The Goal of Limitless Energy, a Limitless Army

The Science Center was holding a debut re-opening, with various attractions to the public. It had begun its Earth-Awareness month, and filled the center with all sorts of contraptions that had been self-propelled without the use of nuclear power. None of it had been of any interest to the group of four men that walked in the building. None except for one main attraction, a large electrical orb, that had gears rotating around it like clockwork. It's energy propelled the gears just enough for gravity alone to power them.

Los Angeles, a large city, held it's security of high priority. One of the reasons why Hurricane wanted to destroy it. He hated humanity, he wanted to show them how frail the security was. Take the "Clockwork" and use it to power an army of android soldiers. Sure, he wanted a metahuman army. A group of people large enough to oppose humans. But they were skeptical of Hurricane's dream, or afraid. Afraid of change, afraid of humanity, it didn't matter. But he was here to change all that.

Snoot, Rush and Slick followed him closely like bodyguards. They had concealed weapons, and needed to clear the detection scanner, but they had no intention of doing so. Hurricane passed through the detection scanner first. The green light signaled the go-ahead for him to continue. When the security guard turned to scan Rush, he had two pistols aimed at him.

The sound of two gunshots rang throughout the Science Center, followed by screams. Another nearby Guard's eyeballs lit up, and he reached for his gun. Adrenaline pumped rapidly through Rush's body, and before the guard got his thumb on his hip Rush's split-second reactions rapidly fired six bullets at him. His body jolted back from all the blows and he toppled back. Bulletfire streamed at Rush, but his actions were too quick. He kicked over a science project that blocked a few shots, the rest missed. His return-fire was dead-on accurate, plastering the guards with holes.

The public ran around like mad, but Slick kept the doors from being exited. As soon as Rush had finished subduing the guards at the Los Angeles Science Center, Hurricane used his power to levitate into the air. A strong gust of wind caused papers to fly through the air, and everyone to look up at the man as he suddenly spoke:

"Everyone, calm down. There will be no retaliations, and no Cell phones. Anyone touching a cell phone will die. No calls to the Police. We will simply come what we came for, and leave, and you can all simply go about your day. This however, is a clear message to you all. Humans will never be able to oppose us and succeed, the movement for domination of the metahumans has taken one step further.

An old man who was in charge of the large electrical clockwork knew what they were coming for. It was the most valuable technology there at the time. He quickly opened a switch and hit a red button, causing a large metal casing to cover it completely. It slammed with a large "clank". It was in another room in the large complex, but everyone heard it, including Hurricane. He turned and spoke to Slick:

"Slick, you keep this area detained. We're going to lock down the rest of the building and get what we came for. We'll contact you with your next instructions."

Slick nodded, while facing the crowd. They were all afraid, having not even seen his powers yet. All they've seen was Rush lay waste to over a dozen armed guards with 9mm pistols single-handedly. Slick's fighting style was different. He detached a large steel quarterstaff from his back and held it in his hand. The people were quiet, and didn't dare whisper a word.

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful LA." Alice thought with a smile, she had moved here last summer and while she missed home, there certainly were advantages to living in such a large city.... including many huge museums. She roamed happily through the exhibits, her gloved hands in the pockets of her long vest. Back home in the conservative south, her outfit would have gotten strange looks... but this was LA, no one even glanced at her. The best part, her mom wasn't here... she was given some money for tickets and that was it, her mom left for work and Alice was FREE! She untied the black bandanna around her neck, retying it onto the lower half of her face. There were too much people in one room for her liking... and lots of people equals stench. Looking around, she was almost at the entrance again. She looked towards the direction of the main attraction... the one she was saving for last. Her feet hurt, she had been in here for hours, but like hell she was missing something like this. With a determined nod, she continued to the next exhibit, anticipating when she would make a full circle around the building.

All of a sudden... gunshots and screams. Alice quickly turned towards the noise to see a man take down who knows how many guards with two guns. Alice quickly took a few steps back from the fighting, but she was only pushing against the mob heading for the door. Another man blocked the exit while the sharpshooter quickly took down the rest of the guards. Alice squirmed around, trying to get out of the crowd, she hated getting sandwiched between people like this... She sighed in relief once she got to a less cramped area, only to find herself near the front of the mob... near the villains. "F my life." she muttered, looking around for any possible exit... but she was quickly distracted by the collective gasps around her. Alice quickly looked towards where everyone else was staring... the man was now levitating, she looked up at him, ignoring the wind. "This just keeps getting better and better." she muttered sarcastically, falling silent as he began to speak.

As he spoke, she quietly mocked his words under her breath. "Oh yeah, we're going to calm down when you just killed who the hell knows how many people. That and you're gonna steal that... thing and from the looks of it, bring down civilization as we know it. Yeah, real calming thoughts there." Then, everybody heard a loud CLANK! She looked towards the noise, not sure what it was.... but nothing that would help this situation end faster... "And I'm right." she thought, listening to the floating man's words... yup, now definitely no one was gonna be getting out of this building. She looked at the man named Slick who was charged with guarding the door... she certainly wasn't a fighter but if a mob of people rushed him at once.... "Hmmmmmmm." she said quietly, so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't realize that she was speaking and that it was deathly silent. Her expression was slowly melting from fear to one of cool detachment as she went deeper and deeper into her own thoughts. The change was apparent in her eyes, even with the lower half of her face hidden.

"Maybe.... yeah, that should work.." she muttered, almost too quietly to hear. She slowly raised her hands til her forearms were perpendicular to the ground, with it, a small tendril of darkness emerged from Slick's shadow. Alice glanced around quickly... everyone was too scared to notice, she sighed in relief before proceeding. She turned her hands til her palms were face down, and began making a series of small gestures, manipulating the tendril to curl around his ankles though they weren't yet touching him. This whole time, she was concentrating, hoping it would actually be solid, not goo or anything like that. Once the tendril was completely wrapped around, she closed her fists and pulled her arms back slightly, causing the tendril to tighten and pull towards the side and away from the door. She prayed that this would work... that her powers would listen to her.

(Feel free to say it was goo or something or you could actually get him unbalanced...)

“I look ridiculous.” Clayton Wray thought out loud as he examined his disguise in the mirror of the Science Center’s small unisex bathroom near the main entrance of the building. The disguise consisted of a long, brown mullet wig with a matching horseshoe mustache and a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses. He was dressed in the same standard blue work uniform of the janitorial staff.

The disguise was going to be necessary if he was to go where he wanted without raising any suspicions. Unlike the rest of the people there, Clayton wasn’t at the center for any good, clean edutainment. He was there to steal. The entire city was aware that the Science Center’s Earth-Awareness Month was underway and they were housing some sort of expensive clockwork orb contraption. Clayton was entirely unaware of what the orb did, but he was aware of the price tag. Unfortunately for him it was far too big to get away with undetected.

But the clockwork itself was actually unimportant, for one of Clayton’s sources had informed him that the museum was housing something potentially more valuable in its basement archives, the blueprints for the machine. The source wasn’t always the most reliable but he had paid a lot for this information, so he was going to check it out now.

Clayton grabbed his mop and wheeled bucket and unlocked the door, it was at that moment he heard gunshots and the roar of panicked people. He immediately locked the door again when he heard what sounded like a tornado, “Son of a bitch” he muttered under his breath. After about a minute the wind sound had gone away and everything was dead silent.
He opened the door slowly and stuck the head of the mop out first.

What a peculiar place. A digital utopia that assaulted the smog-laden skyline of the metropolis spread out before her. The bullet train carried Elaine through the colossal buildings that cast decaying shadows over the city. What a peculiar place.

Stepping onto the platform Elaine stood and faced the urban landscape of L.A. wearing her skirt with tights, open plaid shirt, and a Samurai Champloo shirt. Wandering eyes fixated themselves on her worn, straw cowgirl hat and blue and pink bandanna. She paced along the platform, stepping in front of digitalized make-up and perfume ads.

Museum of the future. Elaine stood before a billboard for an exhibit only a few blocks away. Why not, she thought to herself. If nothing else the air would be clean.

Modern architecture surrounded the future of technology before a girl from the past. Security seemed fairly light; security seemed nonexistent for that matter. Elaine rushed into the chamber with as quickly as she could. People crouched down in along the corners of the room. Three men walked out of the room and over into an adjacent room. Breaking the awkward silence of the room, a small Chinese girl began spatting out a rebuke to the villainous threats. Black goo-like tendrils conjured from the ground to remove the man from the situation. "You are adorable." Elaine mustered out with her regular non-twang accent. Her hand came to the brim of her hat pushing up and clearing her throat. "You stay her with that guy." Her western twang kicked in, as she unwrapped her lasso. "I'll take the others."

Hoping her smaller friend would take care of the man guarding the room, Elaine rushed across the room and began gaining momentum to jump make a shadow step through the wall.

Alice was gaining the attention of others, but not Slick. While she received glares from the general populace, Slick kept his stand. He didn't really care what her two cents were on her situation. Entering the complex was Elaine, which caught Slick off-guard. He thought he locked all the doors from entry, but he was mistaken. She mentioned something to Alice about staying with Slick while she went after Hurricane? "I don't think so", he thought.

"Hurricane, we got someone who wants to be a hero. Heads up." Slick muttered into his 2-way radio, then he twirled his quarterstaff rapidly and thrust it up in front of Elaine's neck, blocking her path.

"You're going nowhere. You'll sit down with the others til we're done here. Hero." he said sarcastically. Unknown to Slick, however, Alice had begun to work. Vine-like tendrils worked their way around his ankles slightly so that he wouldn't notice. He suddenly felt a hard yank on his ankles and was tripped up, knocking him to the floor and sliding him away from the door. Instantly realizing the danger he triggered his mutant ability to secrete an oil on his body, twisting his body to slip right through the tendrils.

In a breakstyle manner, he contorted his body and flipped up into the air, swinging his quarterstaff wildly. His eyes glared about looking for the source of the Tendrils.

Alice noticed the glares and shrunk a bit, but their attentions were quickly diverted by another person entering. That lady quickly noticed Alice, calling her adorable and telling her to hold the fort... "Wait what?" she exclaimed, staring, was she talking to another hero that was around here? But despite the momentary distraction, she went back to work quietly, making her actions even less noticeable. The people around her were still focused on the obvious hero, hoping for a rescue.

The girl quickly turned around and prepared to leave, but as she did so, the man stopped her with his staff to her neck. At that, Alice pulled, nearly shouting in triumph when he was pulled away from the door. Her happiness quickly disappeared though, as the man somehow twisted out and got back up. By now, the civilians were looking around for a second hero, but their eyes passed over her, after all, it couldn't be that annoying kid... no, twerp more like.

As the man swung around, looking for the source, she relaxed her arms, causing the shadows to withdraw. She took a deep breath and started again, once again using his own shadow, this time, she twisted the shadows around his torso, pulling again, her gestures still muted and hopefully unnoticeable... she really hoped it would be enough.

Clayton sighed in relief when it seemed no one had taken notice of the mop and slid himself out the door. That’s when he discovered why no one noticed, it looked as if some Asian cowgirl had gotten ballsy and tried to make a run for it. All eyes were on her when she was stopped by a man holding a long metal staff.

Call him sexist, but he couldn’t just stand there and watch this damsel in distress get hurt, even if it did seem to be against his best interest. “Forget the blueprints; this guy’s pals have probably already got them anyway.” He thought as quietly pushed through the silent crowd of nervous people. If he couldn’t get what he came for, knocking this guy out would at least help him feel better.

Suddenly the man tripped, as if his leg and been grabbed by some unseen hand. Did the cowgirl do this? He continued to make his way to the front of the crowd as the man flipped wildly through the air. Most of the people were astonished by the show of skill; even Clayton was a bit surprised.

Once at the front of the crowd, he glanced at a young girl to his left. Why was she wearing a bandana over her face? Clayton didn’t understand fashion today at all. He looked back up at the man with staff and gripped his mop tightly, “Hey! Just what-” he stopped mid question as he stared wide eyed at the tentacles which rose out of the shadow and wrapped around the man’s torso. His shock was probably apparent even behind the mirrored sunglasses.

Gravity struck Elaine harder than the floor she plummeted to. Her maneuver towards the wall brought her momentum too close to the man's quarterstaff. She avoided the hit by hurdling the pole, but she hit the ground hard with her shoulder. The situation seemed like it could get out of hand if she couldn't think of something fast.

Black tendrils crept from the floor and sprung up around the menacing man. In order to conduct a proper escape he conducted a proper break-dance that sent his staff flailing around in the air. As long as he contained that staff he was a prominent figure in hand-to-hand combat. Elaine caught her breathe and hoped to alleviate that.

Rolling across the ground she readied her lasso and tossed it to attempt tie up the man's quarterstaff. As the lasso moved through the air, Elaine moved her left hand into position behind the right hand to grant her a little more leverage in a quick pull should the lasso find its target. She flipped a quick smile to the man as the rope flew through the air.

He was in trouble and he knew it, Hurricane had already got the message. Someone was trying to be a hero. But now there were two of them. More of the dark tendrils came up towards him and started to wrangle around him. As the danger peaked, he excreted a heavy slick of oil around his full body, allowing himself to slip right through the tendrils with ease. A lasso twirled around his quarterstaff and yanked it from his hands.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted. Slick pulled a pistol from from the inner pocket of his jacket and fired the trigger. The man got shot in the shoulder, as he fell down wounded. Slick aimed the gun at his head.

"Next one is to kill. Give me that quarterstaff back, and quit this revolting now or innocents will be harmed. Got that?!"

"How the hell does he do that!?" She thought, staring as she relaxed her arms, the shadows becoming their normal insubstantial selves again. She smiled as a lasso twirled around the staff, wrenching it out of his grip. Alice wanted to cheer but... well... probably not a good idea. Now the guy is pissed, he pulls out a gun and shooting one of the civilians in the shoulder. Screams and gasps errupted from the audience, Alice stared, she had to do something now! As he aimed the gun, making his demands, she acted quickly, curling the tendril around the gun and swiping her arms to the side, causing the the tendril to pull the gun to the side... hard, it would certainly be enough to get the gun from Slick's grasp but who knows what other trick he would pull.

Clayton watched as the Slick excreted oil and slipped out of the tendrils grasping his waist, he found it gross. He continued watching as the girl on the floor ripped the staff from his hands with her lasso, which took skill, Clayton was impressed. It clearly infuriated the man, enough so that he shot an innocent bystander over it before the tendrils returned and attempted to pull the gun from his grip the same way the lasso had taken his staff. He wasn’t sure where the tendrils came from but he was thankful for them.

Clayton could tolerate the robbery, he was after all, a thief himself, but what he couldn’t tolerate was this dick shooting innocent people like that. He had to do something before someone got killed. He took another step forward, still gripping the mop. “HEY, YOU INCONSIDERATE BASTARD! JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” he shouted. “You’re making a mess here, buddy, with all that grease coming offaya and the blood from that there man you just shot.” He took another step forward, “Now just who do you think is gonna have to clean that up?”

The quarterstaff flew out of Slick's hand and onto the ground. It seemed like a perfectly execute plan until he brought forth a pistol and fired into a man's shoulder. Elaine readied herself to quick draw her pistol. More guns would only make the situation worse, but she couldn't allow this man to control the situation.

An abrupt alteration to the plan pushed a bucket of water with a mop towards the situation. With the diversion Elaine wasted no time to ready her next course of action. She tied the rope to one edge of the staff while running towards Slick. She would make an attempt to hit him in the back with the staff and tie the rope around his wrist, tethering him to his staff.

They didn't seem to get the message, as the tendrils wrapped around the gun, but his finger was still on the trigger. The hard yank to the side didn't pull it from his grasp, as he wrangled with the tendril for strength. He aimed the pistol in various directions, firing it at multiple unarmed civilians, killing one and injuring two. A random janitor squawked at him and he shot three shots at him too.

Slick was twisting and contorting to wrangle the gun free, as Elaine swept up behind him. He got smacked in the back with his own quarterstaff, which made him stagger forward three steps. She tried to tether his hands behind his back, to the quarterstaff. Unknown to Elaine, evading capture was his specialty. The secreted oil let him slip quickly through the rope.

He spun around and grabbed onto the quarterstaff he recently lost and tried to kick Elaine in the stomach as hard as he could, to free her grasp from the weapon.

Alice quickly found that what she was trying to do... well, it didn't work. As he shot randomly into the crowd, she watched as three more innocents were shot down, one might have even been dead. He then shot at the brave janitor, but Alice quickly raised a shield to block the bullets. Screams rang out, along with angry yells telling them to stop making it worse. For a second, she felt numb, knowing that the deaths were partially her fault, then, the anger took over. She growled slightly, getting more and more pissed by the second. The shadows that were tugging at the gun and shielding the janitor retreated as Elaine attempted to capture him... only to fail.

As she clenched her fists, the shadows reacted to her anger, starting to become agitated. They writhed, not yet solid, but the movement was apparent and becoming more violent as Alice's anger increased. Slick grabbed the staff and kicked Elaine, causing her to fly back and lose the staff. "That's it." she muttered, raising her hand in a wide and obvious gesture, summoning a wave of shadow goo from the writhing shadows around her. She pushed her arms out and sent the wave at slick. The goo was tarlike, sticky and if it hit, it would hurt.

Clayton was taken by surprise when the man began to fire randomly into the crowd as he fought for control of his weapon. He quickly jumped into a fighting stance hoping to avoid any bullets that may be fired his way, when suddenly a huge black wall appeared in front of him and from the sound of it deflected a few bullets meant for him. Immediately after the wall fell the young girl to his left made some sort of awkward arm movement as the same black gooey substance rose in a wave around her.
A wave sent the wave at rushing at Slick.

It would appear he had a guardian angel in this 14 year old girl.