.R. responds by opening fire on McCrow and wounding the ballsy hydromancer inside the water beast, but McCrow retaliates by pointing at them and shouting "See that?  Eat EVERYTHING that looks like that!"The soldiers glance nervously at each other as a veritable tidal wave of murderous glee slams into them, effortlessly slipping up under their armor and down their throats.  The ten droplets only manage to bring down two troopers between them, but they bring them down with such alarming violence that the rest forget their orders and pile into an elevator to escape.The droplets look back over their shoulders at McCrow and seem to wave cheerfully, before slipping through the closed elevator doors behind their prey.  Screams and gunshots ring out inside, though it's unlikely any were aimed at the droplets.The Luvbots open fire on McCrow and Stallone with a salvo of energy, McCrow responds by sweeping three off their feet and Stallone opens up with full autofire and manages to bring down yet another.It looks like this might be in the bag when the ceiling gets this liquidy appearance and a single man drops from above before it returns to normal.  He's an older man with greying hair and wearing a set of denim overalls.  McCrow recognizes him from the t.v. as The Engineer. McCrow notices the man isn't wearing one of those fancy earpieces everyone's supposed to.  "I suggest you piss right the f*** off chief."  McCrow shouts, cracking his watery knuckles reflexively."You're ridiculous." the Engineer replies.  "All bluff and bluster.  Leave while you have the chance."McCrow decides that the time for pithy retorts is at an end and leaps at the smaller man with a massive haymaker.  The Engineer responds by sliding across the room like an ice skater and laying his hand on a wall. As though pulling it directly out of the drywall, the Engineer draws out an automated turret which instantly opens fire at McCrow and physically drives him backwards.Stallone is busy keeping the Luvbots busy, but still opens fire on the Engineer's turret with enough lead to shut the thing down.McCrow lunges again and the Engineer attempts his sliding trick again, but Roger's ready for it and snatches him up by the waist.  The Engineer responds by plunging both hands into Roger's water form and concentrating. To McCrow's horror, his watery shell starts to become Iron and he has to eject half of his mass to avoid being entombed.  The Engineer is pretty smug about this until he realizes that half of a giant water monster is still a giant water monster and McCrow manages to grab him around the wrists, pulling him taut.The Engineer fights to lay a single finger on McCrow, knowing he can end this if he does; but the harder he tries the harder McCrow pulls at his arms until finally there's a loud crack and his hands go limp.The Engineer curses McCrow furiously.  "I'll kill you!" he wails through the pain.McCrow glares at his helpless captive and pulls harder until the limbs are literally torn from the Engineer's body, resulting in a geyser of blood.McCrow steps over the rapidly dying superhuman and snorts, "How?"McCrow and Stallone press themselves into a corpseless elevator and go upstairs to check things out.  They get a call from Prophet explaining that there are probably canisters rigged to blow here and that they need to be careful to avoid killing anyone.McCrow realizes he has no idea how to disarm this crap, so he does the next best thing; he sends his droplets to every corner of the hospital to find the canisters and then just orders them to close the windows and doors and knock it over.It's not a perfect plan, but it at least contains the majority of the gas to the hospital itself.  McCrow then realizes that everybody ELSE needs to be evacuated if this is going to work, so goes looking for volunteers the only place he knows can help: Superhuman Recovery.In the familiar cordoned off corridor are the survivors of the wedding attack, or at least the newly awakened ones.  The only person he recognizes is the overly wholesome preacher who now sports an oversized set of white feathered wings on his back and a massively swollen eye who has taken over tending to the still unconscious residents in place of the nurses who presumably fled when the gunshots started."A winged man?  Oh yeah, that's what I need." McCrow says dismissively.The preacher looks at him in confusion and McCrow hastily explains what's happening.  That he needs people who have already been exposed to the gas to go and drag everyone who hasn't been exposed to the gas outside.The preacher looks around at the comatose superhumans and sighs.  "Alright, there's nothing more I can do here anyway.  I'll see how many are left to help."McCrow raises an eyebrow questioningly.The preacher looks surprised.  "The soldiers.  They dragged a bunch of us off, at least the ones they thought would be useful.  I tried to intervene, but..." he indicates his black eye."I didn't ask for your life story!" McCrow shouts irritably.  "Get your ass in gear man, you've got lives to save."Michael Stockton sits in his car and intently watches the group of men standing around in front of the apartment building across the street.  In and of itself, a handful of men talking amongst themselves isn't an exceptionally suspicious sight, but the fact is...he recognized one of them from S.C.A.R.He'd gotten word from Parks that Wilson or Steinz one had compromised nearly their entire force, mind control proof earpieces only working so long as you can keep them in your ear and all that, so it's unlikely that anyone on the DHS payroll wouldn't be suited up at the moment.  Which naturally means that this building is worth looking into.Michael slams the car into gear and before any of them are even aware something's happening they've been pancaked into the side of the building; while Michael teleports as the last second through both the car and wall to the lobby inside.The sound of a car crashing into the side of the building draws the attention of S.C.A.R. inside and Michael grins, taking note of which apartments they exit and using his newfangled teleporter to effortlessly reach the first one in seconds.Michael performs a cursory inspection of the apartment and finds one of their missing mortar launchers.  He whips out an all purpose tool from his pocket and gets to work disarming it, cursing that he never had the knack for demolitions work that Mann did.It goes smoothly, even if it takes longer than he'd like and he quickly teleports to the second one.  He gets to work disarming it as well.Just then, he feels something snake around him and entangle him tightly.  Stockton growls and spins around, but only sees what looks like an arm stretching out of sight.  He groans as he realizes the Rubberman must have been caught in Wilson's web as well.Stockton fights to disentangle himself, but suddenly he feels the arm to taut and he looks up just in time to see the Rubberman flying around the corner, his other arm extneded in a clothesline directly to Michael's throat.Michael jerks and gurgles as his throat is crushed, but manages to come up with a knife directly into Rubberman's elongated forearm.  His elastic attacker releases him and leaps back wearily.  Michael continues gurgling for a second longer before his throat repairs itself and he gasps loudly.He doesn't bother trying to engage him in conversation, simply leaps forward and drives his knee into Rubberman's rubbery stomach.  Unsurprisingly this doesn't accomplish much, but Rubberman knocks the knife out of his hand and ensnares him with snakelike arms once again.Stockton grunts and activates his teleporter, appearing on the ceiling only to launch himself downwards in a powerful flying axe kick which grossly distorts Rubberman's features but deals no actual damage.Rubberman lunges towards him once again, but Michael snatches an arm and quickly lassos it around the mortar launcher, tying it tight before kicking the whole contraption out the window.  Rubberman is nearly dragged out after it, but catches himself just as Michael draws his sidearm and fires into his exposed back.The bullets ricochet wildly around the room.Michael groans loudly as the mortar launcher snaps back and Rubberman aims it like a flail, smashing Michael's insides and sending Stockton sprawling out into the hallway.  Before Michael's recovered from his stun, Rubberman grabs him by the leg and hauls him back into the room to clobber him a second time.Michael kicks up with both legs hard enough to knock Rubberman back a step and then rolls to his feet and tackles Rubberman against the wall.  Rubberman responds by expanding like a balloon so large and violently that Stockton is literally thrown out of a window.Stockton reflexively teleports back the way he came and lands in the hallway, he sees Ruberman's now massively bloated head and has an idea.  Snatching the launcher still wrapped in Rubberman's arm, he slams the whole contraption into the elastic superhuman's mouth and fires a bullet into the canister.There's a muffled explosion, followed by a wet pop and Rubberman absorbs the worst of the fallout with his dying breath.Four S.C.A.R. agents charge upstairs to see what's happening and Michael throws himself into them furiously.  He sweeps low on the first one and lands a kick which snaps the man's knee before throwing a backhand that knocks a second off his feet and out cold, he finishes up with a frontkick into a third that slams him into the fourth and sends both of them tumbling back down the stairs where they came from.He then falls over and attempts to catch his breath as a pair of explosions ring out from the opposite side of the apartment and begin filling the streets with gas.Everybody got the same call, Prophet thinks he's finally found Wilson's location.McCrow (still in water form) leaves the hospital cleanup to lesser men and charges out full of piss and vinegar.  The streets are becoming dangerous as the citizens get a sense of what's happening, but luckily they aren't filled with corpses...yet.What they ARE rapidly filling with however, are Italians.As McCrow makes his way to the rendevous point, it becomes apparent that Depaliamo's men are having a field day with their new powers. In addition to standard, unpowered, Italians and a complement of Luvbots; there are three obviously powered individuals.  A gargoyle like man with stony flesh and broad wings, a ghoulish looking man with sharp metallic claws and a man in a flashy red shirt and black suit that spits fire dramatically."Well, well, well.  If it isn't #1 on the boss's s***-list." the fire breather says with a chuckle.  "It seems like we're about to come up in the world."McCrow growls and throws a pair of bloody, dismembered arms at the feet of the superhumans.  "You got two options.  Become my personal bitch, or wind up like this stupid a**hole."All three superhumans and all of the normal Italians stop in their tracks and gawk at the bloody appendages in horror.  Realizing he's probably McCrow's primary target, the firebreather turns to flee along with several unpowered Italians."THAT WASN'T AN OPTION!" McCrow bellows and the droplets surge after the fleeing Italians with sadistic glee.Before either of the others can react, McCrow has completely dehydrated the ghoulish Italian swats the gargoyle out of the air when he tries to charge him. (Rolled a pair of criticals back to back.)The Luvbots and mundane Italians open fire and drive McCrow to his knees, but before they can launch a second volley they also fall to theirs.  The Luvbots pop satisfyingly, whereas the Italians scream in agony and appear to be getting crushed by an invisible force.McCrow turns around as his wounds slowly begin knitting themselves back together to find Chavenski standing in the street with an oxygen mask strapped to his face."Go." Chavenski says dismissively.  "I know how to kill Italians."McCrow shrugs off his water form, healing the last of his wounds.   "Beat some punk ass for me." he says with a chuckle.  "I've got work to do."Mann stumbles across town with his hardlight cybernetics flickering on and off  the whole way and using a borrowed S.C.A.R. assault rifle as a crutch.  The city is in full pandemonium at this point and is in full riot mode. Several times he scares away looters with his booming vocal upgrades and a warning shot from his sidearm, but the further into the city he goes, the less they seem to care and eventually he decides to stop wasting ammo and valuable time.With disgust, he realizes he recognizes one of the more prestigious looters as the crystalline form of Tiffany bounds overhead carrying a new T.V. under each arm.  He calls out for her to come down here and do her duty to this city dammit, but she responds in no uncertain terms that he can cram his duty sideways and cackles off into the distance.He he hobbles shouting after her, calling her a coward and ranting about general superhuman uselessness as an explosion rocks the street and tosses him off his feet.  He has no idea where it came from, but dozens of people lay bloody and broken in the street and he can do little more than crawl to them in a daze.He watches in the distance as a young girl screams over the lifeless corpse of her mother only to be comforted by a young blonde woman who lays a hand on the mother's chest and causes her to sit up gasping. She lays hands on several more formerly dead individuals before simply disappearing.With a bitter laugh, Mann climbs shakily to his feet and continues his hobbled journey to the rendezvous.  Most who witnessed the event would go home to tell their families about being saved by an angel, but only jaded Mann knows the truth.  She's just a stripper.Jogging to the rendezvous as fast as he can, Michael instantly regrets wrecking his car.  Sure, it was pretty cool at the time; but if he'd had it to do over again he probably would've just shot them, or punched them, or stabbed them...pretty much anything that would have allowed him to drive away afterwards.But, what's done is done and while he doesn't like it he does have to live with it.  Besides, it gives him an opportunity to shout for citizens to get the hell out of the streets on the way and he does so enjoy providing a public service.It seems strange that so few are concerned with their impending deaths, but that's their problem. Eventually it dawns on him that it's even stranger how many seem content to just hit each other in the face with rocks...and it seems downright odd how many are just firing randomly into the gathered crowd and how the crowd itself doesn't seem to mind..."Steinz!"  Michael shouts, a growl in his voice.Dozens of eyes turn at once, glaring at Michael with manic rage as a wheelchair bound Steinz is wheeled out of the crowd."Oh calm down Mr Stockton."  Dr Steinz says good naturedly.  "These people are all dead anyway, what's the harm in having a little fun first?""You sadistic son of a-" Michael shouts, charging Steinz until he's tackled by half a dozen civilians.  The wind is knocked out of him but he still has the presence of mind to catch the first of his attackers against the jaw and knock him out cold.Three more leap into the fray and attempt to remove Michael's earpiece, but he teleports out of the scrum and into the street just as several more blindside him and basically curb stomp him.Michael manages to get his gun out as he rolls away from his attackers, but before he gets a clear shot at Steinz the weapon is knocked from his hands.  He teleports out of yet another grapple, only to catch a brick to the temple that lays him flat.The crowd mobs him and he sees his chance, teleporting past all of them to snatch Steinz himself.  The good doctor only has one good arm and no working legs so he's no match for Stockton's physical prowess and can do little more than try to talk his way out of his predicament as Michael turns his teleporter to full power and leaps to the top of a six story building."N-n-now Michael." Steinz stammers, recognizing a losing situation.   "You need to think about what you're doing, I mean-""Shut up Steinz." Michael growls, holding the twisted psychiatrist off the side of the building as he glares into his eyes.  "I never should have saved your sorry ass.  Luckily, here's my chance to make things right; but taking you out the same way you escaped justice last time."With that, Michael releases him and Stockton screams the whole way down...however much to Michael's dismay the screaming turns to laughter and as he glances down he can only groan.The crowd below caught the crippled psychopath and he's now apparently crowdsurfing his way to freedom.  Michael mutters unflattering things under his breath before teleporting back down to street level to try and catch Steinz once more; swearing to just shoot him next time.He begins fighting his way towards his victim to be when once more several civilians dogpile him.  Michael growls irritably, but his irritation becomes terror when he feels a hand remove the protective earpiece that keeps him beyond Steinz's control.  He hears a shout of triumph go up from the crowd and Steinz appears, talking in his overly soothing voice."Now, Mr Stockton...I have a brilliant idea.  I'm going to talk, and you're going to listen." Dr Steinz gloats.  "First of all, you will-"Dr Steinz's villainous monologue fades into a wordless gurgle and Michael shakes the doctor's words out of his ears before noticing the blood gushing from Steinz's open mouth.  As the crowd also comes to its senses and begins to disperse in fear and disgust, he recognizes the man twisting the knife in Steinz's neck as Greggory Mallard.Despite the bloody hunk of metal in his throat, Steinz manages a small chuckle and squeaks out "It doesn't matter....we're all dead men....""Cutting it a little close there Mallard." Michael mutters as he clamors about the ground until he finds his missing earpiece."What, a highly trained  invincible killing machine like you needs help from gutter trash?"  Mallard asks as Steinz ceases his struggles altogether.  There's no humor in his voice."Did you know?"  Mallard demands, brandishing his knife at Michael; tears of rage welling up in his eyes."Know what?"  Stockton asks, instinctively recoiling despite the fact that if Mallard started stabbing now he would still die of old age long before Michael succumbed to his wounds."My wife...that bastard he..."  Mallard glances back at the bloody Steinz and kicks him over in the street even though it gives him no pleasure.  "No.  I guess you didn't..." he mutters, disappearing into thin air without another word.Fanboy is the first to arrive along with Brick and a handful of tree clones, so he takes the opportunity to scan the building for life.  He finds the remainder of Wilson's brainwashed S.C.A.R. which amount to around 20 some soldiers as well as a pair of superhumans on the second to last floor.  He also assumes that there will be 2-3x as many Luvbots as there are soldiers.Michael is next, followed by Mann and finally McCrow; Stallone and the droplets.  Mann's sensors don't have the range of Fanboy's telepathy, but he does confirm  a metric crapload of people holed up on the first and second floors in ambush."The front is locked down." Mann states flatly, "The amount of firepower they have stationed there would blow any of us away.""What about backup?"  Michael asks.Mann shakes his head.  "Parks and the locals have their hands tied up in the evacuation.  Even if they COULD spare bodies they'd be more liability than asset.""Then what's the plan?""  Michael asks.Mann rubs his temples.  "We need a distraction.  Thoughts?"Fanboy and McCrow look at each other with broad grins."Why don't we just blow the building up?"  Fanboy asks.  "We've had some success with that before."Both Michael and Mann nearly sputter at that.  "What?" they both ask at once."It ain't hard." McCrow assures them.  "We just knock out a floor and the whole thing comes toppling over, then we stomp the s*** out of anything that tries to crawl out.""What about casualties?" Mann demands."In all likelihood, we're probably going to kill those guys in there no matter how we go about this." Fanboy admits."That's..they aren't responsible for their actions." Mann barks.  "Besides, even if THEIR deaths are a foregone conclusion, what about the people in the surrounding buildings? Or on the street?""We're just going to knock down one building..." McCrow reminds him."And you don't think that MIGHT be dangerous for the people surrounding it?" Mann asks.Fanboy and McCrow stare at each other and the DHS agents for a moment before Fanboy claps his hands.  "New plan!" he shouts, snatching up Michael, Mann, McCrow/Stallone and Brick; leaving the droplets and tree clones to rush the front door.There's some garbled arguments as Fanboy levitates them all to the top of the building, but it quickly becomes hushed silence as he shouts for Brick to make them a hole and releases the rockman over top of the building.  Brick falls 20ft and lands dramatically, causing the roof to give way and allowing him to fall to the floor below....and then the floor below that, and the floor below that, and the floor below that...then there's some more crashing sounds but they can't really see him anymore so can't confirm if he's still falling."Uhh....who's next?" Fanboy calls out, only to be met with a chorus of 'Don't You Effing Dare!'s in response.  Instead he lowers them to their floor and allows everyone to hop off of their own accord.Before anything else resembling a plan can be hatched, McCrow roars and charges the door; shouldering his way in and forcing the others to rush in after him.Wilson is sitting there cheerfully in his heavily scarred form, a grin on his face as he motions to his companion.  "I believe you know my guest McCrow.  I had her delivered from the hospital just for you." the former General says with a chuckle."McCrow...you piece of s***." screams the brainwashed mother of his children."Bonnie you...bitch." snarls McCrow.Bonnie shrieks in rage and charges her ex-husband who sidesteps her and delivers a backhand across her mouth that spins her around, only for him to grab her by the hair and slam her face first into the wall with enough force to knock a hole in it."You remember how this goes Bonnie!" Roger shouts as he pulls her from the wall and literally throws her almost 10ft away.  "You get drunk, you get mouthy, you get violent and then you get knocked the f*** out. And who's always the bad guy?"Bonnie responds by lunging at McCrow and clawing at his eyes, so Roger naturally headbutts her square in the nose and tackles her into an adjoining room.Everybody else stares Wilson down as though there ISN'T a domestic disturbance going on in the next room."The hell are you doing Wilson?"  Michael shouts.  "You're going to kill thousands of people!""Maybe more." Wilson responds coldly.  "But it's a small price to pay, for me at least.  Thousands of new superhumans means thousands of new powers...a buffet of awe inspiring abilities, any one of which could easily make a man into a god.  And I'll have all of them before I'm done.""You'll have nothing!" Mann replies, opening fire with his .45 and blowing a fist sized hole in Wilson's chest which rapidly closes itself. With a flick of his wrist, Wilson slams man into the opposing wall before leaping back just barely in time to avoid being bisected by Fanboy's lightsaber.Fanboy laughs as he circles Wilson, his lightsaber crackling dangerously.  "You just signed your own death sentence Wilson.  Don't you know the whole 'I'll be a god' speech is almost always followed by getting your head caved in by a group of adventurers?"Wilson's skin takes on the properties of diamond as he cracks Fanboy across the face hard enough to black his eye even through his nearly invincible forcefield.  "This isn't one of your ridiculous funny books!" the madman roars."No, this is real life!" Michael shouts in response, opening fire into Wilson's midsection; even though the bullets simply bounce off.  "Where proclaiming yourself a god because of how many people you murdered gets you executed by sane people."Outside the door, the group can hear a sound like gathering men and the ponderous clang of a pair of large somethings lumbering this way.  Man opens fire wildly into the door itself, causing the soldiers on the other side to duck for cover instead of filing in.An explosion rocks the room and Mann is flung clear of the door as a pair of Luvtech Assaultbots lumber inside.  Fanboy immediately responds by throwing one of his own out, which gets lucky and manages to take out both of the opposing bots.Wilson lunges forward irritably and punches a hole directly through Fanboy's assaultbot as the S.C.A.R. troopers swarm in.  Stallone and Michael open fire on them at full tilt.----------------Meanwhile, McCrow and his ex continue their brawl with McCrow repeatedly slamming Bonnie's face into a plate glass window, blood and mascara are smeared everywhere.  When Bonnie finally manages to get a hand on McCrow's arm, she responds by lowering his temperature to the point that the flesh she's touching gets instant frostbite.McCrow stumbles back with a shout and feels his body freezing.  He suddenly realizes the actual danger he's in."Bonnie...you snap your ass out of this, or I'm not going to be responsible for what happens to you." McCrow warns, rubbing his frozen arm while gritting his teeth."Oh, really Roger?  Not responsible for your actions, pfft; sing another tune." Bonnie replies."I'm f***ing serious Bonnie.  You come at me again and you're done this to yourself!" Roger snaps."Then see let's see how I do!" she shouts and lunges at McCrow with ice already forming on her hands.Once again McCrow sidesteps her attack and grabs her hair, only this time he spins her around by it twice and releases her directly into the already damaged window.---------------------------In the other room they hear a crashing sound followed by a long scream and McCrow burst through the wall in water form like the Kool-Aid Man to punch Wilson right in the side of the head."What happened to your ex?" Fanboy asks accusingly.Roger glares at the younger hero and replies "She fell."Michael charges into the throng of S.C.A.R. troopers, breaking limbs and bloodying noses in an attempt to avoid actually killing any of them he doesn't have to while Mann pours a steady stream of lead into Wilson's diamond exterior.Fanboy deflects a stream of crystalline projectiles from Wilson before taking a few swings of his own which Wilson dodges.  McCrow just barely manages to get his hands on their elusive foe, when Wilson responds by punching through McCrow's water form AND chest with a single well aimed strike which knocks McCrow out of his battleform and leaves him struggling to stay conscious with a bloody hole the size of a bowling ball in his chest.If that's not bad enough, a sudden explosion resounds through the building and they remember that it's probably filled with mutagenic gas."Mann, go!" Michael shouts.  "We can handle things here."Agent Mann glances around, unhappy about abandoning the fight when they need him the most but aware that he's probably the only one here who could disable the mortars.  He limps away  as fast as he can, his sensors sweeping the building for potential hiding places. Michael continues kung-fuing the various S.C.A.R. personnel, drawing all of their fire onto himself but not really minding it....long term.  Short term, it hurts like a bitch; but that's only temporary.Fanboy and Wilson dance around each other, lashing out and dodging their respective weapons.  Stallone opens fire, not at Wilson but at the ceiling, aiming for the sprinkler system and gets lucky as he causes a torrent of water to begin filling the room.Wilson grins as he slams a a pillar of water directly into Fanboy, knocking him off his feet; but the mirth is short lived as Roger's chest wound knits itself back together and McCrow tackles him.  Thanks to Tiffany's enhanced strength he doesn't come close to going down, but for a split second Wilson's attention lingers on McCrow and seeing his opportunity Fanboy brings his lightsaber down on Wilson's arm; severing the thing cleanly.Wilson shouts and stumbles backwards, holding his bloodless stump as his severed, diamond plated arm turns back to normal.  To Wilson's growing horror, the wound DOESN'T regenerate.Seeing the shock on Wilson's face and knowing this could be their chance, Fanboy charges and swings his lightsaber wildly.  Wilson responds by slamming desks, chairs and geysers of water directly into Fanboy; battering through his forcefield and cracking the armor beneath under the onslaught.McCrow extends his hand and begins dehydrating Wilson with a roar, however this quickly draws the former General's ire and Wilson uses Fanboy's stunned state to telekinetically snatch the lightsaber from his hand and plunge it into McCrow's stomach.Roger howls in pain as his insides become fire and stumbles back, falling onto his side and groaning in agony.Michael delivers an elbow to the back of the final S.C.A.R. trooper and then opens fire on Wilson, though it does little good as the Lightsaber inerringly protects its wielder as his lesser wounds begin knitting themselves back togetehr.Fanboy focuses on a Mental Blast that doesn't manage to disable Wilson, but it does distract him long enough for Michael to rush forward and deliver a double front kick with enough ferocity to knock him back and the lightsaber out of his hand.Wilson recovers rapidly and lunges for the weapon at the same time as Fanboy, however a sustained blast from the barely conscious Roger holds Wilson in his tracks long enough for the young hero to recover his blade and lash out; scoring a deep hole down Wilson's side.No sooner does Wilson recoil in pain than what feels like a massive tremor makes the entire building sway unnaturally.  With a curse, Wilson glances around.  "That fool...he actually did it." he mutters irritably.Wilson expels a burst of telekinetic energy which knocks all three of our heroes away and into separate walls, before turning on his heels and rocketing out of the nearest window as fast as he can."The hell you do!"  Fanboy calls out, barely matching Wilson's speed as he forms a telekinetic bubble around their fleeing foe and uses it to hurl him directly back where he started.  Wilson skips along the ground with a pained groan before lashing out at Michael with a diamond leg, severing michael's own legs at the knee and sending him collapsing to the ground with a spurt of blood.Before Wilson can recover his balance, McCrow pounces on him; no more capable of overpowering him than he was before; but now with a target in mind.  With a defiant roar, McCrow plunges his hand into the gaping wound on Wilson's side; the sheer pain forcing the power thief to his knees.Wilson attempts to drag McCrow off of him, but Roger just digs in deeper until he manages to get a hold of something squishy and unpleasant.  He doesn't know WHAT he's got a hold of, I mean he's no biology...guy, but Wilson screams when he squeezes it so he keeps at it.Wilson continues flailing and manages to impale Roger's side in turn with his crystalline arm, Roger coughs up blood but doesn't let up. Michael leaps on Wilson's one arm, his legs having grown back even if his pants now look like they belong to an English schoolboy.  He falls back with everything he has, dragging Wilson's arm backwards as McCrow plays havoc on his insides and disrupts his concentration.Fanboy stands panting over Wilson, lightsaber in hand and cleaves the head directly off his shoulders; before taking several more stabs at it just to be safe.All three of them collapse, panting and bloodied."When we talk about this later..." Fanboy pants.  "Let's say I said something cool before I killed him."That almost elicits a chuckle from Fanboy's companions, however a second tremor strikes and without the immediate threat of Wilson they suddenly discover they may have much larger troubles in store.It doesn't take long for them to reconnect with Prophet and get an idea of what's happening.  Michael draws a parallel between Steinz's last words and Wilson's; while Roger points out that superhumans were kidnapped from the hospital.They surmise that Steinz, being his cuddly self, found an immensely dangerous superhuman timebomb and used the chaos of Wilson's plan to set it off."There's major seismic activity going on here." Prophet states obviously.  "There's a good chance the city might very well shake itself apart before this is done...of course that's not the bad news.""Then what the hell do you consider the bad news?" Fanboy snaps irritably."We're looking at a tsunami of...staggering proportions.   If the city had weeks to prepare it could still wipe us off the map, but we've got minutes.  The death toll will be...I...I don't envision survivors." Prophet replies.Roger punches a wall so hard he breaks his hand and shouts a curse, the others look like they might too."HOW LONG?"  Fanboy shouts."Twenty minutes." Prophet replies.  "Get everybody you can into The Warehouse.  If Luvless wasn't just blowing smoke, we might be able to weather it in there.""I'm not running a charity." McCrow grunts.  "Call everybody in, but I don't want guests clogging the place up.""Dammit McCrow." Fanboy snaps. "This isn't the time for your-""You just shut your ass up and get me to the docks!" McCrow shouts over him.  "You two!" he barks, pointing at Mann and Stockton,  "Find this earthquake machine and put a bullet in the back of his head.  Fanboy, prop me up near the water and I'll handle this.  Get whoever you can to safety, but I don't give a s*** how soggy it is outside; once this is over they're going home."Fanboy and the Agents stare at McCrow with a little awe at the way he's seized command.  Nobody can think of anything better to do, so they go with this plan.Michael grabs Mann and teleports away, relying on Prophet's directions; Mann's senses and Michael's new mobility to beat the odds.  Fanboy snatches Roger and speeds towards the docks at fast as he can.As they land, McCrow glances around and takes a deep breath of the sea air to steady his nerves.  "Get whoever you can into the warehouse, but I don't want Ben or Franklin there.""Roger, it's the safest place in the city!" Fanboy replies."Exactly!" McCrow growls.  "Which means it's still about a hundred times more deadly than I want my sons exposed to!"Fanboy's taken aback."You've got twenty minutes before the big one hits...maybe I can push that back to thirty.  But before it does..." Roger says, staring out over the water as he lights a cigar with shaky hands."I'll get them..." Fanboy says.  "I'll drop them off..well, I don't know where.  But it'll be a good ways off."Roger takes a puff of his cigar and nods slowly.  "Then stop goldbricking slackass, go do something useful for once."Fanboy leaps into the air and throws out a net over the city, looking for minds to save.Roger sits on the docks for a long moment before the waves start churning violently.  Within the blink of an eye literal walls of water appear to crash against the city.  With a wave of his hands he causes them to break against themselves harmlessly.Then another appears, and another...and another.  They grow a little larger each time and the waves of his hands become a little more sluggish.  For 20 minutes he diverts the water with no problem.  For another 20 he struggles.  For 20 more he barely hangs on.McCrow pants as waves larger than buildings well up along the coast only to fold in on themselves before they can do any damage.  He grits his teeth against the physical strain as he wills his powers to do things they simply aren't meant to do.He's red in the face and his left arm is completely numb by the time Fanboy gives him the message that Mann and Michael have neutralized the superhuman and that the worst has passed.Stumbling to his knees and clutching his seizing heart, McCrow tries to fight the pain out of his voice.  "Then get those beggars the hell out of my home." Roger grunts as he collapses to the ground, a half smile creeping over his lips as the waves once more return to normal.Fanboy says something snarky in response, but McCrow never hears it.The Italian crime families received a blow that they won't soon recover from and the blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of one Vincent Depaliamo...which would have been more meaningful if the Italians hadn't just lost the majority of their men and Depaliamo hadn't came into possession of actual superhumans.  Within two years, the vast majority of organized crime on the east coast is now routed through the elusive Depaliamo and his superpowered Dons.  Italian, Russian, it doesn't matter; you give the Dons their cut.-------------------------Brick received a full pardon for his part in the Tree King's crimes as those actually capable of punishing him felt he was an unwitting pawn that knew little about the lethal nature of the Tree King's uprising.Over the next two years he proved himself as a valuable addition to the superteam McCrow and Friends where he finally found the acceptance he sought in the public eye.---------------------------Following the final death of the Tree King and subsequent loss of his mental influence, the Tree Clones began developing unique minds and personalities of their own.  Within two years they have been legally recognized as a unique race, due the same protections and rights as any other human or human derivative.  Their population sits at a steady 3,000; though each has shown the same ability to rapidly reproduce as their 'father'. ----------------------------Sandy Clemens permanently moved to Missouri with her children to be closer to family and away from the dangers of modern Ventnor City; she's one of less than a dozen superhumans to receive a free pass into the continental US; but her connection to the Fanboy made it a snap.  Over the next two years she collaborated with the reporter Elizabeth Ingles to write a tell-all best seller titled "Heroes and Horrors: My Life In Hiding"Luckily for Fanboy, she didn't know much.--------------------------------Greg Mallard apparently disappeared from the face of the Earth.  With his wife avenged he found himself without purpose and left Ventnor City, and all it represented, behind him. In the last two years, all attempts to reach him have failed.Some suspect suicide.----------------------------------Franklin McCrow's marriage managed to survive its rocky beginnings and after two years his wife gave birth to their first child: Luke McCrow.  ------------------------------------Noone knows exactly what happened to Ezekiel McCrow but sometimes the younger McCrows still wake to find themselves covered in a cold sweat and swearing they can hear an anti-semitic tirade still lingering in the air.  ------------------------------------Stallone and the Droplets still faithfully serve McCrow and Friends, though they have started to gain an identity of their own.  Stallone remains far and away the most evolved of their kind, but all droplets who survive for a year or more have shown a marked increase in intelligence and awareness...some have even discovered how to reproduce.  Their total population currently sits at close to 500.  Were it not for their lack of need for even basic human comforts, their expanding population could be cause for worry; as it stands they're mostly a source of irritation and immature humor.---------------------------------------Stardust continues to remain illusive and conflicting reports have surfaced which list her as either an angel of mercy or of death.  Many instances of miraculous healings have been attributed to her, but so have instances of people simply rotting alive.It's impossible to guess at her true motivations, but S.C.A.R. has her listed as a priority target.---------------------------------------Finch's reputation and business have continued to grow with Fanboy's popularity. He continues ruining lives, living a life of excess and making dreams come true, in no particular order.----------------------------------------Dr Kavlight officially left McCrow and Friends after the Wilson incident in order to work with the displaced superhumans left in Ventnor City.  He isn't above using his powers to resolve disputes, but believes he's of more use as a doctor than a brawler.  He and his new partner Bryan Allen, aka the Winged-Man, operate a mission and free clinic out of Bryan's church.  The visitors haved dubbed the area Mercy Avenue and it has become home to a predominately metahuman population.----------------------------------------Mr Amazing is unaccounted for.  He is presumed homeless and still crazy; though reports from the Wilson incident list him as responsible for the reapprehension of the Fire Elemental and half a dozen cats.-----------------------------------------The meta-human simply referred to as the Beastman has continued his association with the superteam known as McCrow and Friends; though in a diminished capacity.  In order to fit in with the colorful personas of his comrades, he adopts the moniker 'Mr. Misfit' at the suggestion of his new girlfriend: Betty.-------------------------------------Tiffany's one woman crime wave has yet to catch up with her; though it is rumored that crime rates go up every time she hits town. It's also rumored she does mercenary work for anyone who can foot her ridiculous bill, which is often times the CIA just to keep her off American soil.--------------------------------------The haunting of McCrow and Friends' seemed to abate after the defeat of Wilson; though whether the murdered child found genuine peace with her killer's death or simply no longer had the will to fight is impossible to say-------------------------------------The man known as Prophet still acts as the driving force behind McCrow and Friends; assisting both them and occasionally the DHS in resolving crisises before they materialize.  To date, he's responsible for the aversion of more than 80 incidents.----------------------------------------Within two years the world already questioned how it ever functioned without Dr Luvless and his monolithic Luvtech empire.  For only a fraction of the cost of traditional wares, Luvless's patented hard-light technology has revolutionized military spending, the entertainment industry, and even basic construction and travel.  Every corporation worth its salt has attempted to backwards engineer his marvelous inventions and they all say the same thing: It's impossible.----------------------------------------Richard remains a part of McCrow and Friends, albeit in the role of an auxilliary member; his powers remain as wild and explosive as ever, though he's managed to gain some semblance of control. He's currently attempting to finish High School and has assumed the professional name of Volt to protect his identity.---------------------------------------As Bradley's powers evolved, he rose above his own perceived shorcomings to become a true renaissance man.  He's currently enrolled in three trade schools, four degree programs and the National Guard.  He still maintains close ties with McCrow and Friends and often acts a first responder during their more intense missions.  As his powers and skills have grown, he's assumed a new alternate identity: Battalion.-----------------------------------------Lucky Dan continues to be an active force in McCrow and Friends and is among their most popular members, though rumors suggest that the DHS has offered him a chance to go national.  He briefly attempted to go by the name Mr Fortune, but it never stuck.----------------------------------------Chavenski's organization lay in tatters, with his international contacts cutting ties just to save face.  His options limited, he became an official (if part time) member of McCrow and Friends; which has allowed him a good deal more freedom and mobility than his criminal past and metahuman status SHOULD allow him.  He's relatively unknown outside of the group however; much like Roger McCrow he doesn't care for eyes being on him.-------------------------------------Parks was promoted to a Director position following his involvement in the defeat of General Wilson.  He effectively replaced Reeves and now oversees all superhuman related affairs.------------------------------------Michael Stockton has been reinstated as a full agent under the direction of Mann and sports a suite of Luvtech gadgets that make his job all the easier.  With two years of intensive therapy he also believes he's finally coming to terms with his PTSD.-------------------------------------Agent Mann was placed in charge of S.C.A.R. in the wake of Parks' promotion and the vacuum left by Wilson's betrayal, his official position is now Deputy Director.  His Luvtech prosthetics are regularly upgraded as part of an ongoing deal with Dr Luvless, keeping him months if not years ahead of what is commonly available.------------------------------------Ventnor City itself has been cordoned off to the rest of the continental US by land, sea and air.  It requires a specialized passport to enter or exit the city and many tourists drawn in by the superhuman craze of two years ago are now reluctant residents.  With a superhuman population of more than 6,000 KNOWN metahumans however, the security is considered warranted.------------------------------------Fanboy was catapulted to international fame after the Wilson incident as Finch managed to convince the world he stopped the attack pretty much singlehandedly.  Even Big Brother's fame has been completely eclipsed by the rising light of The Fanboy.  Over the next two years Fanboy has went beyond a mere superhero, he's become a true celebrity with frequent talkshow appearances, a  brief cameo in the Star Wars sequels and the starring role in a semi-autobiographical film about his life; directed by Michael Bay.  Roger McCrow's part was suspiciously absent.   Fanboy now resides in sunny Beverly Hills along with his mansion, millions of dollars and a new supermodel on his arm every night of the week.  Having achieved everything he's ever wanted in life at such a young age, he has to ask himself...what's next?As Finch reminds him: "The Sequel."----------------------------------------Having prevented all of Ventnor City from drowning in their homes, Roger McCrow was found collapsed on the very docks he'd spent his life working.  He was unresponsive.After being rushed to Superhuman Recovery and given priority care by a team of doctors, it was found that no treatment either mundane nor abnormal had any effect.  His abused heart simply couldn't take the strain he demanded of it any longer.  He was officially pronounced dead while the rest of the city celebrated their hard won salvation.At the insistence of his friend Samell Hamilton, Roger McCrow was quietly buried at sea two days later. A small grave marker was still purchased for a proper ceremony, though most questioned the point.  Less than a dozen mourners bothered to come, none of which Ben McCrow recognized.A large man with a thick Russian accent and an oxygen tank, a pair of young men even younger than Ben himself, a drunk that had to fight just to stand up under his own power and several small, childsized forms bundled in raincoats that wailed uncontrollably over the vacant grave.Franklin declined the invitation.Roger McCrow was not a name that history would likely remember.  His legacy was always destined to be one of disappointment and heartache and those few who would remember him in later years would rarely ever do so fondly, even if they have the good taste not to mention as much.Not even a noble death could repair the numerous rifts that the volatiled  McCrow casually formed in the wake of his own self destructive spiral.Against Finch's wishes, Fanboy was present for the funeral; though he didn't make an official appearance he did watch the proceedings from the sky.  He'd considered making a speech and venerating McCrow's noble sacrifice... He'd considered telling Roger's sons that McCrow had died for them...that he'd died for something larger than himself.  But in the end, Samell didn't think it'd be a fitting eulogy for the McCrow he knew.The McCrow he knew didn't fight the good fight because it was the right thing to do.  He didn't fight the good fight to save lives or attain glory.   He didn't fight for his sons, or truthfully even for survival... Roger McCrow fought the good fight, just because it was there.------------------------------As the preacher packs up and excuses himself from the proceedings, his father's mourners corner Ben McCrow before he has a chance to do the same."I wanted to thank you for showing up.  I know my dad didn't have many friends, but it's nice to know that somebody cared." Ben says sadly, shaking the hands of all but the child-sized figures who have yet to stop weeping."Your father was interesting man." the large Russian man says with a vicelike grip.  "We have something, he would have wanted you to have."Ben glances nervously at them.  "Oh?  What's that?"The Russian jerks his head and the drunk fumbles in his pockets until he brings out a business card and passes it to Ben. "Wouldn't be right for anyone but a McCrow to have it." the drunk slurs.The card is rather unassuming, it simply lists an address and number on one side; the other has a large M&F followed by a tactless slogan.Ben shakes his head as he reads it, "What's this about?" he asks, unsure of what any of this means.The older boy, the one closer to his own age smiles sadly.  "Some words from our founder."-------------------------------Two years later McCrow and Friends is the first and to this day ONLY officially licensed superhero team in the world; contracted by Ventnor City PD and occasionally outside entities to assist in detaining violent or uncontrolled superhumans which defy conventional methods.Ben McCrow proved to be a genuine and charismatic leader for the group and while unlike Fanboy there's no marketing presence for McCrow and Friends, no action figures or television appearances, they get their share of media attention; especially locally.They continue what they do not for glory or fame or even wealth, but because sometimes as the giant bronze statue of Roger McCrow strangling  the stuffed Fenrir proudly proclaims in their lobby: "Punks need their asses beat."</blockquote>

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