A Bad Case Of The Runs IC

[Blarghy]

Leviathan did, admittedly, feel a jitter of interest (he found himself surrounded by a lot of attractive women tonight, now that he thought about it), but he wasn't inclined to trust someone who had just tried to kill him, no matter how pretty.  Being an accomplished scientist capable of analyzing her claims helped, too.  He responded with a gruff laugh.

 

"...You wanna go outside, to the water?  Fine.  We'll go outside."

 

By his tone, her plan plainly hadn't worked.  He did, however, stomp toward the door, still holding Spark tightly with both arms like a child's stuffed bear.  "Terrifica? Hey, Terrifica?" Leviathan shouted, then chuckled darkly again, "I found a little something."

[Heritage]

The two men were on the move! Casey kept her vision in the IR, because it really made them stand out, especially on a winter night like tonight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a white hot flare, which alarmed her, but she had her orders and was sticking to them.

 

Even in a city full of superheroes, you'd be surprised how many bad guys didn't look up, but there were always exceptions; she was actually a fairly quiet flier, but her bioenergy field did glow, so the blonde heroine did her best not to be seen.

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

Spark Rocket was flabbergasted. She just could not believe it. How could just a monster be anything but gullible? Still, she had options. Her eyes sparked, full of electricity. Two chances left. One was exhausting, the other dangerous. She smiled involuntarily. “All right, if that’s how it’s gonna be…” Electricity exploded out of her body in blazing arcs. The stairs were destroyed. The walls disintegrated. The ceiling acquired a big new hole. She, however, control the burst enough that the floor remained unscathed. She knew this house had been declared unsafe, and she knew she was fast enough to dodge falling debris if she absolutely had to. The manor shuddered at the damage. Any second now, and this goon would be buried and she would be free as a bird.

 

Meanwhile, back at the chase scene, neither Nick Raines nor the man he was chasing (his brother Jake) had any idea that Miracle Girl was following them.  Their supervillain alter egos were named Nitro Comet and Psirunner, respectively. They weren’t going a tenth of their full speeds and quickly slowed down, coming to a stop deep in Wharton’s forest. Casey’s radio senses weren’t picking up any transmissions, and the two didn’t seem to actually be talking to each other. Yet they were clearly communicating in some way.

[Blarghy]

This...was somewhat unexpected.  Leviathan thought his prisoner would continue to put up a fight, but to take such risk...she must really not want to go to prison.

 

He instinctively began to run for the entrance, back the way he came.  At first he shouted wordlessly, but when the ceiling fell around him, debris clouding the air, vicious cracks of wood and stone matching his own voice, Leviathan's scream turned into a deep, deep laugh.  He couldn't have asked for a better night.

 

Thus, cackling madly, he steeled himself, adjusted his grip to hold Spark with one arm, stretched the other out in front of him, and smashed headlong into the wall.  Of course, he didn't count on Terrifica's adjustments to the exterior...

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

Leviathan burst through the ice with no problem. The big guy just barreled on through, and scant seconds later the roof and interior of the manor fell into the basement. Apparently the ground floor had been no real obstacle for all that weight.

 

Which was fine for him, but Spark Rocket was more than a little aggravated. Absolutely nothing she’d tried had worked the way she had wanted it to. So it was time for the exhausting trick. The absolute last thing she could think of to do. It wasn’t easy for her to do it, either. Incorporeal was easy enough for pure electric controllers or pure speedsters to pull off, but for a hybrid of the two it was, well, the only way she could do it was to become a weird kind of vibrating electricity. It was just too hard to use regularly, but since she had no other choice she went for it. And to her eternal surprise, it worked. She staggered back a few steps in surprise. That oaf wasn’t grabbing her tightly anymore, because he had nothing to grab!

[Blarghy]

Riding a wave of endorphins from both his success and the raw rush, Leviathan slowed to a jog, stopped, and turned to cheerfully survey the wreckage behind him.  And then his unwitting grin became puzzlement, followed by alarm.  He patted his empty hands across himself like he'd lost a set of car keys.  Whirling back around again, he locked his wide eyes on Spark Rocket.

 

"You...you cheated," he accused her in a tone of hurt disbelief. 

[Heritage]

Great; I bet they're telepaths. Or maybe just one of them; I guess that's all you need, really.

 

She wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do if her quary stopped running, which left her in a bit of a quandry. Maybe she could try to work on their loyalties, like Terifica suggested? On cop shows, it always seemed to work. She landed as quietly as she could a short distance nearby, then used her speed to suddenly appear beside them.

 

"Hi guys! I was hoping to have a chance to talk with you two." She crossed her arms and grinned. "So, who's interested in getting a reduced sentence?"

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

Nitro Comet sighed. It had been a long week, and he’d put up with entirely too much crap from his little brother. Plus, this kid seemed genuine enough. It wouldn’t hurt to talk. He could always be halfway Europe by the time she realized he was gone.“It’s only polite to introduce ourselves, I guess. I go by Nitro Comet. You?”

 

Psirunner was incredulous. “She’s a superhero, Nitro. All they care about is putting us in prison. You know what’ll happen if I don’t pay him back. Even in prison I won’t be safe.”

 

Nitro eyed his brother. “Why don’t you shut up and use that brain of yours for once, Psi? She’s not punching yet. We can still talk it out.”

 

Psirunner. “No way. I’m outta here.” He was gone in a instant.

 

Nitro returned his attention to Miracle Girl. “Don’t mind him. Only but so many places he can go. I’ll find him again. You’re the one who wanted to talk, so go ahead. Oh, but going to jail’s not on the table. Not yet. My brother’s in a pinch, so I’m lending a hand. I swear, he’d have gotten himself killed long ago if not for me. Well, Spark too, I guess. That’s the lady of our group, but I’m betting you already knew about her.”

 

************

 

Spark Rocket, despite being made of blurry electricity, managed to look absolutely furious. “Cheated? CHEATED?! Do you have any idea how much of a cheater you are? What are you made of?” She stamped her foot in frustration, though amusingly it didn’t thump the ground like it normally would. “I threw everything I can do at you, and you shrug it off like nothing. And your rubber hands, that just wouldn’t let go of me, already. I’m the cheater?! Me, who doing my best to help an old friend and his moronic little brother out of a jam, and I’m the one in the wrong? Seriously?”

Edited March 17, 2016 by EternalPhoenix

[EternalPhoenix]

PC

 

Terrifica was genuinely amused by the whole situation. Not to mention a bit more impressed with Leviathan’s capabilities. He hadn’t managed to knock out the woman, but she was certainly subdued. At least, until she pulled the classic speedster trick of turning intangible. Well, sort of, anyway. What was amusing was that Leviathan genuinely didn’t expect it, while Terrifica had been wondering why this woman was even still grabbed by him. “Well, there is the whole…stealing…thing.” The woman whipped her head over at Terrifica, as if seeing her there for the first time. “There are laws against theft and burglary, after all. Even if you’re doing an old friend and his moronic little brother a favor. As for Leviathan, well…have you heard of the trope Made of Iron? They should put his picture on that web page as a fine example.”

[Blarghy]

The discussion of his abilities brought out a bizarre change: the hulking beast dipped his head slightly, an almost goofy smile spreading over his wide, thin mouth, and chuckled at a higher pitch than his usual dark laughter (bringing the frequency back into a somewhat-human bass).  Leviathan quickly cleared his throat with a harsh growl and mastered his face with a frown.  Still, when he looked back up at Spark Rocket, his large eyes were kinder than before.

 

"Still shouldn't steal," he agreed with Terrifica.  "Not even for friends.  But if you've got problems...well, we came here to fix one already.  So what's going on?"

[Heritage]

Casey frowned; she obviously wasn't in favor of criminal activity, but family loyalty she could understand. Maybe there was more to this story than meets the eye? Still, talking was always a viable option.

 

"I go by Miracle Girl, Nitro, though you can call me 'MG' or just 'M'. Nice to meet you." She actually offered him a firm handshake, which suggested a bit of her tremendous strength. "So, your brother got in over his head and you're just helping him out? That must suck. Does he owe money to someone dangerous?" She reached down to clear a patch of ground beneath her, then sat down Indian style. "I have a brother, too; he's always looking out for me, even when I tell him not to. Family's like that."

[EternalPhoenix]

GM

 

Spark just glared at the two heroes. “I don’t have to tell you anything. I can just leave, right now. Nothing either of you can do about it.” She sighed resignedly, and her form shifted from blurry electricity in something more human. She’d composed herself in the interim, and looked more and more like the face person of the trio. She smiled impishly. “I’ve got nothing to lose by telling you, anyway. Out in the open you have a snowball’s chance of catching a Rocket. That’s what I go by. Spark Rocket. Story’s not long.”

 

***********************

 

Nitro’s shoulders started shaking. It took Miracle Girl a second to realize he was laughing. “You could say he’s dangerous, yeah.” Calming down, he leaned against a tree and folded his arms. He was definitely wearing a full on metal armor battlesuit. Though he hadn’t bothered decorating the metal in any way. “Mafia. Russian variant. And before you get any ideas in that pretty head, I mean the kind of Russian that lives and steals in Russia. Crime syndicate’s pretty big, but a war with any of the big guns would destroy him. Still, he’s got enough money and power to make anyone’s life miserable for a while.” MG couldn’t see his face, but the biting sarcasm of his next words was impossible to escape. “Psi, may the Lord bless him and keep that moron forever, has a gambling problem. Right now he owes our Russian friend and his associates slightly less than the GNP of a small island nation. To pay it off, the Russian requested some specific jewels. He helpfully provided some skilled talent to help steal them.” Nitro sighed audibly, which was an accomplishment from inside all that metal. “My brother, the moron, blew the job. Lost the skilled talent and somehow the jewels. Now the Russian is angry. Still wants his jewels. Doesn’t care how Psi gets them. Deadline’s a week away. Psi came to me. I’m good with locks and tech. Did some time out West for being less good at not getting caught. Wanted to turn him away, but…he’s my brother.” Nitro shrugged. “What else what I gonna do?”

 

******************

 

Spark wrapped up the story with a shrug. “Nitro needed a grifter, and you could say he’s my mentor. So, here we are. Deadline’s tomorrow, and we’re just about done collecting all the jewels.” She looked a little annoyed now. “Until big and scaly over there got involved, everything was going fine. Now we’re screwed. The Russian will disappear all three of us to avoid heroic attention.” She flashed a wry grin. “And I know there’s no way you’ll just pretend this night didn’t happen.”

[Blarghy]

Leviathan listened patiently, although his wrinkled forehead and snout betrayed his feelings on the matter well before he replied at the end.

 

"You," he pointed a thick finger at Spark Rocket, "and your two fast friends...three superv--super-people...are scared of the Russian mob.  You can shoot lightning.  You've got those suits.  And you're scared of the mob."

 

He paused, thinking back to the last time he worked with Terrifica.  Maybe he shouldn't be so hasty to dismiss his mystery Russian, not after freaking Kerri, but Spark Rocket didn't mention any such powers this time around.  Still...she and her friends might be helpless without their gear.  They might have families that the Russians knew about.  They might just not want to spend the rest of their lives waiting to hear a sinister "Hello, comrade" from a dark corner of their home before being mowed down by a hail of bullets.  Whatever the reason, assuming this was the whole story, Leviathan decided to roll with it.

 

"Nah, can't forget it.  But I can't forget killers either.  So where is this guy?  You wanna fight the mob?" he directed to Terrifica.  "I could fight the mob.  Sounds more fun than chasing you all night."

[Heritage]

Casey listened carefully to Nitro's story; it bore the ring of truth, though perhaps he was just a really good liar. Still, she was inclined to believe him, and even though she couldn't imagine her own brother getting in such a situation, she understood the impulse to help family, no matter what the cost.

 

"So what if my friends and I offered to help with your situation? Two strong people and Terrifica, who's just insanely smart; if we all pool our resources, maybe we can come up with a plan to get your brother off the hook without anyone having to go to jail. Well, maybe the Russian mobster, but none of you guys. Would you be willing to try that?"