ic Octoman: Close To Home (IC)

[alderwitch]

“Geckoman is quite alive and well, he’s just been busy with... well, secret identity things. Let’s go with that.” Talya replied as she went to pull out the gauze and first aid supplies, setting up a tray with practiced hands. Talya had stitched together more wounds than she cared to count in her life time. The screen meant that she didn’t have to worry about which way her head turned so she could talk as she worked. “He stops by regularly though. You might see Jack or Willow, they’re the only ones in the building at the moment.”

 

That was a lie, their offspring were here too, as was Raina but the only team members in residence were those two although the other Interceptors stopped in often enough. The door was certainly always open. Talya sat back on her stool as she pushed herself over to deal with the worst wounds first. At least the kid seemed hearty, thank goodness. Her lips quirked in an amused smile as she blew her bangs out of her way to start applying pressure. “And no offense taken. It is a risk inherent in the relationship. Put your hand over this bandage and let me get the other injuries cleaned up. And no, not too much gets away from me. Do your parents know that you have powers? Have you been invited to Claremont yet?”

 

Bombshell didn’t worry about mentioning Claremont. Before this teenager left her medical bay, he was going to agree to attend even if he’d never heard of it. Far more experienced heroes had tried and failed to hold out against Talya’s powers of persuasion. 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

"Claremont? That fancy prep school on the other side of the river? Why would I get in there? Why would I even APPLY there? There's no WAY my parents could afford that place. There's no way they'd even have time to drive me out that far. Nah, public school kid. I MEAN...yeah, nobody's buyin' it. OK, still doin' the highschool thing. But CLAREMONT? My grades are good, but they're not THAT good. Nah, the parents don't know anything yet. They both work a lot, so they're not around much. And since, y'know..." He pointed at his ear and twirled his finger around. "THIS happened, they've both been trying real hard not to startle me by, like, barging into my room or anything, I get plenty of warning. Got cool blinky-lights hooked up over the door, bathroom too, kinda like a doorbell, just push a button. I don't think they'd want me doing the hero thing. Especially Mamá, she doesn't really like you guys, says you make her job harder...Wait, what do you MEAN, 'secret identity things'? Is it bad? Like, someone in his family's dying? It's gotta be bad, wait, no way he'd hang up the tights if it wasn't bad, the whole city would fall apart without him...WAIT, he IS the new Raven, isn't he?! I KNEW IT! I knew he sidekicked for the old one for a while, not, like, the OLD old one, the NEW old one. Who ELSE is she gonna pick? Well, Wander, maybe. You could do it, easy, but it doesn't seem like your style. Midnight, it's one-THOUSAND percent HIS style. Or Foreshadow. Terrifica could probably do the job..."

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Grumblefloof

[alderwitch]

“Claremont is a prep school but its for teenagers with powers and abilities,” Talya said as she leaned in to clean the edges of one wound gently. The trick with non standard biology was in figuring what would work and what didn’t. More glue than sutures, Talya suspected. She squinted a little, taking in the edges of the injury before she turned to get the medical version of superglue. “I shan’t confirm or deny the new Raven’s identity. It would be impossibly rude, for one and I am rarely rude... at least not without purpose.”

 

Talya stuck the edges together and then held a bandage over the injury while it sealed shut. She glanced up so Octoman could read her lips clearly and offered a conspiratorial smile, “Geckoman is a Claremont alumni. And don’t worry about the details, those are easy enough to address. I know the headmaster.” Talya waved one hand absently, the one that wasn’t holding the bandage in place. 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

The teen sprang up to a sitting position on the examination table. His costume (skin?) changed colors again, and textures too, this time, briefly turning completely white with red spots, then red with yellow spots, and a few other color combinations, back and forth a few times, and spiky all over. His eyes stretched into perfect circles twice their normal size. His mouth hung open, almost matching them. He held up his hands, palms out toward Bombshell, as if trying to stop a car on the road. "WHOA whoa whoa. Are you SERIOUS?!" Then his hands started doing the same gesture as before, where they moved from side to side to emphasize each incomplete sentence. "GECKOMAN. THE Geckoman. Went to Claremont. CLAREMONT. Which is a SUPERHERO SCHOOL. Also, there are SUPERHERO SCHOOLS. And they taught GECKOMAN. How to BE Geckoman. YEAH, OK, I'm in. OF COURSE I'm in. Where do I sign? WHAT do I sign? Are there scholarships? Do I have to, like, enlist in the military or something? Is it a religious school? 'Cause I'm kinda good with what I've got. Do I have to tell my parents about, y'know..." A tentacle erupted from the fold of skin on his forearm and waved at Bombshell, its suckers flexing and squeezing. "...THIS whole thing?"

 

[alderwitch]

Talya decided that she’d gotten the worst of it fortunately before he started waving and gesturing. 

 

“Easy there, tiger. Easy,” Talya said with some amusement. Reaching out, she caught his shoulders before he could bound up off the operating table and disturb the bandages that she’d put in place. The smile on her features was fond and almost vaguely maternal although that didn’t fit at all on Bombshell’s features; not if you expected her to be Bombshell.

 

”I’m not sure if anyone can claim that they taught Geckoman to BE Geckoman. He’s a bit of a law unto himself but, yes, when he was a teenager, he attended Claremont as did his teammates. You don’t have to worry about filling out anything although I will need your actual, legal name as well as your family’s information. Don’t worry. I won’t be sharing your secret although its really something you might consider. Living a lie is a very, very hard path to walk and the further down that road that you go, the harder it is to turn around.”

 

Her expression turned briefly somber before Talya shook that off, “It’s a dormitory but you don’t have spend the weekends there if you’re local, though many do. You can go home as often as it appeals but it’s a good place, with good people and with teenagers able to understand some of what you’re going through. Now, how are you feeling? I...”

 

”Mummy!” 

 

Talya pivoted at the sound of her daughter’s voice, snapping around with the same sort of speed that she used for combat but it was too late; Mia had already burst through the door to stare at Octoman with wide, wonder filled eyes. “Mummy! Who’s sat?”

 

”Oh, mercy, Mia. When you hear me using code names on the intercom, it means to stay away,” Talya scolded gently as she stepped forward and scooped the little girl up into her arms. She couldn’t have been more than four or five, with delicate features, tanned skin and Min’s elfin ears. All of the children had inherited those. The last of Talya’s mask fell away and she gave her daughter the look of exasperated mothers everywhere as the lower lip stuck out in a definite pout at the reprimand.

 

Talya sighed, shifting Mia to her hip, “And I’m sure Mommy has no idea where you are, hm? Slipped out while the twins took up all of her attention?”

 

”I was watchin’ Daddy’s class an’ I slipped out when Vince started talking to him on the in-er-com.” Mia said, clearly proud of having given her father the slip. Really, Talya had no one to blame but herself. Stealth was the game that she often played with the children. Mia’s bright gaze landed on Octoman, “Who are you?! You got lots of arms.”

 

”Mia,” Talya groaned before she turned towards the intercom. Decades of espionage and she couldn’t even manage to keep her offspring from breaking secret identity. “Be polite, my little love. Erik, Min, I have Mia. She’s in here.” Talya directed that towards the wall for VINCE to relay while Mia protested, “I like his arms! It’s not mean if I like them. I only got two.”

 

 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

"Yeah, I'd pretty much have to stay there during the week, I think. No way my parents can make that kind of commute, just not enough hours in the day, and the buses barely TOUCH Bayview. Man, I'm gonna have to tell my parents about my powers, aren't I? Tatay, he'll dig it. But you're gonna have to crank those powers of persuasion up to eleven for my mom, 'cause she does NOT like superheroes. Every time Tatay and I talk about you guys, she grumbles and rolls her eyes. She's cool with powers, that just HAPPENS to some people, she gets that. It's the tights-and-fights part. OK, so you know how the bad guy's always got a bunch of schlubby morons doing his heavy lifting and distracting you while he powers up his death ray? Well, after you beat up those guys and they go to jail, they go to COURT, and Mamá is their lawyer. Not the MAIN bad guy, he can afford to pay someone else a lot of money. His goons, they can't afford ANYONE, so they get Mamá. You know how EVERYBODY loves you guys? Well, her DAY JOB is trying to convince a room full of EVERYBODY that you guys are Bad, Actually. And she TRIES, 'cause she CARES. Not everyone she works with cares, but SHE does. So she REALLY tries. But most of the time, well, like I said, everybody loves you. OK, I gotta tell them about the powers so I can go to Superhero School. But I'm NOT telling them about the swinging-on-rooftops beating-up-bad-guys getting-shot-at thing. They're still worried about me getting a DRIVERS LICENSE. Maaan, now they're gonna see what I really look like after the accident. They're gonna FREAK when they see THAT."

 

His eyes widened again when the little girl ran into Bombshell's arms. "Whoa. You have KIDS?! BOMBSHELL's a MOM?! Wait...did you marry Geckoman?! Is she his kid? Of COURSE, NOW it all makes sense! Hey, 'Mia', right? I'm Octoman. Yeah, I got LOTS of arms. It's my thing." He deployed all ten of his tentacles and stretched them long enough to reach every part of the room, then let them idly float around in the air. "I can smell you through these little sucker-things, see?" One of the tentacles hovered near Mia, and the suckers clenched and relaxed again in rapid succession. "Like, if you were standing way over there, and I was over here, but one of my arms was over by you, and you farted, I'd totally smell it. You'd be over there like THHHHFFFFBT! and I'd be over here all *ACK*!" His skin turned green for a couple seconds.

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Grumblefloof

[Gizmo]

The Talya could tell Erik was rushing by how far away she was able to hear his light footfalls coming, a dancer’s grace losing out to a sprinter’s efficiency. He slid into the infirmary a split second later, the eyes behind his royal blue bandana mask darting back and forth to quickly take in the scene. Seeing no immediate cause for alarm the swordsman let out a long sigh and ran a hand through the raven black of his shoulder length wig. Even hastily donned the hairpiece was considerably more convincing than the one he’d used before Talya had replaced it with barely concealed disdain.

 

”You’re killing me her, niña,” he directed to Mia. He hadn’t taken the time to fully change into his costume as Jack of all Blades, settling for his black tights and matching sleeveless top, barefoot and greatcoat slung over one shoulder. He tossed the coat over the back of an empty chair and gave their injured guest a critical once over. Catching Talya’s eye he silently mouthed - What the hell? -

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

"Whoa, hey, The JACK! You're AWESOME! BIG fan." Octoman grabbed one of his own tentacles as he rambled. "The bad guys are like 'NYAH, Gonna do bad stuff!' and you're all swingin' through the window all 'Ha-HA! I think NOT!'" He thrust the tentacle straight ahead. "Then with the FIRE SWORD, all *PEW* *PEW* *POKE* *SLICE*" He waved his tentacle around in a vaguely sword-like manner. "And the bad guys are all like 'AAAHHH I'M ON FIRE NOOO I REGRET MY LIFE CHOICES!'" His arms and tentacles all flailed at the ceiling for a moment. "TIGHT. WOW, so not ONLY is Geckoman the new Raven, but he's Bombshell's baby-daddy AND he's got THE Jack of All Blades doing the babysitting? MAN, he's got life figured OUT! Is that just something all the Interceptors do for each other, watch the kids while you're out doing the hero thing? That's cool and all, have each others backs, but it seems like it'd be a better allocation of resources to just hire an actual babysitter? I mean, I know you guys don't get PAID per se, but your time's still, like, VALUABLE. Oh hey, so Bombshell just said she's gonna get me into Superhero-School! And not just ANY superhero-school, but the SAME one that GECKOMAN went to! Pretty sweet, right? You couldn't ASK for a better teammate, Man, she's just been doin' me one solid after another all day. Patchin' me up like this, couldn't get better hospitality at any five-star hotel, savin' my ass after Dollar-Store Mel Gibson back there made good on his promise to re-pave the street with it, and, like, I know I'm frontin' like I'm all tough and manly, like the heroes in those old movies all 'Pain don't hurt' and 'I ain't got TIME ta BLEED' and stuff, and Bombshell, you did enough poking and prodding while I've been lying here to figure out how I don't exactly have 'bones' anymore, but it still kinda FEELS like I have bones and I broke ALL OF 'EM, so not having to swing myself home was seriously THE BEST, can't thank you enough..."

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Grumblefloof

[alderwitch]

Talya's expression was mingled horror and amusement at that particular leap of logic. "Mercy, no-" she was starting to say as Erik pelted into the room only to have Mia exclaim with absolute pride, 

 

"That's my Daddy! Jack a'blades is my daddy. I got an action figure too. It goes pew pew!" Mia declared with glee, snuggled against her mother. Their daughter didn't seem to find the purple blood spatter frightening but then it was off enough from human blood for her to not make the connection. Talya's costume was liberally smeared from Octoman's injuries and fortunately, that hid the red of her own blood at least enough that their young daughter hadn't noticed it. The injury had already healed under the bullethole in Talya's costume. 

 

She gave Erik a shrug that could only be described as apologetic as she held out Mia for her father to take. 

 

"I wanted to see Mummy!" Mia protested as she wiggled her legs and feet, that lower lip jutting out at her father. Eden would have been apologetic but then, Eden listened about the rules about code names and the intercom. Mia, however, was full of words and opinions about why she was perfectly in the right to break a half dozen of the household rules. "An I met a new friend. He has noses in his arms. Why don't I got noses in my elbows, Daddy? If Mummy brought him home, he's gotta be safe an he seems nice. He's my friend!"

 

Ah, the instant affection of extroverted five year olds. 

 

"Mia, my sweet," Talya sighed heavily. "We've talked about this. When you see your papa in costume, you're really supposed to pretend not to know him. I'm sorry," that was to Erik as she gestured towards the injured teenager. "There was a hostage situation on fifth street and I thought I ought to intervene. He's just a teenager, Jack, parents don't know and well..." she flipped her hand slightly, communicating the injuries without words, he almost died, "I've just about convinced him to go to Claremont. I had to help... He's a huge fan of Geckoman. Oh, and he's deaf. I have VINCE running subtitles since my ASL is rusty at best."

 

She turned with a sidelong smile towards Octoman, amusement quirking her lips once more, "And no, I didn't have children with Geckoman. We're merely friends."

Edited August 7, 2019 by alderwitch

[Amelia]

GM

 

V.I.N.C.E.'s "face" appeared on the monitors. "Don't be alarmed! But maybe be a little alarmed. My scanners are having trouble getting an accurate read on the kid's vital signs. Every time I try to take his pulse, I pick up a weird series of echoes that makes an accurate count impossible. But if my count is anywhere close to accurate, then his blood pressure's so high it could high-five the ISS. He should be dead from ten heart attacks, not sitting here having a conversation. His heart attacks should be having their own heart attacks. And, not to bury the lede, but the kid's setting off the Geiger counter of all things. Don't panic, he's not radioactive enough to hurt anyone just by standing next to you. He'd have to spit out twice as many rads before even the little girl's blood showed any changes. But he's definitely a hot spot, above and beyond the normal background radiation. It looks like he ingested a barium meal for a gastrointestinal study, only instead of just swallowing a cupful of the stuff, he got a transfusion and replaced his whole bloodstream with it. I'd have to take a full X-ray to make sense of any of it, and if I did, I'm willing to bet his veins would light up like a Christmas tree."

 

[Gizmo]

"Huh. That'd explain why he sounds like saltwater taffy," Jack hummed, tilting his head a little as he worked through what the synthasia his metamagi senses was telling him about the chattering teen. There wasn't enough radiation there for him to do much 'tugging' but he'd have been able to pick 'Octoman' out of a crowd with his eyes closed. 

 

He took Mia from Talya and hefted her up in his arms, attempting a stern look that melted in the face of her good cheer and conviction. Instead he turned his attention back to their guest, who evidently wasn't any slouch in the good cheer department, either. "Goggles has fans? Dios, we can never tell him, his head'd get too big to fit in the Pitchoo." He reflexively looked the kid up and down one more time as thought that would give him a better sense of his injuries, despite what Vince had said. "The secret identity things a tough go, especially when you're still living at home. You need help with that, you let us know." He made eye contact through the unusually expressive mask and gave Octoman a serious nod. The last thing any baby cape was going to listen to was anybody telling them not to run into danger, especially not if they were made of not-bones and a couple gallons of sugar high. Best thing was to make sure he didn't try to run into danger without backup. "Claremont's a good call.They can always use more students who know the city, aren't princes or kid billionaires or whatever. What do you think?" He directed the question to Mia while keeping an eye on Talya's response. "Can he throw a punch?"

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

"Oh, and he's deaf. I have VINCE running subtitles since my ASL is rusty at best."

 

Octoman visibly deflated when he saw those words on the screen.

 

"Man. Just...puttin' it out there," he mumbled. "Comin' right out and sayin' it. OK, y'all wanna get real, let's get REAL..."

 

He grabbed a nearby towel for modesty as his skin rippled and faded to brown. His tentacles all retracted back into his body. Curly black hair sprouted from the top of his head in a medium-Afro style. White eyes turned brown. Over the course of a second, he stopped looking like a superhero and looked like a perfectly normal (and completely naked) teenage boy, aside from the many cuts and bruises which still revealed his purple blood.

 

"So this is what I looked like, before...the accident. It's what Mamá and Tatay think I STILL look like."

 

His skin rippled again. The hair disappeared, all of it, even his eyebrows. His skin was the same shade of brown, but the texture was different. It was shinier, almost rubbery. The irises in his eyes faded from brown to yellow. What appeared to be either scar tissue or folds of skin appeared on the sides of his neck, his forearms, the back and sides of his torso, the palms of his hands, and the soles of his feet. The large folds in the center of his palms and soles opened up to reveal a large orifice of some kind, while the other, smaller folds appeared to flip or turn inside out, revealing suckers. The folds on his forearms and torso spread open and his tentacles, now the same color as his skin, slid back out. The folds on his neck split open to reveal the inside of his throat, before closing again. Gills.

 

"But this is the real deal. And they're. Gonna. FREAK."

 

He aimed one hand at a nearby sink, and a wad of black ink spurted out of the orifice in the center of his palm.

 

"I...don't THINK that'll clog the drain?"

 

Quote

"That's my Daddy! Jack a'blades is my daddy."

 

Quote

"And no, I didn't have children with Geckoman. We're merely friends."

 

Not for the first time in this conversation, his mood shifted drastically.

 

"So Gecks and Spellbound ARE still together! Sweeeeet. Wait, so if he's the new Raven, is she, what...'Mission Control' or something?"

 

Quote

"An I met a new friend. He has noses in his arms. Why don't I got noses in my elbows, Daddy?"

 

"Heh. YEAH, why DOESN'T she have noses in her elbows? Asking the REAL questions!" One of his tentacles wandered over to the girl and bent its tip upward, presenting a few inches of flexing suckers. "Slap me five, up here!"

 

Quote

"...I'd have to take a full X-ray to make sense of any of it, and if I did, I'm willing to bet his veins would light up like a Christmas tree."

 

He leaned back and put his arms up behind his head. "That's me, just FULL of surprises!" His skin flashed back and forth between two patterns of loudly contrasting polka dots. Then he started pressing his hand to his own chest in several different places. "Real talk, though, I think I might have more than one heart now?"

 

Quote

"Goggles has fans? Dios, we can never tell him, his head'd get too big to fit in the Pitchoo."

 

"Of COURSE Geckoman has fans! Also the sky is blue, water is wet, and Taylor Swift's next album is gonna be nine songs about some dude who dumped her, two songs about wearing red lipstick, and one Kanye West diss-track. He's only THE GREATEST SUPERHERO OF ALL TIME! He's got the BRAINS! He's got the MOVES! He's got the TOYS! Ain't scared of NOTHIN'. Can you BELIEVE I managed to snag the username 'geckofan' on BOTH HeroHouse AND TroubAlert? No numbers after it or anything!"

 

Quote

"You need help with that, you let us know."

 

"Really? Oh wow. Man, coming from YOU GUYS? GECKOMAN's teammates? That means A LOT. EVERYTHING. THE WORLD. Wow. I'm honored. Should I, like, call you guys on a burner phone or something? Or should I just stop by here? I'm gonna need you to write down the address, 'cause I kinda wasn't paying that much attention on the way over here, what with the blood loss and all."

 

Quote

"Can he throw a punch?"

 

"'Can I?' 'CAN I'...actually, I think I've LITERALLY never thrown a punch before! Wow. BUT, I DID just throw a GUY. Through a BUILDING. Nah, I'm kidding, that's not true." He cupped his hand up to his mouth and stage-whispered as loud as he'd been speaking. "I threw him threw TWO buildings. And then Momma Bombshell here pulled out her big stick and was all Bam-BAM!" He made a punching motion toward the floor with each fist. "Like one of those Freedom League vs Street Kombat games, I tag out and she comes in, then 'KAAAYYY OHHH!' and the bad guy's like UGHHH!" He lowered himself back onto the bed as if he were falling in slow motion, then pointed with both hands at Bombshell with a "finger-guns" gesture and winked. "YOU! WIN!"

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Grumblefloof

[alderwitch]

Talya winced at 'momma Bombshell', her expression truly pained for a moment. The look she gave Erik was long suffering and wordless; one of those clearly parental exchanges that managed to convey without words just how draining her afternoon had been as Octoman talked and talked and talked. She fluttered one hand elegantly towards Octoman, "He reminds me of Geckoman but more cavalier about his safety and without the ability to regenerate limbs, I presume." Talya murmured as she went to pull out a towel and start wiping off her costume. It wicked blood fairly well, in general, but she made a moue of distress as her finger found the bullethole in her top. "I just picked this up. Do you think this will patch? Maybe I can hide it in the seam..."

 

Tossing the towel on the sink, she leaned her hips back against the counter top and arched her brow at Octoman although she commented to Erik, "I'll get him a spot in Claremont but handling his parents might be difficult. It might require your mother. His mother is a public defender, it sounds like."

 

Mia, however, was giggling at Octoman's dramatics. 

 

"Bam-BAM!" Mia copied cheerfully, miming rather successful punches that narrowly missed her father's nose as she threw them. Still giggling, she turned towards Octoman and gave him a cherub's smile, "Parents don't care what you look like, silly. My brother's got a funny eye but he's my brother and if anyone looks at him funny, I'll pop 'em! Right in the NOSE. BAM-BAM!"

[Gizmo]

Jack's eyebrows rose incrementally higher as Octoman's stream of consciousness chatter continued to spool on and on. The swashbuckler certainly counted himself as belonging to the 'bantering' school of super heroics but there was something oddly impressive about the teen's seemingly bottomless well of vocalizations. "Remember to breathe, After Eight. Even if you don't breathe like that anymore." He certainly didn't know how octopuses worked. ...octopi?

 

He nodded at Bombshell's suggestion. "Good call. She'll want to put some food on his skin and not-bones anyway. We could get 'Caradoc' to give him the 'your changing body' talk." He paused briefly as he imagined Octoman interacting with Steve, subtly moving his chin to avoid Mia's flurry of blows. "...maybe start him off talking to Fulcrum instead." He looked down to the little girl in his arms and adopted his dad-face. "And what do we know about hitting?"

[alderwitch]

Mia pouted at her father, tiny fists frozen in a solid guard position. Having four children under ten and a dojo downstairs meant that alot of rambunctious wiggle time was in play-as-practice. She huffed a sigh and recited, "Only to protect myself or someone that needs it," Mia recited and then scrunched her nose at her father, adding, "An' when I do hit them, I make sure they don' get up to try 'gain. I heard you say that in class today! Mommy let me come down to watch cuz Terry an' Emmy were taking a nap an I'm a big girl an don't NEED naps no more."

 

"Were you being too rambunctious to let the twins sleep, my little love? I thought you were going to be good for your mother while I ran out to the store," there was too much fondness for that to be scolding, as she ruffled the girls fair hair and offered Jack a smile. "And that's right, my darling, if we knock someone onto the ground, we want to make sure they stay there."

 

Talya smiled, a small curve of her lips as she offered that advice that was SURE to come back around to cause problems on the school yard later, no doubt. There was more than one reason that their children were going to Nicholson, after all. Her gaze travelled back to Octoman as she waited to make sure he was watching her mouth before she spoke again, "It's up to you, in the end. If you want help breaking the news to your parents, we can help there. If you'd rather keep your secret, I'll see what we can do about surreptitious admission to Claremont academy.  And, yes, I will give you the address here if you get in trouble or need a superhero who's an adult. I trust that we don't have to tell you just how important it is that you not share our personal information with anyone."

 

Talya tipped her head towards the little girl giggling in Jack's arms as she tried to capture one of Octoman's waving tentacles. "This IS our headquarters but its also our home."

Edited August 17, 2019 by alderwitch

[Amelia]

GM

 

While Bombshell and Octoman swung between the rooftops of the West End, the paramedics and police officers on the scene sprinted over to the street two blocks away from the Lenkiewicz residence, where they found Josef Bankowski's unconscious body. He was shivering or spasming, but unresponsive. The paramedics heaved Bankowski up onto a stretcher. The police sergeant snarled to one of his officers, "Cuff him!" One of the paramedics tried to protest. "'Cuff him'? This man is DYING!" The sergeant remained firm. "This man took enough super-drugs to fly through NOT ONE, but TWO buildings, fall five stories down onto hard asphalt, and still give as good as he got against NOT ONE, but TWO superheroes! I don't care if there's a TAG on his TOE! CUFF. HIM." The paramedic relented, and one of the patrol officers cuffed Bankowski to his stretcher.

 

Doctor Cooper Seidel had watched dispassionately through his binoculars from another rooftop as the Ben Wang's flesh warped and shifted to form a superhero costume. He sat up and leaned in with greater interest when hundreds of feet of tentacle spooled out from inside the boy's body. He muttered a few curses to himself as he ran back downstairs to his van, hurriedly sliding his baseball cap and sunglasses back on. He'd lost sight of the boy by the time he reached his car, so he turned his radio to the emergency bands. He guessed correctly that the home invasion would draw the boy's attention, and he got there in time to watch Wang swing into the window, and then go flying out the window and through two buildings less than a minute later. He slipped out of his van wearing a stolen CSI uniform and holding a camera and a sample kit. He creeped up to the scene and started taking pictures, collecting samples, and eavesdropping. He slipped back to his van and drove away before anyone questioned his presence.

 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

"He reminds me of Geckoman but more cavalier about his safety and without the ability to regenerate limbs, I presume."

 

Octoman's eyes bulged to literally twice their normal size. "Did you just say..." He pointed at the monitor. "I wasn't looking at your face, is this screen right? You just said 'I remind you of Geckoman'?" He leaned back onto the bed. "That's it. I've peaked at sixteen. All downhill from here. Next stop, rehab and a spot on the 'I Love The Twenty-Teens' panel. That's the nicest thing anyone will ever say about me. Oh hey, that limb-regrowing thing? I think I can do that." He started tugging at the base of one of his own tentacles.

 

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"Parents don't care what you look like, silly."

 

He muttered under his breath, "Yeahhh, keep on believin' THAT as long as you can..."

 

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"I'll get him a spot in Claremont but handling his parents might be difficult. It might require your mother. His mother is a public defender, it sounds like."

 

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"Good call. She'll want to put some food on his skin and not-bones anyway."

 

"Look, I'm one-hundred percent NOT telling my parents I'm a superhero now. But...Mamá and Tatay are gonna wanna take a look at the place before I go there. Or that's what they're gonna say, and then something's gonna come up, and they'll have to reschedule, and after like the third or fourth time, they'll just forget about it and sign whatever I give 'em. But I figure, even at Superhero School, they still got, like, open houses and stuff, right? And sooner or later, they're gonna feel too guilty to blow it off, and they're gonna show up and see some super power stuff go down, or someone who looks even freakier than ME. So yeah, I guess I gotta tell 'em I have super powers NOW, so they don't blow a fuse LATER. And yeah, if I have the option of having freakin' BOMBSHELL and JACK OF ALL BLADES with me while I'm doing ANYTHING, I'm gonna say 'Helllll to the Yes', especially if the thing is telling my parents 'Oh hey, congrats, we know you ordered your baby boy Original Recipe, but they gave you Extra Freaky at the drive-through, sorry, no refunds!' Mamá doesn't like superheroes, but if I'm bringin' the A-list hometown-heroes, AND their mom? That could work."

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Grumblefloof

[Amelia]

GM

 

Olivia Lenkiewicz held her children tightly against her body, then tenderly handed them off to her mother and walked a few meters away to speak with the uniformed sergeant in charge of the crime scene that used to be her family's home. "Honestly, how long is he going away for? Be straight with me, please." she inquired about her ex-husband as the ambulance drove him away.

 

The sergeant took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and glanced over at her children. Despite the distance, he kept his voice low. "Honestly? Bein' straight with you? The paramedics don't think he'll survive long enough to see the inside of the hospital. That was the mother of all powerballs he shot himself up with. I don't think he realized how pure it was when he got his hands on it. But if by some miracle he pulls through, he's looking at multiple felony assault counts, and the second those drugs hit his system, they all got upgraded to aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon." The sergeant started counting on his fingers. "Then there's breaking and entering...the destruction of both private and public property's probably gonna get pinned on him...he'd probably never see daylight again, even if he wasn't also looking at a separate kidnapping charge for each and every one of you in that apartment. Every single one of those could be a life sentence by itself. The D.A. would get a conviction with their eyes closed even if this was his first offense, and it ain't. His priors won't do him any favors. As a general rule, Freedom City juries aren't big fans of philandering junkie wife-beaters even before they start tearing up city blocks and holding women and children at gunpoint. He's going away, and he's not gettin' out again unless some 'supervillain' breaks him out."

 

[Gizmo]

Jack's brow furrowed very slightly as Octoman rambled about his parents blowing off plans. Maybe it was just a bit of teenage sullenness but the kid seemed like such an earnest people-pleaser. He silently reminded himself that not every youth who came through their doors had the Sandersons for parents and he didn't necessarily have to be worried and immediately proceeded to worry anyway. "Hey, 'doesn't like superheroes' nothing. Everybody likes me. I'm very likeable. Ask my wives, children or wacky chum who lives in the television, totally unbiased." He gave Octoman a broad wink and stuck out his tongue at Mia with a grin. "And this is maybe easy to say when I don't have tentacles coming out of me but I think you're going to figure out pretty quickly that 'normal' is pretty much made up. 'A-list' is a lot less about what you are than what you do. And don't rip off your limbs in here, you just stopped bleeding all over the place, huh?"