Life's about the little things... And sometimes the big things. [GamerXZ]

The Demonic Dire rarely walked the streets in uniform, it called for too much attention.
Yet, he just got finished with a job in some casino that got his civy clothes all bloody.
So, there he was, waltzing down the streets in his red cloak, and katanas open on his sides.
The funniest part was, no one really paid him any mind. Like it wasn't even in the top ten craziest things he's seen.
He started not wearing the black compression shirt under his cloak, leaving nothing but his bare skin exposed to the overcast day.
A few girls admired him though, so that was a plus.
He was walking by a bank that was... Blocked off?
There were police standing outside of it, trying to negotiate with the robbers inside.
He shrugged and kept walking, until he heard people cheering.
He turned, thinking the police got the criminal, but everyone was looking at HIM.
"Look! It's a hero!"  Yelled one.
"We salute you." A cop said.
"Aren't they outlawed or something?" One said and no one paid attention.
That made Dire laugh a little bit. He thought it was funny how people treated metahumans like a religion, they only turned to them when things were bad.
He held his hands up, shushing the crowd.
"I am NOT a hero."
They all began to panic and become fearful again.
"BUT... I will stop this crook form robbing this bank... Because I want to."
He prepared to teleport when a man pulled him aside.
"Please, sir. My wife and son are in there. Keep them safe."
Dire bit his lip. "Sure."
Then, in a flash of red, he was gone.

He teleported into the bank to instantly be knee-deep in water. "The hell?"
He realized there were vines, trees even, in the bank. Moss all on the walls, smelled strange, and all the lights were out.
He moseyed over to the entrance to see the S.W.A.T team.
What was left of them anyway.
They had bone-deep cuts, missing limbs, and strange growth on their faces.
This was one of the first times Dire was genuinely scared.
"Well, where are the hostages?" He mumbled.
He heard a splash on the opposite end of the bank.
"Bueller?"
He pulled out his pink pistol that said "Jeannie" on the side of it in gold letters.

He looked behind the teller's desk to find all the hostages, tied up with the vines he saw earlier.
"In a tie? Call your local mercenary at: 1-800-give me money." He cut the vines off a middle aged woman and a 9 year old boy before the boy pointed behind him.
Before he could see what it was, something wrapped tightly around his ankle and flipped him over onto his back under the water.
Before he could stand, something immensely heavy landed on his chest, knocking the air from his lungs.
His teleport hadn't charged back up yet, and he had no chance to pry the giant hands [?] wrapping around his neck.
He began to panic.
Healing factor couldn't save him from drowning.
He franticly grabbed for his Jeannie pistol and began emptying a clip into it.
The bullets didn't seem to work on it.
His vision blackened, but he fought as much as he could.
Right when he was on his last few seconds, the thing jolted and stood slowly.
Dire popped up and began gasping with tears streaming down his face. Luckily the water didn't show that.
He saw that the boy threw something at the... Giant lizard-man?
"Manbearpig?"
The thing grabbed the kid and sped off at shocking speed.
The woman tried to chase it, but she couldn't hope to catch up.
He drew his two Moonblades, the blue flames lighting up the area around him. He used his speed to catch up with it.
The lizard-man turned around after it ran into a wall. It was horrifying, honestly.
It was every bit of 10 feet tall with scales and razor sharp teeth. It's spit was green and acidic judging from the burns on the kid's clothes.
"Geico can save you 15% or more on car insurance..." Dire said in an Australian accent.
The lizard-man tilted his head and snarled. "Your quips are wasted on me. I didn't find that amusing."
Wow, his voice was even terrifying... It had a deep, graveley voice.
"Well, how about you put the kid down. Then I'll give you a full show, maybe then you'll find me funny."
The lizard put the kid down then used his tongue to throw Dire across the bank.
He landed and the water and the blades went under.
He no longer had his speed.
"Dammit..."
He stood and trudged over to the lizard-man for another fight.

It was all over the news. Some type of lizard creature had broken into the bank and was killing people off left and right. Needless to say, this didn't sit well with either Alan or Aurora. As such, they had morphed into Siren and flew over as fast they could. When they arrived, they ignored the onlookers in favor of heading up to the nearest policeman, "What seems to be the situation?"

The cop looked the alien over suspiciously but likely deciding this day couldn't get any weirder, he decided he might as well talk, "We sent in a SWAT team not long ago but they haven't come back out, then some kid with a sword waltzed in there saying he was gonna get the hostages out. I don't-" Suddenly, a loud rumbling shook the bank, causing him to curse, "Darn it! If something isn't done soon-" He was stopped by Siren's hand on his shoulder.

She smiled comfortingly, "Don't worry. I'll get the hostages out. Wait here." With that, she took off over the barracks and crashed through the front door in time to see the man get thrown by with his swords landing in the water. Seeing the civilians, Siren dashed over but not before calling to the man, "Hey, catch!" She telekinetically picked up his swords and tossed them to their owner before heading to the side of the boy.

"It's ok, I'm gonna get you and your Mom out of here. Follow me." She gestured for the lady to follow her too so she could lead them out.

Dire was trudging back with nothing but his pistol's in the holster when he heard: "Hey, catch!"
He whipped his head around to see the flaming swords flying towards him.
The funny thing was, he didn't see who threw them...
"Uh, thanks?"
His fear was replaced with a sudden rush of adrenaline, he had his speed back. He used it with giddiness, rushing straight to the lizard and slamming into him, and driving the two katanas into him.
"WHOOOO!!!! I just sling-shotted your ass!"
Normally, an attack of that force would kill anything.
Of course, it didn't kill this.
It stood back up and swung, raking across Dire's abdomen.
"Yeah, not wearing a shirt with this is hot... But not very protective..."
The lizard lifted him up, and punched him in the face.
He crumpled to the ground and shot back up, bleeding down the side of his face and out of his nose.
"Why won't you DIE!!!" The lizard said, swinging once again.
Dire dodged it and returned with a sword swipe that also missed.
"I could say the same for you..."
"You-" He froze and looked up. Like he heard something.
"Don't follow me." He hissed as he kicked Dire away.
When Dire stood up, he saw the lizard was gone. Nowhere to be seen.

The three other villains that were in league with the lizard looked on with disappointment, they weren't expecting another hero to be added to the equation.
The snake woman looked on with a cool frustration, along with her many snake heads.
She was about 15 feet long, 10 feet of her standing straight up and the rest coiled behind her. She had a dozen snakes for hair, and fangs like that of a real snakes.
She said telepathically to the lizard man, "Come in, we have the money. You can't face them both."
The twins looked at each other and shoot their long snouts.
They were called Croc and Gator.
Two large 20 foot tall gator-man humanoids with the abilities of alligators and crocodiles.
Very muscular, landshark-ish alligators and crocodiles.
When the lizard made it back, they all skulked back down through the sewers from which they came.
Using the crowd now cheering for the other hero to make their escape.

When Dire was left alone, he trudged over to where the hostages were.
Only to find none of them there.
He moaned out loud, realizing the bank was about to fall down on top of him, he was severely hurt, and he didn't get any of the glory.
He started to push towards the exit as the bank shook.
"This is like when the wave pool is getting ready to start and everyone gets out because the wave pool kills people... Yeah, just like that."
He forgot no one was there.
The bank took a colossal shake that brought him down to one knee.
"C'mon, Cletus... Just a bit longer.
He said, encouraging the building to stay up.
He stood and kept trudging, thinking about what he was gonna tell Errtu when he got flattened.

Siren had just gotten the civilians outside when a great rumble shook the area. Glancing back, she spotted the building starting to fall in on itself and then it dawned on her, "Oh no...that other guy's still in there!" Ignoring cries to not do anything foolish, Siren rushed back towards the building and stood in the doorway seeing the swordsman limping along.

Deciding that he wasn't dying today, Siren stood in place and reached out as far as her psychic power would let her go. She pictured many hands appearing and grabbing as much of the building as they could, from the gouges opening in the ground, to the collapsing pillars, and so on. With that, she gnarled her teeth and held on as tight as she could to hold the building up for just a little longer, feeling like she were trying to win an arm wrestling contest with the Hulk, "Come on, move it!"

Dire paused for just a moment, admiring what he was seeing.
"Heroes never die, right?"
Not understanding if she got the joke, he continued limping along until he saw something crumble on top of the... Psychic bubble?
"Oh, shit! I'm not actually gonna die!"
His red eyes flashed with a newfound determination as he stumbled along as fast as he could.
He stood in the doorway beside the lifesaver, just in case something decided to fall on her.

After they both made it out, he saw the crowd of police and civilians alike.
They were all cheering, for... Whoever she was.
He felt something fizzle in his kidney, he could teleport again!
He smiled a crooked smile and teleported to his apartment with a red flash.
Except, he didn't appear in his apartment.
He actually appeared on the building behind the crowd, the red flash would be noticeable by the angelic type being.
He looked at the crowd one last time, almost happy the hero was getting the attention she deserved.
He then sat down, and looked at his nasty gash.
"Claws and tongues will tear my flesh, but the sting of not being a hero will never hurt me..."
He laid his head back, fading in and out of consciousness.
A wound like this would've killed an ordinary human by now, and the adrenaline wore out so he was pretty much exhausted.

Once the man was safely out and they were away, Siren let go of her hold on the building and let it collapse. The exhaustion from such a feat caught up to her and she fell to her knees, breathing heavily, "Oh man...I will be...very happy...if I don't...need to do that...again...anytime soon..." Hearing the people cheering for her and presumably the swordsman though was enough to lift her spirits. It wasn't often she got recognition for her work but whenever she did, it wasn't a bad feeling.

She noticed the man vanish in a flash of red light only to reappear on top of a nearby rooftop. Dragging herself to her feet, she waved off the praise from the people with a smile but took the offered water bottle. She then slowly flew away and landed only a few feet from him, "Hey, how you holding up? Also, figured you could use this." She set the container down next to him.

Dire woke up half way to see Siren again.
He couldn't help but think she was a hallucination, what are the odds that she appeared at the right place at the right time?
Then again, a lot of crazy stuff happened in this world.
"I'm holding up about as well as that building..." He waved the water back to the woman and coughed up some blood.
"Speaking of holding things up, thanks. I'm not sure I would've made it without you coming along."
He nearly went completely under for a moment before jolting back up.
"Anyone ever tell you you're pretty?"
He was obviously trying to focus on anything but sleeping.
His face was pale white, despite his biracial skin tone, and his abdomen was still bleeding.
"Remind me to start wearing a shirt again."
He laughed then winced because his laughing caused his wound to gush.

"Hey, you were willing to put your life on the line to make sure nobody got hurt. I'd be a really selfish jerk if I simply stood there and let that building come down on you," Siren remarked with a smile before shrugging at his question, "Eh, a few people. No biggie. Anyways, enough about me. Let's focus on you. That wound looks pretty nasty. Here," She scooped him up, "Don't bother complaining or making a fuss cause I won't hear any of it,"

She turned and floated back down to a waiting ambulance where the doctors immediately got to work on treating the swordsman. As they did, Siren groaned and stumbled against the vehicle, holding her head as the overuse of her powers seemed to be catching up to her at last.

When he was scooped up, he laughed loopily.
"You said you wouldn't hear any of it, doesn't mean I can't keep complaining."
As the doctors were working, he was pestering them with jokes the whole procedure.
"Boys, be gentle... It's my first time."
The first stitch went through the skin, "Agh, stop that tickles!"
They finished dressing and stitching and were about to take him to the hospital, but Dire waved them off.
"My healing factor will deal with the rest, thank you."
He said as he just stood up after all of that.

You would think the crowd would die down for an exhausted hero and mercenary, but that wasn't the case.
A new's reporter was asking him all kinds of questions.
"Hi, mom!" He said, despite not even knowing if his mom was alive.

After that all died down, he offered a hand to help Siren up.
"All that help, and I don't even know your name. Mine's Dire, and I'm pretty sure we're gonna be working together."
He was still exhausted from getting beat up like crazy, but he was sure this person was tired too.

As the man on the stretcher made his quips, Siren could only shake her head and smile. Apparently, there was no shortage of eccentric super-powered individuals in the world if her encounters up till now had been any indication. She looked up to the offered hand and took it, "Thanks," After getting to her feet, she introduced herself, "Name's Siren. Sorry about barging in when I did but I felt you could use a hand,"

She took note of the stitching but decided to ignore it for now since this Dire fellow seemed to be dealing with it just fine, "Yeah. If what I saw in there was any indication, partnering up might be in both our best interests. So, mind leading the way and telling me what you know about big, green and scaly?"

Dire smiled at his acquiring of a new friend.
"Not a lot, actually... He just looked off in the distance and bolted... Maybe we should go back to my hotel and mill it over. Or we could wait for tomorrow. Whichever you'd like."

Siren shook her head with a smile, "Actually, we should get on the trail while it's still warm. The longer we wait, the more time Lizard man has to get away from us. Lead the way."

He brought Siren back to his nice penthouse room, with nice bed and tv and such. He used the money he got from the casino job to pay for it.
When they got in, Dire flopped on the couch with a huff.
"What a day..."

He looked around, "So, what do we know about the sewer system? Other than the fact I make a deposit to them daily."