The new drug

He was on a quest, a quest that would place all other quests in shame, a quest that would push him a huge step closer towards the big leagues. That's right, Canni had grand ambitions for his own future, and it involved the downfall of every single famous superhero out there.. Why? Because their death would mean a shift in balance, a shift that would undoubtly be in his favour. Plus, he'd get to watch all the sad people cry over their lost idols..! How amazing it would be!
First things first, gather resources, weaponry and manpower. His current scheme would take care of two thirds of that.

He was going to develop a new drug! A drug that would topple all others, having such obscure effects that people wouldn't be able to lay off them once they'd get a taste of it's intoxicating thrill! Their world would be distorted, everything would be different, everything would be.. delicious! It would remove their boundaries, causing a whole new type of crazy to burst from within! Oh, and cannibalistic tendecies wouldn't be unusual, a slight side-effect besides the severe addiction which would follow immediatly after injecting it into one's system. Canni would take advantage of this addiction, henchmen were so much easier to get if they wanted nothing else in payment than drug! And their minds would be so adjustable.. so easy to push them over the edge, making the most obscure ideas sound brilliant! This would be a new generation of criminals! Criminals who would stop at nothing! They would never surrender, never stop fighting! It would affect the entire world, dragging it into torment and suffering. And Canni would be standing on top of it all, laughing his ass off.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Canni had to develop the drug first, and he didn't have enough knowledge within the fields of chemistry to build it on his own. That's why he had taken the liberty of "borrowing" some of New York's greatest scientists. Six of them to be excact. The process of kidnapping them had been very easy, you'd be suprised how little the cheap bastards had spent on security. Incredibly stupid, yet understandable.. why bother on security when your city is crawling with superheroes?
Anyhow, getting the scientists into his "borrowed" van was easy, avoiding the -oh so watchfull gaze of the city police, was not.
A single squad car drived by, just as Canni threw the last scientist into his van, reckognizing it as an act of crime.
This lead to a very dull chase-scene, as the police was well-aware that Canni was in posession of multiple high-target hostages, and chose therefore to pursue and observe. Canni, not being much of a driver, did not manage to shake them off, and chose rather to ignore their excistence and drive directly to his hide-out.

His hide-out/lair/headquarters, was an abandoned warehouse just outside of town. Well, not so much "abandoned" as "not containing anyone left alive", as the place was quite filled with dead bodies, heavily mutilated.
The police, as soon as they discovered that this was indeed Canni's hide-out, due to the fact that he stopped his van up front and brought the hostages inside. At this point, the police started calling for the heroes to help them solve the situation.

Meanwhile, Canni moved a large amount of equipment and supplies from the van into the warehouse. Then forced the scientists to work on the new drug. He then locked the only entrance from the inside, strapped small explosive-devices to the scientists, on the inside of their jackets so that it wasn't visible, and shapeshifted himself into a generic-looking scientist, pretending to be one of them.
The scientists themselves were as close to brave as a carrot to a rock, and obeyed Canni's every command, especially when he planted a bomb on their person.

( Drug developed in 8 rounds. )

Jasper sat in his black with white racing stripes customized 69' Camaro with his feet resting up on the dash enjoying a relaxing ciggarette, he was staring out at the lake and hoping the night stayed quiet for once. Suddenly there was static on his police scanner and a voice reporting a hostage situation in the industrial park of town, "Damn why don't these assholes ever learn" His car started with a roar and the tires squealed as he threw it into reverse and burned out while whipping in and out of traffic towards the warehouse.

/Later/

Turning his lights off as he pulled up about a block away from the warehouse in a dimly lit alley way underneath a fire escape; Jasper shut off his car getting out and stretching his long arms. He knew the cops would be around so inorder to keep his identity hidden he popped his trunk and threw on this orange mask but decided to keep on his baggy black hoodie and a pair of baggy jeans with combat boots tied tight incase of any chases. He had his two pistols strapped to his waist but they were hidden under his hoodie while his katana was strapped to his back in plain sight to anyone who got close.


Climbing up the fire escape he got all the way up to the roof and saw three cop cars outside and the moon over ahead giving plenty of visability. The wind was strong and sent a chill up jaspers spine while he sat wth a pair of binoculars surveying the area thinking of a way in it was likely the main doors would be booby trapped and he also had no idea who the hostage taker was or how many henchman were inside. There were bound to be more heroes here soon so he decided to wait and see what playrd out before he made a move.

Three days ago, New Orleans

The Buick ’51 purred to a stop under the moon, as the mud road ended in a wall of green. Frankie pulled the keys out of the ignition, patted the steering wheel like it was a dog and opened the door. His sharp, Italian, pointed shoes sunk into the stagnant swamp earth. “Ah, Aces.” With a suck, he pulled up and thanked god under his breath that the foot didn’t remain behind. As he moved about in the mud, each foot step was a splash. With a whistle he looked up and down the body of the inky black car in the low light, before shaking his head. ”Woo, you’re beat... Gonna have to get you cleaned before getting you home.” He slammed the car door shut and squelched along in the mud, moving to the thick green barrier that stopped his little baby.

The ivy wall, because that was what it was, seemed to be entwined around a pretty ornate iron gate. Frankie moved forward and pushed hard against it, but the vines stayed tough. With a sigh, he pulled back his right arm and concentrated. In his palm, a blue ball of energy formed. He bounced it in his hand, once, twice, thrice, and then threw it hard at the gates. They bounced open, the twisted metal bending under the forced of the spirit energy. Frankie shifted his hat and ran a black, gloved hand over his teeth, before squelching forward on unsteady feet. Finally, the mud stopped, replaced by a cracked stone driveway.

Frankie paused and raised one of his long, bony legs and surveyed the damage to his rather fine clothes. With a tut he shook his skull and moved on towards the great, slopping house that reared out of the swamp. He lifted a hand and concentrated again, but this time he was only casting a little light on the whole garden. Over the years the garden had been outgrown and choked with swamp weeds. He could spot the water table that a couple of birds had been rolling around in the hot, New Orleans summer. As he moved around the impressive but dilapidated home, the lake around back shone into sight.

The moon turned the flat, calm surface of the stagnant still water into a mirror. There was enough light back here to keep the darkness at bay. Frankie closed his hand and a shimmer ran through the field around his body. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and opened the top, pulling the stick between the thumb and forefinger of his very thin hands. It closed his jaw on the bottom of the stick and patted his body for a match book. With an “aha,” he found the little book and struck one alight. With a small shake of his hand, it was light.

Funny that the whole practice was pointless, since he couldn’t even breathe in. “Oh, Momma. Look what you done.” He turned to the left and looked down, grinning his permanent grin at the headstone of the last person to die out here. He figured that wherever Uggada was, she was calling him an idiot and laughing about it.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

New York City

The Buick swung along the highway, the mud still streaking along the side. Behind the driving wheel, Frankie pulled up the collar of his black raincoat and pulled his hat low. This was the usual stance he use to drive in, back in the old days, when he wanted to keep his face hidden from any peering peepers. Nowadays, it stopped some trucker from freaking out when he saw a skeleton driving an ink black 1951 Buick. As the refitted V8 engine purred away, Frankie made sure to keep his police scanner on loud. When he heard about the police chase, just outside the island of Manhattan, he put his foot down and geared up, swinging through the traffic.

Within minutes, the mudded car was following the flashing red and blues. Frankie glanced down at his feet and cursed himself, the mud having dried and crusted around his legs. ”Dig the Gumshoe.” He muttered, before snickering at the idea of a digging skeleton. When he focused back on the road, however, he had to stick the brakes on to avoid crunching into a truck. Instead, he swerved hard around it and followed the fading blues and reds.

When his car finally rocked to a halt it was near a police roadblock. He cursed, pulled on the reverse and parked up nearby, before opening the door and walking through the crowd that had formed. There was some mutterings amongst the people, a few wide eyed protests as he patted their shoulders to get to the front of the cue. When the copper saw him, his peepers nearly popped out of his head. Instead, he started to stammer, “Wh... Wha... What the hell are you?”

”Listen, Buzzer. Go get someone in charge and tell ‘em special detective Bones is waiting.”

A white sedan barreled through the New York street causing destruction and damage to all in its path. The driver frantically tried to escape his hands bloody and his passenger seat filled with at least two hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelery. The driver wiped sweat from his forehead and started grinding his teeth. "Shit Shit Shit" he yelled slamming his foot down to the floor of his vehicle and going as fast as it would take him. Checking his rear veiw mirror he his eyes spotted what his mind was dreading. Rolling down his window he fired his handgun he checked his mirror again and desperately turned this car around a corner.

BlackOut streaked down the street, he was easily able to catch up with the car even at his cruising speed. The stuck his hand out the window shooting at Black. Black evaded the gunfire with ease and smiled as he got closer to the car bearing down on the driver. He could have stopped him a while ago but watching this creep squirm was just too much fun. The car quickly took a corner side swiping a row of parked car and nearly hitting a handful of pedestrians. Damnit, this has to end now. Black thought to himself deciding the best plan of action in his head.

Black closed the gap between himself and the their and landed on the hood of the car hard. The front of the car bent inward from the force of his landing, the air bags deployed and car came to a grinding halt. The their opened the door waving a gun his face was dripping blood from a gash above his eye and his nose. Before he could do anymore damage Black was behind him shocking him with about the same amount of electricity as a high powered taser. The man fell to the ground shaking as Black reaching into the car retrieving the duffel bag full of jewels. Looking around Black soon became aware of the absence of police activity. What the hell he said to to himself "Where are all the cops..."

Before he could finish his question it was answered as a handful of police cruisers flew by not even stopping to look at the mess he had caused. "It never ends does it" he mumbled throwing the bag of jewels over his shoulder and roughly lifting the criminal by the back of his jacket. Black took off following the group of police cars to the next crime in progress. Black trailed the cars to a police road block outside the city landing in front of it he dropped the thief carelessly to the ground and the bag of jewels on top of him. "Thats for you" he said to the group of officers motioning toward the downed criminal. "Now whats going on here?" he questioned. The police had yet to acknowledge his presence they were all staring at something. Turning Black saw a skeleton wearing a hat and a black raincoat conversing with the police. Black raised his eyebrow for a minute but honestly after some of the things he had seen over the years a skeleton man did not even register on his weird scale.

As Black and Bones stood waiting for a briefing from a commanding officer, two SWAT trucks and a bunch of police cars arrived, the chief of police being among them. He stepped out of his fancy police car, holding a pair of black shiny sunglasses in his hands. He was a middle-aged man, blonde haired, wearing a black suit with a blue-striped white shirt.

He walked casually towards the two heroes while talking with another police officer, "Have they made any demands?" "No sir, and we don't think there's more than one hostile. He might be superpowered" "Interesting.. Good thing we've got a few superpowered lawbringers of our own."
He stopped in front of Black and Bones, turning towards the abandoned warehouse as he was about to talk. "So, seems we've got quite a situation on our hands.. So I'll be brief. There's a superpowered villain who's taken several high-ranked scientists hostage. We have not received any demands, and we can assume that he's armed and dangerous. I want you to go in and rescue the scientists and capture the criminal." he turned around towards them, put on his sunglasses "We got to stop the situation from developing."


Meanwhile, Canni continued working as a scientist.

( drug developed in 7 rounds )

Watching from above the crowd of people and police seemed to grow larger by the moment so if there was a time to get in and do what was neccessary to stop this mad man it was now. Dropping down off the roof and back down into the alley way next to his car Jasper climbed into the drivers seat and slammed his car door behind him. Strapping on his seatbelt he threw the car into drive and stomped on the pedal as hard as he could. Sorry about this old girl He said solemnly as he picked up speed and drove through a small police blockade and continued accelerating aiming the nose of his car for the wall of the warehousse under a set of windows where the wall would be weakest. Bracing for impact he slammed through the wall. Everything shook and shaked feeling like a bomb had gone off.

“Right this way, sir.”

One of the Officers nervously rubbed his neck as opened the blockade for Bones to walk though. Bones ignored the glances and whispers as he was lead towards a large black truck that seemed to be the hub of the whole operation. It was here he was left waiting, checking his tightly strapped wrist watch and tapping a foot in annoyance, when some gentlemen in a yellow and black costumed flew out of the sky. Bones fell silent then, preferring to watch the man move around and catch the attention of the police. Frankie always had a sort of fascination with Supes, never considering himself one of them even when he got better from being dead. He remembered reading about them in scraps of newspapers he scavenged out of trashcans. Hell, he taught himself to read by doing it.

The seemed different to him; Always aloof, always a part of a society that wasn’t meant for him. That’s why he got in with the police of New Orleans. That was why, when asked to come help out in the Big Apple, he ended up standing outside of a warehouse. It was why he introduced himself to the cop as “Special Detective,” which held about as much real weight as his thin bony frame. He didn’t hate the capes or the spandex or whatever, but he just felt like that wasn’t a part of him. The Police Chief moved towards them, and as he spoke, Frankie nodded once or twice. He even took a notebook from one of his pockets and jotted down some notes with his chicken scratch handwriting.

Of course, he never finished the sentence: “high-ranked scientists.” The shouts of a crowd and the sound of splintering wood stopped him. Instead, he slipped his pen into the spine of his notebook and leaning forward around the large dark van. A very nice car accelerated faster across the parking lot and ended up in the wall of the warehouse. It’s momentum carried it straight through the masonry and even though Bones thought that whoever did it had to be the stupidest son of a bitch in the world, he admired the courage.

”Well, that’s not good. I better get going then.”

Bones nodded at the gentlemen, tweaked his large hat with his thumb forefinger and then ran straight towards his car. His coat whipped violently in the air while the group of onlookers and cops parted from in front of him. He slipped to a stop in front of his car, which knocked loose some caked on dirt. From his pocket he pulled his keys and opened the trunk. Inside, next to his spare wheel and a crowbar, sat a violin case. Bones grabbed it and patted the side, making sure that the Tommy Gun inside was comfortable in its felt. He slammed the trunk and instead opened the side of his coat and the jacket underneath. Resting under his armpit, strapped around his body, sat the Mauser C-96.

Now, he ran straight back, jumping over the police barricade. Unlike the madman in the car, however, he didn’t run in gun blazing. Instead, he skulked about the building. The windows that ran along the left side of the building looked like a good place to get the skinny on the scene. Luckily, he found a stack of metal industrial crates. At the base of them, he opened up his violin case and composed his piece, namely the Tommy Gun which needed to be fit together. The 50 round drum clicked into place with a satisfying clunk, while the leather strap he attached to the front and end slipped around his neck comfortably.

Frankie scaled the boxes carefully before he reached the ledge of windows. With a brush of his gloved hand, he could peek down onto the Warehouse floor. Always better to know who you're fighting then try an' drive a car through him. He mused to himself.

The officer in charge poke with Black and the skeleton informing them of the situation Black listened his arms crossed his head bobbing. He glanced from the S.W.A.T. leader to the skeleton man he was at least happy that he would have backup and would not be charging into god knows what on his own. Officer the man could finish debriefing them a car came flying down the street crashing through the police blockade and driving straight at him. Black jumped back pulling the commanding officer and another cop out of the way as he did narrowly avoiding being run down by the speeding vehicle. The car continued flying across the parking lot and smashing into the side of the building. Dust and debris rose from the gaping hole in warehouse wall. Black stared dumbfounded he could not find suitable words to describe the event, the word stupid came to mind but it didn’t seem quite right.

“Well” he sighed shrugging at the police around him “I suppose that is my queue.” he stretched his arms over his head and jumped up flying off toward the building. He was across the parking lot in seconds he made a quick trip around the building looking for a good point of entry before dropping from the air and landing gracefully on the roof of the abandoned warehouse. He wasted no time getting to work crouching down as close to the ground as he could get he began to concentrate. Using his electroreception he was able to feel the eight electrical signatures six scientists, one villain, and one man with a serious case of road rage. Or at least he assumed that was the count but he could be wrong; without seeing the situation with his own eyes he could not be sure. Straightening up he stepped to the edge of the building overlooking the parking lot and the sea of flashing red and blue lights that seemed to be growing by the minute. The sun was winding down to the horizon; Blacks estimated that there was only an hour or so of daylight left.

Looking down he saw the skeleton assembling a weapon below him. Stepping from the ledge Black floated down from the roof stopping behind to the man who was now peering through the window into the warehouse. “Eight people inside, if the information the police gave us is correct then only one is hostile.” he stated quietly “There’s a fire escape on the east side of the building; it leads to a loft area out of sight to the main room where I’m assuming all the action is going on. It seems like are best bet to get in undetected and thanks to our friend with the death wish the villain should be distracted at least long enough to get inside the building” Black looked around he corner at the smoldering wreckage of the car and turned back to the skeleton. “So… do you think his insurance is going to cover that?” he smiled chuckling slightly under his breath trying to relive some of the tension of the situation.

The rattling sound of deathly-nervous scientists working was abruptly interupted by a loud threatening screech, strangely resembling car tires scraping against the ground with great friction. The noise was approaching with alarming speed, and the scientist-disguised Canni turned slowly towards the assumed direction of the approaching vehicle. He smiled deeply, mumbling to himself what no one else would be interested to hear "This could get.. interesting!.

A loud crash caused the scientists to panic! A fancy black car, Canni didn't know enough about cars to deduce it's type as it's high-speed momentum carried it half-way trough the room. Bricks flew everywhere, and a single scientist was K.O'ed by one of the oncoming brown squares. The other's looked frantically at the poor guy as he fell to the floor, but made sure not to stop their work, there was worse things to fear than flying bricks of doom.
The car continued to slide across the floor, before stopping akwardly before crashing trough another wall, something that would have sent it out of the warehouse again.
Canni (still disguised), walked away from the drug-developing table, towards the car-wreck.
Hello? Are you okay? he yelled, shaking in his voice, as if in deep fear of his life, which he obviously wasn't, but the car-riding-maniac didn't know that.

( 6 rounds left before the drug is developed )

Jasper sat slumped up against the steering wheel his whole body felt lke it was in fire from the pain of smashing through a wall. "Not one of your smartest plans Jasper" He thought to himself as he unstrapped his seatbelt and tried to pull himself out of the wreck of what was once his car. Falling flat on his face as he crawled out his car he laid on the ground for a bried moment clearing the cobwebs from his head before jumping quickly to his feet remembering the situation he was in his head swam in a daze so he leaned up against his car. Pulling both of his guns out he looked at the scientest closest to him "Yeah i'm fine this is a normal day for me." The statement was dripping with sarcasam he really felt like he just well drove a car through a wall. Looking around Jasper saw five scientests all trying to help a man with a large quickly developing bruise on his face "Well at least we know he's not the Villain, Okay everyone up against the wall so I can figure this all out!" Jasper said waving his guns around and pointing to the far wall he hadn't ripped through.

The well oiled pieces of metal slid into place as he dangled a leg over the edge of the metal box. Every now and then, his skeletal foot would twitch in the open air which seemed to amuse Frankie to no end. He might have suffered from restless leg syndrome. As well as a prolonged state of Death. With a chuckle, he leant forward and pressed an “eye” against the glass, watching intently as the dust began to settle. One of the Scientist’s got flattened, but the rest of the Scientists hadn’t run away whooping for joy, so it probably wasn’t him. What caught his eye were the looks glanced towards the car and the man who stepped forward, calling out to the person in the car...

Something seemed off with him.

“Eight people inside, if the information the police gave us is correct then only one is hostile.”

Frankie couldn’t have turned the Tommy Gun fast enough. By the time he had, whoever was talking would have been able to dodge out of the way. Instead, he turned his skull while the arm furthest away from the sneaking bastard shot to the holder of his C-96. The gun was pulled and it’s long barrel was pushed into the face of the Hero he had met only ten minutes ago. ”Don’t sneak up on people like that!” He hissed back quietly, putting the safety back and sliding the Mauser into its shoulder strap. Instead, he turned to look over the group of scientists again.

“There’s a fire escape on the east side of the building; it leads to a loft area out of sight to the main room where I’m assuming all the action is going on. It seems like are best bet to get in undetected and thanks to our friend with the death wish the villain should be distracted at least long enough to get inside the building”

Frankie made a ”Hmm,”[i] sound, nodding once or twice as he kept his eyes on the situation inside. The man in the car seemed to be stirring, which in Frankie’s opinion was a bad thing. He sat up straight, the strap cutting against his collar bone. ”You got a sharp eye on you. You’ve probably noticed that there’s about one more person in there than there should be. Or at least, one more Scientist. So that means the guy is probably playing dress up or is something else.” Frankie paused and watched intently as they guy got out and started shouting something muffled by the glass and space. He seemed to be gesturing towards a wall, which probably meant he was going to line people up and stop the work on [i]whatever they were doing.

”You take the roof. You can fly, so I’m presuming you can move around without anyone noticing. What we need to do is take out the stuff that’s being made on the benches there, while also determining the identity of the criminal. If the guy has any smarts on him, he’s probably set up a nasty trap on the Scientists just because he doesn’t want the authorities to find out what he’s making. So that means we should go in when things are most controlled and find a non-lethal way of knocking out the bag guy.” Frankie turned and nodded at the Cape, lifting a hand to adjust the brim of his hat. ”I think I could probably jimmy one of these windows and hide behind some of the equipment. I’m very quiet and fast, and most of them are focused on the car right now.”

“So… do you think his insurance is going to cover that?”

”If the guy has to wear a mask to drive, I don’t think he’s got Insurance. We should probably bust him with a couple of misdemeanours if we had the inclination. The buzzer’s aren’t going to like him.” Frankie tried to smile, but he didn’t pull it off well. What with having no lips. Generally, everything he said had to be taken from the tone of voice. ”Now, if you haven’t got any objections... You go up, I go through here, we try and work together when stuff goes down. Okay, Cape?”

”Now, if you haven’t got any objections... You go up, I go through here, we try and work together when stuff goes down. Okay, Cape?” The skeleton man spoke to Black without turning keeping his eyes fixated on the inside of the building.

"Sounds good" Black said flying around the building before the man gave a response. The air rolled across his body as he took only a fraction of a second to reach the fire escape. Black landed gently in a crouching position on the railing of the fire escape. Stepping quietly across the metal grating Black ran his fingers across the frame of the window. Finding a small opening he dug his fingers in and pulled open the window as quietly as possible. When the opening was large enough, Black slid his way into the building. On the other side of the window was an office type room.

He was immediately hit with the stench of death. The rooms was littered with mutilated human remains the floor was covered with blood. Covering his mouth and nose with his arm he muffled his coughs and gags trying to stay as quiet as possible. "God damn" he murmured trying not to look at the horrific scene in front of him. Lifting himself a few inches from the floor he wanted to avoid making any noise and staying off the ground seemed to be the best way to do so. Beside he did not really want to get any blood on his costume.

Exiting the room Black came onto a balcony that overlooked the main room. He saw the man with the poor driving skills herding the scientists against the far wall of the building waving his guns around madly. "Plow through the wall of the building and then start waving guns at people, excellent plan." he whispered shaking his head. Black looked across the rest of the warehouse there were many more bodies littering the floor all around. "What the hell happened in here." he said shuddering at all of the death around him. Shaking it off Black brought his mind back to the task at hand. Turning to the row of windows where he skeletal friend was still standing at the window. Black started to motion his hands trying to get his attention, showing that he was in position.

The room fell into chaos as a man popped out of the car, waving guns around while shouting everyone against the wall. Nobody moved from their position however, deathly afraid of being blown to pieces by the small explosive-devices strapped under their shirt.

Canni, aswell as the other scientists, started shouting "We can't!! He's watching us!!" helplessly, not stopping their work on the drug. "We'll all die if we stop working! Get out of here you fool!"

The sheer satisfaction of the situation almost blew Canni's cover, he was forced to use every single bit of self-controll he had in him to prevent himself from laughing out loud at the chaos which would surely end in someone getting killed. He did manage to refrain from doing so offcourse.

( 5 rounds left until the drug is developed )

- bump -

(( I suggest we skip WakaFlocka this round, he's clearly not going to post anytime soon, and It would be lame if the quest were to die just because one out of four stopped posting ))