Release 3.3
The two stared at each other for a long moment, and then the Grail let out a long sight. "If you wish to remain here, then so be it. We shall take our leave." The Grail turned and left the room, and, though the glass partition between them did not lower, Canary remained her side of the room, never once stepping over the invisible line.
This trip had not laid bare the fruit that they had hoped, but they supposed that not every potential Master could be a winner.
As they stepped out of the PRT building, catching the eye of a few employees who, luckily, between the massive fight going on outside and the fact that the Grail could be mistaken as a relatively unknown cape, did not pay them much mind, they looked up at the "distraction" BB had sent.
Mecha Eli-Chan fired a missile from her skirt, using the force to propel her out of the way as Legend fired a large laser at her. Her skirt spun, firing dozens more rockets, at the cape, only for them to explode within a few yards of him, a red laser having been fired and made to curve to detonate the projectiles before they could reach him. Mecha Eli-Chan made use of the temporary smoke screen, however, to close the distance, rocketing forward, her right hand morphing into a drill as she drove it forward to pierce through the man's chest.
The sound of creaking metal met her auditory sensors as she attempted this maneuver. Temperature reading showed rapid freezing of her joints on her arm. Legend, was capable of utilizing a variety of laser beams, but combining effects took time and effort, making them difficult to use on the fly. Having been able to avoid the last missile barrage with only a single laser, however, gave him the time he needed to hastily throw together exactly what he needed.
The moment the robot came through the smoke he fired. A small invisible laser...a freeze ray. It only struck her arm, but that in and of itself would be crippling. As she tried to extend her arm forward her frozen limb snapped leaving her forearm and hand falling to the pavement below. Legend prepared to fire another laser when the robot suddenly reversed, now accelerating in the opposite direction to slow down as her skirt spun.
Just how many missiles did this girl have? Where did she put all of them?
Legend fired at each missile as they circle around him, being thrown around by the subsequent shockwaves but overall remaining unharmed. And as he was there surrounded by smoke, the robot charged at him again. He held his hand out, a beam of light forming around his fingertips…
A drill rocketed from below him, stabbing into his side.
The robot almost sounded smug when she intoned, "I have rocket fists." As the smoke cleared she caught sight of the Grail below, waving one arm above their head as they did so.
BB spoke up. "Okay, I am reading a number of heroes on their way and we are done here. You did good for your first time! Now let's get out of here!"
The robot nodded, and the drill began rocketing forward again, still stuck in Legend, propelling itself and the hero into a nearby building as Mecha Eli-chan swooped down to pick up the Grail.
"But why not?" Ray Andino felt frustration bubble in his chest. Today was supposed to be a happy day. A great day! Bot so quickly everything seemed to be going wrong.
Standing across from him, still in her cape outfit wearing a green hooded coat with built in fans to make it billow, Bad Apple shook her head. "Listen, Ray, I care about you, I really do, but you know just as well as I that we can't keep doing this."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do." Beneath her hood her eyes narrowed. "You know what this is. We meet up, we have fun, screw around, but we
always go our separate ways and we
never get in each other's way. Its nice, nice escaping from the cape life together for a bit, but you know it can't be forever."
Ray shook his head furiously, grabbing her by her wrist and pulling her into an embrace. "Of course it can. Please, my Applesauce…"
"No, no, don't applesauce me. I'm serious." She pushed him away, and he let go of her understanding that trying to keep her held would only make things worse. "You are trying to take this too far. We are
friends. With benefits, sure, but still...what you are asking…"
"Apple...we can escape." Ray felt heat build up in his throat, his eyes growing heavy with unshed tears. "We don't...don't have to keep doing all this running around. I...I want to have a family with you."
Bad Apple remained silent for a moment, biting her lip as she struggled to push out the words she needed to say. "And that's exactly the problem. I'm sorry Blasto." And with that she turned and left, the apartment door slamming shut behind her, not due to any action on her part, but simply due to the weight of it.
Blasto was born into a poor household, the type of small town where no one was really expected to get out. It was a tight knit community where everyone knew each other in some way. So when Ray got into medical school at Harvard, it was a big deal. A big celebration, handshakes wherever he went. Everyone was so proud of him.
But over time things changed. They all just...drifted apart. There was a resentment there that grew as he missed more and more birthdays, weddings, graduations...and at school everyone knew he was a charity case, there only by virtue of scholarships that forced him to work twice as hard as everyone else just to keep, which meant that he didn't attend any of the parties where the various social cliques formed.
He worked hard though. Tried to make everyone proud. A law student had once said that he had blue fire shooting out of his ass, he was trying to fly so high. At the time Ray had just laughed, taking it as a compliment, but little did he realize what a target it had made him. Doctors he shadowed all became exhausted of his presence quickly, and fellow students saw him as someone to take down. Back home his family was falling apart. A father in jail, a brother getting press ganged and a sister under threat of...he didn't like thinking about it.
He didn't trigger in some big sudden horrible event. He was just in his small single room apartment one day, writing his thesis, when he stopped and called home. He spoke with his sister for an hour, it felt so nice to hear her voice. And then she hung up and all he could do was lay his head down and cry. She had said "I love you, Ray. We are so proud of you." It had just been too much.
He triggered right then.
He threw himself into his "work" in Boston after that. He wanted to make something of himself with his powers, get away from the toxic environment he found himself in. He wanted to be a rogue, or something. He really just wanted his sister to still be able to call him and say "I love you, Ray. We are so proud of you." Oh how things had gone wrong.
He fell into the role of crime boss far too easily, compromising his morals over and over with petty little justifications that now, being older and wiser, seemed so stupid. He tried to be a kind criminal, at least, but it seemed that no matter how hard he tried people just didn't like him.
The only lights in his life were his sister, who he sent money regularly though she refused to answer any of his calls, Apple, who he had loved and thought had been loved by in return, and his creations, proof of his abilities and talent. Proof that he was somebody.
He lost one of those today.
If someone asked him what he wanted most, he'd say he'd want to meet a nice girl who could see past his reputation and would run away with him, start a family in the midwest with three sons and two daughters.
He sat down on his bed and rested his face in his hands as he finally broke down in tears.
Yeah, he'd like that.
If someone asked Mimi wanted most, she'd have a few answers for them. To be free of her power, to be reunited with her best friend (and maybe more) Elle, and to not be wanted by the world at large for the various crimes she had committed while under the influence of her power.
But maybe most of all it would be to be out of the Nine.
Burnscar made a small flame dance across her fingertips to maintain her high as she sat away from the rest of the group. It was a dangerous balancing act. Indulge too much and she'd turn into a murderous psychopath. Indulge too little and she'd spiral into a deep depression as the full weight of her crimes crushed her. She really was in an impossible situation. She wanted to escape, to not be a villain, to return to the Asylum and exist outside of this limbo, but she had already had a kill order on her by the time her…
episode following her escape from the Asylum had ended. Besides, even if the heroes didn't kill her the Nine definitely would.
It was easy to delude herself that the Nine were her friends, maybe even family. Jack and Shatterbird had a sort of charismatic paternal air about them that made it easy to fall into step behind them, and Bonesaw could be surprisingly cute if you ignored...well, most things about her.
"Hey.
Helloooo. Anyone home?"
Mimi looked up as a hand waved in front of her face. Cherish grinned as she stepped back, dressed in a long sleeved shirt that hung off her shoulders and hugged her bust and a torn pair of skinny jeans. She would look beautiful if it weren't for the raised tattoos that marred her visible torso.
Cherish smiled and laughed. "Wow, you were
so zoned out there. Really, I was tempted to wait and see if you would start drooling or something!"
"What do you want?" Mimi's voice was small, quiet, but she tried to keep out any inflection of fear from it. Best not to look vulnerable.
"Well, Jack just sent Shatterbird into town to scout around for recruits or something, and I though, since he is fine sending her in he would have
no problem with me going into the city to do some shopping."
"Do you even have any money?"
Cherish rolled her eyes. "I have powers."
Right. "Why are you telling me this."
"Well, one of the first rules of fashion is to
always have someone uglier and less fashionable than you when going out to make yourself look even better by comparison! And that is where you come in!"
Bitch, I could burn you to a crisp. Melt that fucking slutty ass tongue of yours in your fucking throat! Fucking burn your fucking ass and make you breathe fire, you bitch! ANd then I'll-
Mimi took a deep breath. "Fine." She didn't agree because she wanted to go shopping. She agreed because of what city they were passing by.
Philadelphia. The Asylum was here. Even if she couldn't go back, even if Elle wasn't there anymore, there was still some nostalgia attached to it. Some warm memories for her to absk in. A small respite from...everything.
She desperately wished she could turn things around, but to do that she would need a miracle.
She'd burn the world to ash if that is what it took.
As Mecha Eli-Chan carried the Grail into the sky, they considered their options. BB had apparently found where the Asylum GstringGirl was talking about was located; a city further West called Philadelphia. Given the presence of an Asylum, Angra Mainyu was confident that they could find some suitably insane and/or desperate people to pull into the Holy Grail War.
Alternatively they could simply return to Brockton Bay and continue their search there. Maybe the scene there had changed presenting them with some new possibilities?
Of course, another big cape city, Boston, was also in that direction. Perhaps a detour through that area wouldn't be so bad. Explore a bit, at the very least.
Regardless, after dropping them off Mecha Eli-Chan would need to go get repaired, meaning that they'd probably have to stay in whatever city they ended up in for a day or two. Not that that was a major issue. They
walked to New York, and got lost several times. Having to spend a day in another town wasn't a big issue considering how much time the flight with Mecha Eli-Chan was saving them.
Back in New York BB would continue to remote control the severed drill fist for several days, performing heists and defeating several capes including the current Butcher, as well as using it to go to Boston and tilt every painting in Accord's home and move each piece of furniture to be just a few inches off center. New Yorkers everywhere, when asked by the press about the new "cape", named Gurren after it got stained red due to a combination of Butcher and Legend's blood, shrugged.
OPTIONS:
[] Fly to Philadelphia
[] Fly to Boston
[] Fly to Brockton Bay
EDIT: Note that Mimi, if she eventually becomes a Master, would essentially become the evil equivalent of Vista as far as the whole leaving her team thing goes, though that doesn't mean that the S9 would let her go quietly, but I feel that is an important distinction to make. (In fact, if the S9 showed up in Brockton Bay in this situation she'd likely turn against them). Okay, that is all. Have a good day.
