ic All My Exes Live In Texas- ic

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

June 4, 2017 

The New Beginnings Ranch wedding venue. Outside Abilene, Texas

The story had been on all the news channels in Texas. It was both very strange and not so strange at the same time. The not so strange part was that a disgruntled ex had crashed a wedding. Which in and of itself was not newsworthy. What was strange, and newsworthy, was the rest of it. The disgruntled ex had high tech weaponry, from the few wedding guests who had managed to flee, they had what seemed like sci-fi plasma rifles. The whole situation had gone bad fast. Hostages were taken and the police had cordoned off the venue. 

 

One psychotic screaming ex with a plasma rifle would have been more than enough for the Abilene police department. But there wasn't just one. There were three. One man and two women with high tech weaponry who had taken hostages inside of the ranch. 

 

"Listen just let us go!" One bride cried. One of the crashers responded by smacking her across the face. 

"Home Wrecker!" She snarled back and waved the rifle, discharging a few shots over the heads of the very terrified hostages. 

[EviscerusNox]

Breakneck

 

Having nothing else to do on a Sunday, as he had finished studdying for the next exam within 3.5 seconds of hearing about it, Colt decided to take a trip down to Claude to spend the day with his folks.  The trip would take atleast a full day driving for someone with no powers on a mission, but for Colt aka: Breakneck, it took less time than finding metal in a scrapheap.

 

Colt was discussing with his Dad, Gene McCay, the upcoming football season and whether or not the Cowboys had a chance of going all the way this year when the news story broke on the tv in the den.

 

Colt listened to his father expound about how Dak and Zeke were an unstoppable force half-heartedly, then not at all when he recognized the face of one of the weapon wielding crazy women on the TV.

 

"Wait a minu-... Lurlene?!"  Colt immediately stood up, which to anyone watching looked like someone had cut frames of a movie badly and had left out the transition from sitting to standing.

 

"Lurlene?  Say boy didn't you date that girl bout 6 months ago?  What she doing on the TV," Gene had asked, but when he turned to look at his son, he was gone, all that remained was the clothes he had been wearing a second ago, neatly folded on the couch. 

 

"Atleast he hasn't fergotten his manners in that fancy school o' his!"  Gene exclaimed.  "Mama!  Best git in here, Colt's about to do somethin' stupid on the TV!"

[EternalPhoenix]

Why was Mona in Texas? Why would she not be? She could circle the globe in minutes. She could be anywhere she wanted to be, and right now she wanted to be in this barbecue restaurant. And yes, her brother Mickey had been tagged along. This place had just the best ribs, and no way was Mickey missing out on the second trip. Mona had put away entirely too much for a 90 pound girl, even if she was a teenager who got plenty of exercise. Mickey, for his part, had matched her rib for rib. His consumption was a bit less impossible, as he was twice his sister’s size. He sat back and belched. “Excuse me. Sis, we’re not going to dash this time, are we? It’s rude. And illegal.” He’d stay and wash dishes if it came to that.

 

Mona just laughed. “Nah. I have some money.” Which was when someone ran out from the kitchen, shouting about the sudden crisis in Abilene. “Abi-where?”

 

Mickey gave her the lightest touch of a dope slap. More of a dope tap, really. “The city we’re in, speed for brains.”

 

Mona shrugged. “Well, that’s convenient. Let’s go punch bad guys." She flashed a grin. "Musclehead.” A instant later, she wasn’t there anymore. However, cash had been laid on the table. And miracle of miracles, it was enough. Plus a hefty tip for their poor waitress.

 

Mickey grinned and tapped into his sister’s powers. A instant later, he too was gone.

[Kolohehonu]

PC

 

Tyson Masters had seen the news break out. He'd been watching the Cowboys game himself with Dr. Orion. Which was torment. But the screen in screen showed bolts of plasma ripping apart a wedding chapel was a relief.

 

"Anyone free to grab this one?" Asked mystery Master over the cave's PA. Hyperactive glanced over at Orion, when he saw a distinct green and white stripe. 

 

"Speedster." Orion stated coldly. But Hyperactive was long long long gone. The run from Waco to Abilene wouldn't take even a moment. 

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The ranch had been surrounded by a ring of police cars, two of which had the top of them melting in. The officer in charge, Captain James Grover, was waiting for the swat team. 

 

To the untrained nonspeedster eye, four people arrived at once. In reality, Breakneck arrived first followed closely by Pacer and Stalwart, with Hyperactive arriving last.

 

Grover took the suddenly appearing crowd all in before addressing the only one he recognized. 

 

"Hyperactive I thought there was one speedster on the Warriors." Captain Grover sighed. The cops had various Waco Warriors who they preferred to work with. 

 

"Hey Breakneck, how's it going?" Hyperactive said before looking at Captain Grover. "We got here before swat and will have this remedied before they arrive Captain." 

[EternalPhoenix]

Stalwart shook his head. “I’m not a speedster, sir. I’m a powerhouse. I’m Stalwart and my impulsive sister is Pacer.”

 

Pacer piped up. “He just borrowed some from me because we can do that. Really, he’s slow. Like, so slow.” She waved at Hyperactive. They’d met once before, for an adventure on the high seas…in a parallel world. So that was a thing that happened. “Nice to see you again, slowpoke.” She was teasing. She knew he was pretty darn fast. “Mind if I scout things out? They’ll never know I was there.” Indeed, they wouldn’t. Unless they were as fast as the three already here.

 

Stalwart placed a restraining hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Wait. Let the policeman speak first. Also, you have sauce on your face.”

 

Pacer frowned. Impatience was as much a part of her makeup as the ability to eat staggering amounts of food for one so small. “Aw. Okay. Wait. I do?” She touched her mouth with a suddenly bare hand. "I do!" It was gone and her hand regloved in a instant. "Mmm, barbecue."

Edited May 28, 2017 by EternalPhoenix

[EviscerusNox]

Colt smiled at Hyperactive, then proceeded to speak at about a 500 thousand words a second.  Only speedsters would be able to understand what he was saying, to everyone else it was a slight low buzzing sound and there was some hint that his mouth was moving, but that's about all.

 

"Fair to partly cloudy, how bout yerself?  Though to be honest i'd be doin' better if Lurlene wasn't in there shootin' holes in some poor folks wedding.  I know one of the girls is what I'm saying.  Dated a while back, broke up went bad.  Let's just say it was... an unhealthy relationship.  It's a good thing I decided to drop in on the family today, or I wouldn't even know what's goin' on.  Not that I really do, considerin' the only thing I ever saw Lurlene shoot afore today was her daddy's Remington.. at me.."  Colt coughed a little uncomfortable after mentioning that part.

 

"Since i'm downright newborn to this heroin' thing, what you reckon the best course o' action is?"

 

Colt turned to Pacer and Stalwart and beamed his friendliest smile.  "Beggin' yer pardon ma'am, I shoulda introduced myself first.  Name's Breakneck, it's a real pleasure to meet ya, and you too, sir!"

Edited May 28, 2017 by EviscerusNox

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

"Lord Jesus..." Captain Grover said rubbing his temples. "They showed up and stormed in and took the hostages at the two weddings. Interrupted one of the ceremonies and grabbed the other wedding as they were prepping. One of 'em made mighty quick work of the security without the gun. She's mean in close quarters. They actually put two of my boys down. I think the two older ones set those things to low power. The one who beat the security down actually killed an officer." 

 

"So just be careful, one of 'em's a killer ya hear?" Grover said. He pointed to a small screen showing the inside of the chapel where Lurlene and her compatriots had corralled the guests. Grover pointed straight at Lurlene. As little as he liked the Speedster or any of his new noisy friends he seemed genuinely grateful that someone was about to take this problem off of his hands. Suddenly there was more yelling. The man this time swung the rifle a litttle carelessly and angrily. A half dozen shots of plasma struck the wall.

 

"get down!" Grover shouted not even realizing the bolts were coming straight at all of them. 

[Kolohehonu]

PC

 

As the bolts of energy raced in towards him Hyperactive did exactly what he needed to do. He lunged forward, pushing down the police captain, sending him to the ground and out of the way of the bolt of plasma racing towards him. That bolt struck Hyperactive. 

 

Hyperactive rolled with the heavy thud in his chest even as he went tumbling across the ground. Yeah that thing was set to stun. It also had glanced mostly off him. He let himself roll a bit before popping to his feet and getting back into cover with the rest of the heroes. 

 

"Well, we have speed and numbers. We can each pair up on one of the less lethal ones and go for... Lurlene right after that." Hyperactive smiled locking his face shield in place. "Turn four on three into two on two and then four on one." 

[EviscerusNox]

Colt felt a pit in his stomach form and swallow his heart when he heard that Lurlene had actually killed someone.  Why on earth was she here?  Why was she doing this?  What did he do to precipitate her sinking so low as to become a murderess?

 

As these thoughts raced through his head he barely noticed the energy blast flying straight for his face.  To any other speedster it looked like he barely had the heart to move out of the way, his eyes fixed on nothing, his head down in what could only be construed as anguish and guilt.

 

After the blast cleared, so did Breakneck's thoughts.  Regret and sadness were replaced by smoldering rage.  His eyes flashed a green crackling light and he turned with a grimace towards the monitors.  HIs jovial demeanor that relaxed his form was replaced with wire-taught tension, like a predator about to pounce on the prey.

 

"Whatever order we take them out in is fine but we do it fast.  And then Lurlene is mine.  Whoever wants to join me in taking down Mr. Spray and Pray is welcome."

 

 

Edited May 29, 2017 by EviscerusNox

[EternalPhoenix]

Pacer barely noticed the beams at all. It seemed for less than a heartbeat that one speared her squarely, but she’d just sidestepped incredibly fast even for the speedsters in attendance. Stalwart was the one who visibly moved, as the slowest one present. Even if he’d forgotten to stop borrowing from his sister. Pacer frowned. “Okay, time to put a stop to this.” She could not, however, move as Stalwart’s hand was still on her shoulder.

 

“Let’s be careful, Pacer.” Stalwart was at his most brotherly and concerned. “We don’t know what they’re capable of.”

 

Pacer shrugged off his hand, surprisingly forcefully for such a small girl. She’d started borrowing from him. “I’m just going to get the hostages out, bro. Relax, already.” An instant later, she was gone.

[Kolohehonu]

GM 

 

"I'm right behind you Breakneck, Stalwart you and Pacer hit the woman."

 

As Pacer bolted straight for the door and then went in a window she was surprised. There was a nearly invisible gas just behind the windows. 

 

And it was COLD. 

 

Pacer felt her body stiffen, and even worse, she felt it slow. The two older exes didn't even react, but Lurlene did. She slammed a syringe into her leg. 

 

"Yer early." She snarled. "Wudn' 'spectin' ya yet. Can' kill ya neither. Yet." She flipped her weapon to stun and aimed it at Pacer. Or well seemingly where Pacer had just been.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Kolohehonu

[EternalPhoenix]

Pacer shivered. It was cold, darn it. Stupid mist. It was all over the place. Which sucked. Stupid, stupid mist. The rescue plan was out. So instead, it was just a scout. Like the original plan. Yep. She eyeballed the three. “Tch, like you could even hit me.” She moved fast. While standing in place. This was really, really cool. She called it Vibrating At The Speed Of Awesome. She wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but apparently she was intangible while she did it? Which would be like, super useful to get through that frigid mist. “Cheater! You suck, Lurlene. And your friends blow goats for fun. Punch you later!” And then she ran outside again. She couldn’t pull out full speed because 1) she was half frozen and 2) it took a boatload of her speed to do the intangible thing in the first place. But she was still fast. So she was outside, literally right where she was standing before. She shivered again. “Cold mist thing. Cheater. All over the place. I swear, I’m gonna punch whoever’s idea that was like, a million times. Also, Lurlene's using some kinda drug. Needle stuff.”

[EviscerusNox]

Breakneck grimaced and shook his head Lurlene you damned fool!  

 

"I'll take care of the gas, the rest of you do what you do, and hopefully, keep me from getting my hindquarters blown off while I do it."

 

With that, Breakneck zipped to the building and started whirling his arms faster and faster, aiming at the front doors, the wind he blew up was like a tornado, blowing out the windows, dissipating the near invisible gas, blowing it out of the building and harmlessly into the atmosphere.

 

"Ye may be clever Lurlene,"  Colt shouted "But yer not quite as fast at thinkin' on yer feet as me!"

[EternalPhoenix]

Stalwart was still borrowing his sister’s power, so he had some time to think. And boy, did he need it. The enemies needed to be disabled, and quickly. But the chapel was just too small for him to cut loose and knock them all flat. He’d hit the hostages and that was neither heroic nor Christian. Plus, he didn’t want to do property damage anyway. Pastor would be disappointed in him if he did. Well…major property damage. Doors could be repaired far more easily than walls and roofs. He was at the doors to the chapel in a flash. Then, with far less than a thought, he let his sister’s powers go and took up his own. The door came off so easily, an onlooker would be forgiven thinking the hinges were made of tissue paper. He casually flicked it at the three, but it wasn’t quite large enough to hit all three. One of them wasn’t hit. Still, he leveled the man and the other woman was clearly injured. That was overall a quality decision. “Lurlene, please. This is a church. God’s house. Stop this, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

Lurlene entirely ignored the bold powerhouse. Instead she aimed her plasma rifle right at Breakneck with his arms still spinning.

 

"Hi honey! Miss me?!" She hollered before squeezing down on the trigger angrily. The bolt of energy though went just over his shoulder as a pane of glass shattered and Hyperactive came flying through with a kick aimed right at the last remaining wedding Crasher.

 

"see now it's four on one!" Hyperactive declared triumphantly. Sure it hadn't been exactly how he had intended it, but hey it worked! "Miss I'm going to ask you to stand down." 

 

"Not on yer life." Lurlene said before spitting and muttering a racial slur. 

[EviscerusNox]

Breakneck watched the projectile fly past him.

 

"No, but you missed me," he exclaimed.  It was then that he noticed the reddish haze suffusing her head

 

"Lurlene what have you done to yerself?  Why are you doing all this?  If it's me you want, you have me here, let these people go and we'll go far away from here, whatever you want.  Just don't hurt anymore people.  This isn't you Lurlene, I mean, sure, yer kinda wild but the girl I knew wouldn't hurt anyone like this.  We can work this out."  Colt kept talking, the more he talked, the more he hoped her attention would be on him and not on the hostages, maybe he could convince her to go with him, then once they were away from innocents he could deal with her.  He didn't want any more people dying because of him.

Edited June 6, 2017 by EviscerusNox

[EternalPhoenix]

Pacer blurred back into the room. “Oh, cool. Took most of ‘em down already. Hey Lurlene. I promised I’d punch you later. You ready? Too bad, it’s punching time!” The world slowed for Pacer’s perceptions. She was suddenly next to Lurlene and just as suddenly, her tiny fists blurred at the other woman over and over and over again. “You. Take. That. For. Free. Zing. Me. Jerk!” Approximately a million punches later, she stepped back to appreciate her work…only to find out she’d missed entirely. “Huh? How’d I miss?”

[EviscerusNox]

Seeing Pacer's lack of success made Breakneck anxious.  If a seasoned speedster like her couldn't hit Lurlene it meant whatever Lurlene had injected herself with was serious stuff, and possibly had serious side effects.  Seeing nothing else for it but to take her down quickly, so that they could get her the help she needed, Breakneck launched himself at Lurlene.

 

In similar fashion to Pacer, Breakneck whirled around Lurlene landing blow after blow seemingly almost simultaneously from every direction.  Breakneck had more luck as he felt his punches land with sound barrier breaking speed, the last of which was a dizzying uppercut that caught Lurlene squarely under her chin.  The blows were enough he knew to knock down even the strongest of normal humans, but to his surprise Lurlene still stood, if a bit bruised and wobbly on her feet.  Breakneck didn't like hitting girls, but she was leaving no other options for him.

 

"It's time to end this Lurlene," he said.  "You've hurt people and possibly yerself.  You wanted my attention, you got it, now let's see what you got!"

 

 

[EternalPhoenix]

Stalwart strode fully inside the chapel. “Blinded by your own afterimages, Pacer. It isn’t the first time and won’t be the last.” The World’s Mightest Teenager turned his attention to Lurlene. “I told you, this is a house of God.” His hands shot out and the angry young woman quickly found herself grappled and held immobile by arms that simply didn’t look like they were this strong. It was as if she was held by steel bands instead of flesh and blood. “Stop this. Surrender and go quietly with the police, or I’ll hold you as long as it takes for this speedy trio to knock you unconscious.”

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

Lurlene Spat. Lurlene Cursed. The red light in her eyes flared up. And then it faded. The young woman looked confused and panicked. She struggled against the mighty grip of Stalwart, to no avail. Her grip on her gun loosened for a moment before she caught it, seeming to have presence of mind not to drop the loaded weapon. 

 

"Where? Wut?" She asked her head whipping back and forth passed the collected heroes. "Breakneck wut' goin' on?" She asked as she tried to orient herself. 

[EviscerusNox]

Colt eyed Lurlene carefully.  He couldn't tell if this was some sort of trick, he hoped it wasn't.  He prayed that it wasn't.  Carefully, Colt took the gun from Lurlene's hands and spoke softly to her.  "Lotta people have been hurt sweetness.  You done a bad thing, and I need you to tell me what you remember ok?  You tell me everything you know, and we promise, we will help you.  Let's start easy ok, just start from the beginning, and try to remember everything, any little detail can help"  Colt remember hearing that one on cop shows a lot, he thought he might try it out, see how it fits.  Utlimately, with a grimace to himself, he decided he didn't like it, since he had no shades to wear and take off to make a pun.  

 

Breakneck shook his head and scolded himself for trying to make light of the situation, even if only in his head.  He knew it was a defense mechanism, he knew he was only doing it to distract him from the pain this whole thing had caused, both to him, and the poor people in the chapel.

Edited June 26, 2017 by EviscerusNox

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

"I was talkin' with someone and I just remember gettin'..." Lurlene paused. Looking around at the rest of the heroes gathered and the terrified people, who were booking it out of the chapel at this point. "Mad. Real ornery. I dunno why, but I knew if I did somethin' like this. You'd come." She said quietly. 

 

"Where did you get the gun?" Hyperactive asked. He folded his arms and had looked over the gas dispensers. He had almost no technical skill, but it looked sleek and well fancy. "And the anti-Speedster tech?"

 

"I... well. That guy I was talkin' wit' well I think he gave 'me to me." Lurlene looked away from Hyperactive and back at Breakneck. "What happened?"

[EternalPhoenix]

Pacer pouted. “I didn’t get to punch her. Put ‘er down, bro. I still wanna.”

 

Instead of obeying his sister, Stalwart raised Lurlene out of the tiny speedster’s reach. “No. There’s no need, Pacer.”

 

Pacer pouted harder. “Aw, just let me get in one good swing for that freezy mist thing. It sucked, bro. You just don’t know.”

 

“No.” Stalwart’s tone was of one who’d had similar conversations so many times now. “Lurlene.” He squeezed, extremely gently, reminding the girl of just how strong he was. He found it distasteful to be even slightly intimidating to a confused and slightly scared girl, but it felt necessary. “Did this person come with a name?”

 

Pacer, bored, abruptly had an ice cream cone. She licked it idly. “Oh, right. Yeah, tell us that. I can punch that guy for being a jerk to speedsters everywhere. And you, yeah sure.”

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

Lurlene blinked hard. She looked like she was trying to remember something that was on the edge of her mind. She shook her head. 

 

"Hephaestus." She managed. "Said this was future tech. Should stop speedsters, specially you." She pointed at the gas dispensers and the plasma rifle before pointing at Pacer. Her memories slowly seemed to be returning and a look of panic flooded her face. "I didn' mean ta kill nobawdy." She started to well up, with what looked to be tears of terror and horror. "Honest! Yew gotta believe me!" She said looking at Breakneck.