Fast-Food Calamari

[Lone Star]

KC was patrolling the Southside. He really didn't have much to do today. The fact that the street he was walking down was totally empty bothered him. He began to whistle a happy tune to himself as he walked a little faster. He was a lot more comfortable in his new costume. A slight breeze caused his cape to flow in the wind, and if anyone was watching him, they could see the large Elder Sign printed on the back of it. KC hoped he wouldn't get jumped.

[Carbon_Copy]

Henry hadn't seen much action tonight. The streets had been quiet except for a single purse snatching which had been a cinch to take care of. So here he was running down a random street, checking on the storefronts to make sure there weren't any break ins in progress as he went.

Needles to say, he was a bit surprised to see what looked like a Squid-Bat-Man in a cape walking down the street without a care in the world. Blitz had enough experience to know that what looked slow when he moved was actually moving at regular speed. To this strange figure in the street, he likely looked like a blur of black and purple kicking up a trail of street debris. However, just because this... guy? - was wearing a cape and had on a costume didn't mean that he was a friend of Henry's at all. He could have been a new badguy come in to Southside to claim a bit of turf for himself. 'Looking at this guy, he looks like he could claim a good bit of turf as well just from sheer "scare-factor".' Still, it was best not to go into a situation as ambiguous as this with the wrong kind of attitude. Appearances could be deceiving after all. Henry decided that he wouldn't throw the first punch (unless the Squid-Bat-Man decided to make a run for it).

Henry came to a halt and the world began to run at normal speed again. Completely opposite his demeanor as Henry Donner, Blitz folded his arms in front of his chest as the wind swept up from behind him, making his hair flutter a bit, and said, "Hey! Squid-Bat! Mind telling me what you're up to in my part of town?"

[Lone Star]

KC looked up in surprise as a kid appeared before him. "Uh, hi! I'm just on patrol. They call me Kid Cthulhu." He looked at the teen's costume. "You're not a supervillain, right? 'Cuz I'm not really in a fighting mood tonight. Well, I guess I am. That's why I'm on patrol. Whatever."

[Carbon_Copy]

Blitz's eyebrow appeared above his purple goggles at the question posed to him. No, he wasn't a supervillain. The fact that squid-bat-man had to ask was probably a sign that he was, like Blitz, a hero.

"Super, yes; Villain, no." Blitz replied. Taking a closer look at this guy, Henry had the strange feeling that he had seen something similar before. He thought there was a particular author or artist who had inspired or created this kind of image before... Heartcraft? Feelcraft? Something-"craft" for sure but Henry couldn't put it together right then. "Kid Cthulhu, huh? Odd name for an odd guy." He looked the squid-bat-man up and down, taking inventory on what he saw before he actually continued. "I take it from your response that you are likewise no villain in Freedom, huh?"

Henry didn't move, he felt reasonably sure that he would be OK if he had to get away from this "Kid Cthulhu" but he didn't think he'd need to. This guy seemed to be pretty harmless given his demeanor. You could never really tell until you threw down, but Kid C seemed like he didn't really have to lie. 'Why would you need to if you were willing to walk around with a face like?'

[Lone Star]

KC smiled. "Haven't seen you around here, but then again I don't visit this area much. KC, in a similar way, sized up the speedy hero. He felt he could trust this guy enough, and if he couldn't, he could give him a taste of the mystic fire from beyond. "Sorry if my appearance is startling. I do magic. Hi.....ya!"

KC pointed both of his hands at a nearby garbage can, and it burst into flames! Green sparks shot out of it like fireworks. And then KC, with a dramatic gesture, shut the flames off. Behold!" KC said in his best Doctor Orpheus impression. "The power of Kid Cthulhuuuu!"

[Carbon_Copy]

As the trashcan burst into sparkly green flames, Blitz jumped a little. It was startling to see a trashcan suddenly explode in flames of any type, but the fact that it was at the command of Kid C was really quite incredible.

"Nice trick," Said Blitz, trying to cover up his moment of panic, "A little overdramatic for my taste but I guess it gets the job done when you need it to." Blitz had loosened up by this point and had let his hands drop down to his waist where he hooked his thumbs into his belt. He was getting comfortable around this strange person, which surprised Henry a bit. 'Then again,' the speeding teen thought, 'You gotta take your allies as they come in this town.' Just then, Blitz remembered something Kid Cthulhu had said only moments before he had made his 'hobo's dream fire.' "By the way, if you don't normally hang out on this side of town, as you say, why did you decide to come beat-the-street over here tonight?" It was an innocent question, but Blitz still wasn't completely satisfied with Kid Cthulhu's "I just happened to be in the area" response from before.

[Lone Star]

I just wanted a change. I'm a little wierd, I guess, but I like to visit new places when I have nothing better to do. I didn't really expect to find any crime, but if I do, then...well...y'know...I'll fight it." KC said, adjusting his gloves. As silly as he felt sometimes in his costume, it did make him feel like a real superhero. He smiled at the teen. He seemed alright. Although KC still ached inside from Ashley breaking up with him, it was glad to meet a friend. "What do they call you?"

[Carbon_Copy]

Henry let of a small discharge of energy, just enough to crackle the air and make him spark a little, nothing dangerous, just enough to be noticeable, "Blitz," said the teen hero. "I'm the local protection from the petty crime and some of the gang activity that I catch in progress." Blitz smiled toothily, "I like to think that I got it pretty much under control."

The implication was that he obviously didn't have it under control since he was running the streets at this hour of the night. Henry was interested in Kid Cthulhu at this point. Despite his grotesque appearance, the squid-man actually seemed like he wasn't that much older than Henry was himself. Henry really felt liberated when he was in his suit, it made him feel like he could say anything and get away with it. Not that he really thought Kid Cthulhu was gonna be angry with him for his comment, but if he was just in street clothes he probably wouldn't be having this conversation at all. So, feeling like he could ask anything of this strange person(?) in front of him, Blitz asked, "If you don't mind my asking, what's your story? I mean, I'm assuming alien or extra-dimensional or horrible middle-school science fair project gone horribly wrong, but I feel like the actual answer has gotta be more interesting than that."

[Lone Star]

"Blitz, huh? Sorry, but I gotta say this. Where's Donner?" KC said, cracking a grin. He didn't mind the guy so far. There was no questioning the guy was a hero, although he was wondering why he'd be out this late. He wasn't sure if he was stepping in on his turf, because he said this was his part of town. The conscious part of his mind ignored this, however.

"My story is a difficult one to explain. It involves a lot of personal details that I really don't want to explain, but in short, I got my powers from a extradimensional guy who's not well known for playing well with others. What about you? How'd you get to be so light on your feet?"

[Carbon_Copy]

Henry felt his heart lurch at the mention of "Donner" from this strange man. 'Calm down!' Henry commanded himself, 'He doesn't know you or anything about your family. Just a joke based on the reindeer names. You're still safe.' But Blitz wasn't sure. He was never sure about anything recently, and this guy just happening to guess his real last name was a bit more than he was prepared to chalk up to "coincidence".

The teen hero calmed down, a little at least, as Kid Cthulhu explained his situation, vaguely, and felt a little jolt of excitement when the squid-bat-man said that his powers were actually extra-dimensional in origin. 'Never actually thought that was true, but hey! I'll take my success where it can be had!'

"What about you? How'd you get to be so light on your feet?"

"There was an incident at my school with a local gang. Needless to say they came in with weapons I don't think they fully understood and started tearing up the place. I got caught in the crossfire and what you see is what I got." Blitz sparked briefly before he ran straight up the wall of one of the buildings to the side of the street. He stood up there for a moment before he returned to the street. He shrugged a little before continuing, "It's not mystic fire magic of sparkly doom, but I think it does OK for what I'm up to currently."

[Lone Star]

Good thing experimental weapons give people superpowers, instead of just killing them horribly, thought KC in the back on his mind. "To be honest, that's pretty cool. I'd rather have your powers than mine. See, there was this one time at a retirement home, and they needed a superhero to come in..."

One short and disturbing story later, KC ended with the phrase "And that old guy still can't sleep! Man, those shoggoth sure know how to drive people nuts." He laughed for about ten seconds, and looked up at Blitz. "So, any plans for tonight? I was going to check out a late show at the old theater." To be fair, there really wasn't much crime fighting to do around the Southside, much to his disappointment. He hadn't had a good fight since he went up against the White Knight.

[Carbon_Copy]

Blitz listened to the story that Kid Cthulhu told him with a look of increasing horror on his face. By the end he was leaning forward slightly and a look of disbelieving disgust was plastered on his face. He watched, frozen in this pose, as Kid Cthulhu laughed for way too long.

Henry gave himself a physical shake trying to shake off the memory of that terrible story.

"So, any plans for tonight? I was going to check out a late show at the old theater."

Blitz was slightly surprised by the sudden implied invite to go see a movie. There was no doubt that Blitz wouldn't have minded going to see a movie, he was honestly really bored tonight as it was pretty quiet. However, Henry didn't have any cash on him, his wallet being back in his pants stashed close to home, and then there was the problem of concealing his identity from Kid Cthulhu past changing into his street clothes to get into the movie in the first place. It just wasn't worth the hassle or the risk.

"Nah," Blitz said, "No cash on me and I've gotta keep a look out on the streets anyway." An idea occurred to him at that moment, "Unless you wanted to come along with me on my beat to see if we can scare up a little action?" Blitz wasn't sure if he actually could find some gang members or other criminal activity to make the night less boring, but he could always try.

"Wha'd'ya say? You game?"

[Lone Star]

KC stretched his arms, and limbered up a little bit. "I think it'd be worth a shot, I'm just about as bored as hell from walking around. It's always worth a look." Some night action would make things a little less boring. "Where did you have in mind, Blitz?" He just hoped he could keep up with the speedy hero.

[Carbon_Copy]

Blitz cracked his neck. This was going to be his first time Henry would see another super hero fight up close. 'Should be interesting given this guys interesting powers.'

"You should go first so I know how fast to go." He pointed back down the street towards the direction Blitz had come from, "That way, towards the airport. The gang activity gets thicker down that way." Blitz sparked a little as he set his feet and got ready to chase this crazy squid-kid.

[Lone Star]

KC cracked his neck too, and smiled in challenge. He arched his back, and two nightmarish wings extended from him. "Let's roll, my speedy friend!" He said as he took off towards the airport, his wings flapping like some fearsome bird of prey. "What kind of gangs are around here, anyway?" KC had no doubt in his mind the speedster would keep up, but he decided to move along at a steady pace a yard or two above the ground. Hopefully Blitz wouldn't outrun him by too much...

[Carbon_Copy]

Kid C opened his wings and took off at a pretty slow clip. Blitz sparked once more before jogging after the winged terror staying just in front of him. When he asked which of the gangs they were likely to find Blitz turned around and ran backwards so he could talk to his fellow hero while they went.

"The C's or the Brotherhood are the most likely ones we'll find." He turned around and continued to jog along before he gave a more full description of what they could expect, "The C's are into drugs, so they usually carry guns on them. The Brotherhood... I really don't like the Brotherhood. I kinda make it a point to throw a wrench in their plans whenever I can."

They kept moving all the way to the airport, it took a lot longer than it would have normally taken Blitz, but that was OK. As they arrived on the scene the airport was still in full swing, the traffic picked up, and the presence of people in the area was definitely more noticeable than it had been where Kid Cthulhu and Blitz had first met. The activity was likely to be taking place over on the far side of the complex, where they had storage facilities. And therefore places to conceal drug deals and meetings. The speedster continued to move at a slow rate, so that Kid Cthulhu could follow easily. The two heroes arrived at the airport storage facilities shortly after coming within sight of the airport. The lighting was harsh, orange, and dim, cast from the sodium lights high above the ground. Blitz stopped and listened for the sound of activity.

He heard the sound of voices and motioned for Kid Cthulhu to follow him as he tried to sneak up to the place the voices were coming from. Hoping that Kid C could be quiet as well and that the gang, if that's what they actually were, didn't have a particularly observant lookout.

[Lone Star]

KC knew he was keeping the speedster, but he was flying as fast as he could. As they reached the airport, KC touched down so as not to alert anyone. "Who are The Brotherhood?" For some reason, The Brotherhood sounded like an evil college fraternity. KC looked around. This seemed like a place where such deals would go down. There wasn't anyone else back here, the the unfortunate employees of the airport were inside. He hoped that he was quiet enough as the two of them snuck around. He looked back at the speedster, and kept going. He felt kind of like a secret agent, and hummed the theme from Mission Impossible very quietly to himself.

[Carbon_Copy]

â€The Brotherhood are a basically a hate gang,†Blitz was whispering to avoid being heard, â€Theye’re a bunch of brainwashed white supremacist kids who think that by killing off the minorities they’ll make the world a better place to live in. Really 1930’s Germany if you ask me.â€

The two heroes crept along, making almost no noise as they did so. Kid Cthulhu’s slight humming went completely unnoticed by the group of late teens and early twenty-somethings that were grouped beneath one of the orange lights.

There were nine of them once all told. Six looked significantly younger than the other three, and they all appeared to be handling a shipment of crates in three man teams. Blitz thought that it would be drugs considering it was the C’s and they were notorious for being a major force in the drug distribution rings in Freedom, but especially in Southside.

Blitz looked tapped Kid Cthulhu on the shoulder and pointed at one of the teams and then pointed at Kid Cthulhu. He then pointed at another team, they separated by the third, and then pointed at himself. He cocked an eyebrow to see if Kid C understood what he was getting at.

[Lone Star]

KC watched Blitz gesture with a blank look on his face. Followed by shrugging. "What's the plan?" Although KC seemed relatively intelligent on the outside, he was a little thick-headed sometimes. He grinned at Blitz. Although inside his mind, he was really looking forward to kicking some Nazi ass. His most recent escapade involved the defeat of Valkyrie, the sword-wielding Aryan psycho, and the White Knight, whom KC trounced with the help of Fulcrum. As the two of them hid from view, KC fought an urge to surprise attack them. Maybe once he understood what was going to happen, he would. Dramatic entrances were always fun.

[Carbon_Copy]

Blitz facepalm'd.

He whispered the plan to Kid Cthulhu, "You get the three guys with the crate at the front, and I'll take the three guys with the crate at the back." Blitz pointed to the 'crate teams' as he gave instructions.

"Go."

Blitz ran around Kid Cthulhu and rushed in to take throw a punch at one of the kids carrying the crate in the back. The plan being that he was going to make them drop the crate and therefore throw them all off-balance. Blitz fist slammed home and the thug lurched with the hit, but kept a hold of the crate.

'Damn,' Blitz thought as he rushed out of the light, 'Hope Kid Cthulhu has better luck with his than I did.'

[Lone Star]

KC watched (or blinked) as Blitz sped into action. KC decided on a different approach. He extended his nightmarish wings from his back, and flew up above them. He clicked on the iPod he had placed in a pouch, and Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" blared as he flew above their heads. As he roared towards the scene, mystic fire springing from his palms as he aimed at the thugs holding the crate. As he flew towards him, he screamed aloud his battle cry.

"CTHULHU F'THAGN!"

[Carbon_Copy]

The one kid at the back of the line had been struck violently in the side of the head and he swayed and threw the whole moving team into disarray but they managed to keep their balance and hold onto the crate. However, there was a sudden commotion at the front that had the Southside C's immediately on edge and alerted to the fact that they were under attack.

The young gang members at the front of the line of crates were completely blindsided by the flames that engulfed the area they stood in. Two, younger, C's caught on fire and were launched away by the mythical explosion around them. They slammed into the metal containers and storage units and lay unconscious on the ground. The older of the three was able to avoid catching on fire, but he did drop the crate that they had been carrying. The wooden box smashed open and the contents spilled out onto the ground. It was filled with nothing but industrial packages of party balloons.

"CTHULHU F'THAGN!"

The C's looked up and saw the winged horror flying down towards them and saw the mystic fire that had taken out two of their number already. They dropped their crates started reaching for their weapons.

[Carbon_Copy]

Blitz pulled a quick u-turn running up the side of a storage unit and dashed back into the lit area and took stock of the spread of the standing thugs.

'Hell, I can get 'em all no problem.'

His body sparked as he put on a burst of speed and went to hit all of the C's. His fists slammed into all of the assembled Southside C's. They flew back from the area, dropping their crates and leaving Blitz standing in the middle of the sodium lights with the mystic fire burning behind him casting Blitz in a harsh, strange, orange and green light. He sparked a little with the residual energy from his attack adding a flicker of blue lighting to his already strange lighting.

"Damn I'm awesome."

[Carbon_Copy]

The C's laying on the ground were all basically motionless.

The rookies lay scattered about everywhere. Two of the older C's stirred. They had been in the game a long time and they had seen way worse in terms of gun fights than these two freaks could dish out. They drew their guns and each one took a shot at either of the two supers that were still in the lit area. The shot at and missed their targets by miles. They had also lost the element of surprise on Blitz who had been under the influence that the fight was completely over.

Pushing himself to the limits, the Thug without the broken arm reached into his pocket and threw a lighter into the wrecked remains of one of the crates. The resulting conflagration ignited instantly and sent a horrible cloud of noxious smoke into the air. The smell was awful and was un-breathable to even the most hearty of lungs. Blitz and Kid Cthulhu, needing air, would have to avoid that cloud of noxious fumes at all costs if they wanted to continue the fight and still be able to breath.

[Lone Star]

KC coughed, and nearly hacked up a lung before his wings extended out, and he flew up above the noxious cloud. "Bastards, you won't get away..." KC said, one hand at his mouth, still coughing. He saw one of them trying to escape, and raised a hand to his temple. He summoned the vast psychic power in his head, and ejected it as a ray of pure mental force at the running mook. "Cowards shouldn't run. Although to be fair, we do kind of outclass common criminals. Still, that's beside the point. Cowards."