The Wonders of the World (Trog and Widower)

David was staying home today. After all the shit he went through he decided to relax for once. As he was sleeping he heard a loud explosion. Rushing over to his window. There was a huge crater where the café was. Interesting. Getting changed, he made his way over to the ruins. There were people running and screaming. The police were gonna be here soon. As he searched the area he found pieces of a bomb. He quickly pocketed them before he heard sirens.

This was going to be an interesting day.

This job had gone just as planned! Not one of those foul-ups like when he ended up botching a job because that darn lizard-fellow had showed up in the museum. His nerves and ego had been not exactly, shattered, but cracked. But a job like this! More than enough to repair that precious wounded pride of his! Not to mention his reputation! After all, as a professional his reputation was very important to him. Especially since an unflattering "record" might scare awaythe more high-profile customers, and he would be back to drug-store robberies and low-end bank-jobs. Not exactly worthy occupations for a mand of his breed. He had a name to uphold hand't he?

The Blueblooded grinned to himself as he climbed out of the small crater that had once been the entrance to a coffee-shop. The foolish protectors of the law that was chasing him was surrounding a jewelers almost a mile away, thinking that he was in there with hostages. They dared not enter, and when they finally did they would discovered that he had opened up a tunnel into an abandoned subway-tunnel, wich had led him here. Sure, the tunnel had been walled up and closed off for almost twenty years, so the exit had been less than elegant, but at some point one simply had to resort to somewhat crude means to get one one wants, and he really wanted the eye of zarathustra. A ruby of fabulous beauty said to contain some sort of sorcerous power. Now, The Gentleman considered himself an educated chap, far above the crude superstition that haunted those born into the lower classes, but on an estetic level he was simply enchanted with the stone. He was almost tempted to throw the deal with his employer and simply keep the rock for himself, put it into a fabulous golden ring, or possibly attatch it to one of his buttons. A better use for it he could not imagine, but in this modern, dog-eat-dog, work-a-day world, one could not simply follow his heart when it came to matters like this. Financial problems had to be solved before one could truly throw himself into the pursuit of beauty, and the payment he would recieve was very generous indeed. Plus, he had taken a few other jewels from the vault aswell. Not nearly beautifull to match the "eye of zarathustra" of course, but they still had their charm.

There was no civilians on the scene that had gotten hurt, he knew that much, and even though some property had been destroyed, he considered that to be acceptable losses. With all the property-damage in this town nobody would pay much time to his little unauthorized demolition. Besides, the bomb had been crafted by expert and would not be traced back to him. After all, to make money you had to spend money and only the best was good enough to the gentleman. However, his thinking was rather rudely interupted when he saw a humungous, man standing around on the scene. The gentleman sneered slightly. He looked like a steroid-ridden slack-jawed yokel with barely enough brains to qualify for a two-didgit IQ, but he did not need more heat, and putting this rather odd-looking fellow out of his misery would surely bring heat on him.

"Oh, good day to you, good sir! I am terribly sorry if my little toy has caused you any discomfort. To be honest with you I have never been much of a fan of explosions myself, so I assure you that I would not have used it if it was not of utmost importance. If you forget I was here, I'll let you have this shiny emerald. It would surely be enough to buy you large quantities of protein-powder or new dumbells or whatever you need" Gentleman said, his deep, melodious somewhat theatrical voice sounding rather amiable and somewhat stuffy, not even in the vicinity of how a stereotypical bomber would have sounded on TV. He reached into his pocket and picked out a rather large emerald, throwing it at the feet of the big burly bruiser waiting for him to pick it up.

Audrey had been sitting on the rooftops of one of the buildings nearby the cafe which had exploded. He had his notebook and pen out, tallying up the total of kills he had obtained within the last month. Usually he would save it for the last day of the month, but he decided, why not start early? He did enjoy his calculating after all. There were some new additions to his list of super humans to kill in New York City. Whether they’d be easy or hard, it didn’t matter. Sometimes the ones that were harder to get excited him a bit more. It helped him feel more alive than he usually did, brooding about his wife and his life. He flipped to the back of his notebook to check what ammunitions and weapons he needed to purchase or restock. He quickly used his pen to circle the word ‘rocket launcher’. He decided that if he was going to go up against big, strong people, he was going to need some big, strong weapons.

He put his notebook and pen away, smirking to himself as he counted his total number of kills to 19. Not too bad, considering how much he liked to plan. He liked things to go right the first time he tried. If there was something Audrey disliked, it was failure. Failure was unacceptable in the life of a gunman. He slowly took out his locket from under his shirt and gave it a quick kiss before hiding it under his shirt again. It was a sort of routine for him, before he went off and became The Widower for the night. All this was for his wife, after all. He wanted to find and kill the people who had hurt his wife. He did not have a target, that night, but he had been stalking, if that was a proper word for what he was doing, a man he had seen on television. The police had caught one picture of him as he apparently threw a pole at a police helicopter. Audrey pinned that down to super strength, and super strength meant he was a super human, and super human meant he was going down. That one glimpse of the man’s face was enough for Audrey to scope him out in a crowd. The man much too tall to stay inconspicuous anyway. He’d keep his distance for now, and plan his line of action. A brute like that needed bigger weapons, not just the sniper rifles he used on the small super humans. It was another reason why he needed to invest in a rocket launcher. Audrey stood up, adjusted his hat, and headed down the fire escape of the building. He had wanted to purchase himself a nice drink at the cafe opposite what he suspected was the man’s lodgings. He wasn’t sure, which is why he wanted to stake it out.

As he walked, there was the explosion. Not something he entirely suspected, but not something he jumped at or freaked out about either. He had been close enough to explosion to watch it unfold, and right in front of him, his plan for getting a hot beverage with a nice cake had shattered. It was alright, though, he didn’t need it. He noticed from afar, the back of the man he had wanted to examine and plan the death of. How could he be missed if he stood at such a towering height, in such a large build? What he was doing in the crater of what used to be the cafe baffled him slightly, but not enough for him to let it show. Who was there to show, anyway? No one. Although, there was someone else he did not recognise, who seemed to be dressed quite extravagantly. Audrey knew, mostly from himself, that when a person dressed so well turned up at a place like this, they probably had something to do with it. Unless the place being blown up was a fancy restaurant, then it could be justified.

He walked in close enough, keeping quiet so he could hear what he was being said. Something about the explosion, he caught that, and his assumptions were proved correct. The well dressed man was indeed the planter of the bomb. He quietly took out his revolver from the holster on his belt and clicked the hammer, aiming the gun at both men. “I’m insulted. You’ll pay the big guy but not me? It’ll cost you two of whatever you gave him to make me forget.” he said, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips, “Three if you want me to put the gun down.”

"So you're the guy that blew up the place?" He looked at the person who was talking to him. Shit, he looked like he came from the fucking 19th Century."Depends" David wasn't even looking at the diamond "Did anyone die?". He was perfectly fine with theft and arson, as long as no innocents were hurt. Live and let live he said. "Where did you find a bomb like this?" David was amazed by the craft of it. It certainly wasn't made by an amateur.

Then some suit wearing punk dropped by and started pointing guns at everyone. "I think that you're making mistake, sir" David said, walking up to the man wearing the suit "This is actually my day off". David was never good at charming women, let alone bloodthirsty hit men.

The gentleman would lie if he said he wasn't taken by surprised by the sudden appearance of the gunman, but nevertheless he was quite good at hiding the fact. Thinking at your feet was but one of his remarkable talents that he did possess. Another one was his talent for getting out of sticky situations. Normally he would have no trouble throwing him twice the amount of the gems that he had. After all, he literally had his pockets full of the lovely little stones, and such a bribe would not interfere with his profit-margins very much, but at the same time, the gentleman had no desire to hand over his ill-gotten gains to simple thugs and hoodlums. After all, giving in to the ambitious social climbers from the lower classes was the main reason the old feudal society failed and fell, wasn't it? No, this man should learn that whilst one may politely ask the gentleman for a slight donation, one might not leave empty-handed, but if he was rude enough to actually threaten a man of his station and ability, he would get what was comming to him.

"My, my. A gun and a quote-unquote "witty" threat. How Dreadfully Dramatic you Delightfully Dastardly Dullard." The gentleman said, his theatrical voice seemingly lacking any form of agitation. Suddenly, the other man started talking at him. Oh, these horrible commoners and their inane questions! Did he not just give that man an Emerald for crying out loud!? I mean, that should be enough for him to shut his pie-hole and make himself scarce out of sheer gratitude, but no, he had to stay here and make noise! Fine! So be it!

"What do you take me for, simpleton? An amateur of some sort? Or perhaps a rampaging barbarian? Of course nobody was injured! I had chosen this location specifically to avoid any casualities!" the gentleman said, his intonation suggesting a rather annoyed mood.

"Now if you would excuse me I have a man pointing a gun at me, wich might just be a smidgeon more important than answering your inane questions, so if you would just lumber off into the streets it would be greatly apreciated. Cheerio, ta-ta, bon voyage, etcetera, etcetera." the gentleman continued, sacrastically, his earlier polite words seemingly all but forgotten.He quickly turned to the man with the gun

"Three stones to make you drop the pistol, was it not? Hm, yes, I believe it was. Tell you what, ol' chap, I shall grant your request!" The gentleman said, slowly reaching into his jacket, pulling out three decently sized emeralds, holding them up so that theman could count them before he dropped them. However, unlike most stones dropped, these precious gems did not fall towards the ground, instead they instantly flew towards the gun with speed equal to or greater than that of a bullet, but with the stopping-power like that of a jumbo-jet, more than enough to smash the weapon to bits and possibly break the fingers of the man holding it due to the powers of his impact.

However, just to be on the safe side, the gentleman had also infused his clothes with his powers, to proetct him from eventual gunshots or punches thrown by the burly fellow.

Contrary to popular belief, Audrey was no bloodthirsty hitman. He was a super human blood thirsty hitman. He found that there was a distinct difference between the two. He clicked the hammer of his revolver one more time, glancing towards the big guy for a moment. “You may be on your day off, but I’m not.” he stated plainly. The fact that this other man seemed to be talking in such a smooth, unfazed way, did put Audrey off a bit, but not enough to make him stop pointing the gun at him. The Gentleman truly had a way with words and alliteration, and my, did it seem like the man enjoyed talking. He found it somewhat amusing, but also somewhat irritating. Then again, Audrey rarely found things likeable in the first place. There was always something wrong with it that he could point out.

When the Gentleman spoke to David, he couldn’t help but listen in. Wow this man really thought he was all that. Like he was some big shot that could go around blowing up buildings without and repercussions. From what Audrey could tell, the man wasn’t dumb. Not by a long shot. Being able to plan a bombing like that without any people around did indeed take some brains to pull off. He would give the Gentleman that much credit for what had happened, at least. He made a quick mental note to find a supplier for bombs so he could plan larger scale killings one day. Probably not one day soon, though.

He just slowly nodded at what the Gentleman was saying to him, and Audrey couldn’t help but feel put off by the man’s willingness to give three precious gems to a man with a gun. Now that he thought about it, he probably looked like some third class robber with no sense of anything, really. He took a deep breath as the Gentleman dropped the emeralds, knowing very well that dropping them closer to himself, it would make Audrey look more desperate if he wanted to go get it.

There was a split second between the drop and when the gems were shot out at him. Just a split second, maybe even less. It had shocked Audrey, but not enough to kill his reaction time. He knew what gunshots felt like, and he’d rather not have a broken revolver. Especially not when it was his favourite revolver at stake. He didn’t have the time to think about what to do, or the time to do anything fancy, so he quickly just dropped to his stomach and rolled to the side. It wasn’t the most flashy or the most good looking kind of dodge, but as long as it kept his gun safe. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid. His heart was pounding from what seemed to be a near death experience... for his gun, anyway. Then again, his guns were all a part of him. This experience, however, did teach him one thing: The Gentleman was a super human that needed adding into his hit list.

He didn’t even bother standing up. He just pulled himself into a more proper sitting position, dusted himself off, and put away his revolver. “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed. But I guess there is not fun in that.” he stated, adjusting his jacket and reaching to pick up his fallen hat. “I guess I cannot argue that you gave me three gems. In what fashion, I never did elaborate, and therefore I will keep my end of the bargain.” He slowly rose to his feet again, this time dusting off his trousers. He wasn’t going to fight a man who could send gems at high speed. That would be mad.

As soon as the well dressed man let go of the gems, they shot out at a blinding speed. David saw the hit man rather clumsily dodge the projectiles. He was fast. If he was going to fight him he would need to keep his speed in check. He certainly didn't want to get caught off-guard.The old fashioned man appeared to be able to charge up objects with kinetic energy. He should try to get up close.

He walked over to the gentleman "How did you do that!". David let out a laugh "You should teach me that". He turned and was about to go home. Better let the two get over their differences.

Gentleman was somewhat surprised to see the man dodge his three little 'partyfavours' like that. He surely wouldn't have thought that the fellow had such gusto, no not in a million years! After all, the man seemed to be but a robber, the basest, most crude class of criminal there was, but a common robber did not even have the hope to aquire enough skill and speed to dodge one of his projectiles, even if it had not been at full force like the one he had sent towards the gun.

"It would surely not be prudent of me to say 'no' to a man with a gun. Besides, it would be much easier for me to simply remove it from the equation, yes?" The gentleman said matter-of factly with only the hint of certain joy as he adjusted his monocle slightly, as if watching the other two through it made their visages more bearable somehow. He then slowly struttted towards the man on the ground, staying barely four feet away from him, pointing his umbrella at the man, a crocked, somewhat snobbish grin appearing on his lips.

"Nevertheless, it would appear that my little stunt have bought me the upper hand, even though not in the manner I originally intended. However, I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, if you are familiar with that expression, hm, yes. It was quite a dodge there, dear chap, very impressive and all that. But in the end, the effort will be for naught. You see this umbrella? I have loaded it with enough energy to skewer a tank, and if I stop concentrating, it will go flying out of my hand and into you faster than you could blink, old fellow. Throw the gun away and I shall point it elsewhere." The man said surprisingly cheerfully as he stood there, his thick cloak billowing dramatically behind him. He would not have this man shoot him in the back as he was escaping, plus he was already rather annoyed at the fact that the man had managed to avoid his previous attacks

He was rather surprised to hear another voice behind him, asking him if he could teach him that trick, the musclebound monkey-man seemed to be at it again. Gentleman merely sighed and without taking his gaze of the man on the ground for even a second he answered the queery. "Are you STILL here? I am fairly sure I told you to skiddaddle. Maybe your skills with the language are somewhat lacking, yes? I believe one of your obviously low-class origin would say something along the lines of 'Piss off'?" He said, as he waved a somewhat limpwristed hand in the general direction of the muscleman. His vis voice in and manner was somewhat akin to a babysitter dealing with a particurlarly dimwitted child.

"Throw the gun away and I shall not harm you. You have my solemn vow as a gentleman. I have no interest in petty squabbles with the likes of you, but I am far to carefull to leave a man with a gun to shoot me in the back whilst I make my get-away." He continued, obviously directing this little speech towards the man on the ground.

A crude class of criminals wearing a finely tailored suit? Obviously, the Gentleman had some high standards. But then again, Audrey accepted the fact that he came off like a common street mugger. The same kind of guy who killed his wife. He felt disgusted and ashamed of himself, but he wasn’t going to let that show. He adjusted the hat on his head and looked at the Gentleman, dusting his shirt and trousers off once again. The street was probably filthy, anyway. To think he would do something so clumsily to avoid high speed bullet gems.

“You do have a point.” he stated, still dusting off his clothing, wanting any street grime off of him. Those were meant to only stay at the bottom of his shoes. “There are many things I myself want to, as you put it, ‘remove from the equation’.” Audrey just listened as the man said what needed to be said. His eyes moved from looking at the man, to staring at the umbrella that was being pointed at him. If the Gentleman could shoot gems like bullets, who was he to disagree with what he was saying? He was going to have to tread carefully.

“I will admit I was shocked I dodged them as well.” he said, slowly raising his hands so they were level with his head. He still stood strong and pretty defiant, but with his hands raised. He’d have to plan an attack for some other time. For now, the man had an umbrella, and didn’t seem afraid to use it. Audrey wondered if he could dodge the umbrella, but if what the man said was correct, he wouldn’t have the time to dodge. The man was at such a close distance, he’d probably be skewered before he had the chance to consider dodging.

He turned to David as he spoke up. What was the man still doing here, anyway? Audrey sure didn’t know, but he still had his hands at head level. The way the Gentleman spoke about everything gave Audrey extra details on the type of person he was. Sometimes, these small, menial details, helped him with being, what people labeled him, a crazed gunman. He wondered if he could find a way to kill the giant man that night, but since the man seemed almost uninterested, he’d leave him for sniping, or leave him until he got himself some bigger guns to match up.

“Allow me to confirm... I drop the gun, and you will redirect your umbrella, am I right?” he questioned, slowly pulling down one of his hands in order to pull out his revolver. “As a gentleman myself, I do not shoot people in the back. That leaves too much chance for survival. You have already seen me, and if I shot you, and you survived, I could be in for trouble.” he carefully put the revolver on the ground by his feet. “There.” he then used his foot to kick the revolver off somewhere behind him. “Nowhere near me. You can point that thing elsewhere, now, and make your escape.” Audrey knew better than to trust people who could blow up cafes, though. The man could easily just have been lying, not having put any energy into the umbrella at all, and was just threatening him with fear. Or, the man could just let loose the umbrella anyway, probably killing him almost instantly. This, was one of the reasons why Audrey watched from afar. It meant that he got into less sticky situations. He took a few deep breaths and hoped the man would just turn around and walk away with his umbrella. If he died, who would be helping sweep up the streets and clearing off those pesky mutants.

David making his way home. He certainly wasn't going get involved in whatever business the two were in. He had enough adventures for the past week. He quickly turned and saw the hit man talking with the gentleman. Looks like they made a truce. David grinned to himself as he went into his apartment. It was rather small. He wasn't planning on staying long. Just a few jobs here and there. He looked in the fridge and saw a note. "Get Milk" it said.

He was planning on going to the grocery store, but he came to the conclusion that whenever he came out, bad things would happen. Like being chased by the police with a boy that could turn into smoke and a bird girl. David yawned and decided to sleep for the day. He he took off his shoes and lay down on the bed.

Gentleman smiled and nodded approvingly as the man dropped his firearm, quickly spinning the umbrella around, resting it against the ground as if it were a cane of some sort, striking a rather dapper pose seemingly casually, smiling rather benevolently "I'm glad to see you are reasonable. I would lie if I said this had been a pleasure, but nonetheless, I must compliment you on the way you complied with my requests. Since the gems I gave you before will be quite hard to find, I shall reimburse you for that little stunt of mine, dear fellow. Wouldn't want us to part on bad terms and such. Besides, it would be a crying shame if any of us were to leave here emptyhanded, wouldn't you say?" The gentleman said, dropping a four of the smaller gems on the ground by his feet. Even though this little act of generosity might be viewed as an act of charity, the gentleman would once again be lying if he said he did not have ulterior motives. A potential witness is far less likely to blab if they could potentially be as arrested as accomplices, and these little gems ensured that such a thing could happen quite easily.

"I suggest you gather your stones and depart from this location before our Boorish But Brave Boys in Blue decide to crash our little party. Cheerio!" The gentleman said with a grin on his lips as he raised his umbrella into the air and unfurled it, still looking at the would-be-mugger. He then took to the air, slowly at first, hovering upwards slowly, like a lost balloon, the umbrella adding an undeniable "Mary Poppins quality to the whole thing" He then started to increase his speed, flying faster and faster, hoping to get away from this location before the police caught wind of him. He couldn't help byt to laugh to himself as he left, not out of any particurlar malice or because he found the situation amusing in other way, but rather out of relief. He had been rather tense during the whole situation, not only because he might have gotten killed, but also because no matter how htis had played out, it would surely have collapsed his heist all around him. If he had been forced to stay to deal with the knuckledragger and the robber, he would sure to have lost enough time to put himself in serious jeapordy to be caught by the police, or worse, attracted the attention of one of those accursed superheroes that roamed the streets.

((Its not over by the way, this is just setting the story up))

“I would be lying if I said it was a pleasure as well.” he muttered, mostly to himself. “It would be a shame, after all that we’ve been through together.” There was a sort of joking tone in his voice, but it wasn’t all too obvious. He dropped his hands and looked to the gems by his feet, then gave the Gentleman was quick glance. He needed to remember the man’s face if he wanted to hunt him down. If there was one thing he gain from this, it was the face of another dangerous super human that he was going to hunt. “I thank you for your generosity.” he stated plainly as he quickly bent down to pick up the gems, “These will help pay for bigger guns.” he smirked slightly, turning the gems in his hand before pocketing them. The man was paying off the witnesses, that much he could tell. The Gentleman didn’t need a tattler on his tail. It didn’t matter to him, though. Audrey was the type of man who wouldn’t just tell the police of someone else’s crimes. He’d take the law into his own hands. It was much easier that way. He watched with raised eyebrows as the man lifted himself up into the sky. There was something so theatrical about the Gentleman that really confused Audrey. Maybe it was something he could admire.

He turned around and walked off, picking up his revolver on the way and placing it back in its holster. He could hear the sirens already, and those Brave Blue Boys, or whatever the man had called them, would probably be in the crime scene in moments. He made his own way out of the place, pulling out his notebook and pen to write as he walked. He wrote down a few notes about the man, including his alliteration quirk, his powers, and his dress style. He even added a few new things about David, and wrote down a reminder to find a place where he could sell off the gems for a good amount of money. He’d add a sketch of what the man looked like later. It wouldn’t be too great if he accidentally mistook another face as the man. Seeing so many face on a day to day basis did that sometimes. He was neat and efficient, and a dead person who wasn’t someone he was hunting was not neat or efficient. At least now he didn’t have to think about the problem of not having enough money for his big gun. Depending on how much he could milk out of these gems, he could even get himself materials to manufacture his own weapons. Sometimes revolvers got boring. With that, he climbed up the fire escape to the rooftop of his favourite tall building, something he might call his nest, to look down upon the streets of New York and to plan his next move.

David was working for hours tweaking on his goggles and gloves. He didn't have anything to do. Deciding that it was probably safe tonight, he went outside. As he walked through the city , he realized that he was starting to like the city. Sure, it wasn't London but it was still rather nice. The amount of people enjoying themselves made him smile. David stopped at the supermarket. He still needed to get that milk. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

The gentleman flew over the streets, gazing back at the strange man as he wasted little time in picking up the Generously Gifted Gems and his gun before calmly walking out of there. He realized that he might have misjudged this man. He may have introduced himself as a common robber, but his sut, the way he moved and carried himself, but most of all, the way he kept his head cool all indicated that he was something more, something far greater than he had initially given him credit for. Especially when considering the way he had dodged out of the way of his initial bullets, no ordinary man could perform a feat such as that. Heck, very few of the extraordinary could pull off that kinda stunt. He had no reason to suspect that it had been anything else than a coincidental meeting. After all, his little excursion to the jewelry had been a one-person job, and even though he got it on commission, the plan was all his own. Nobody could have known that he had planned to escape through the sewers, especially not where he planned to set off the bomb so that he could go back to the surface. Still, it might be prudent to keep an eye out for this man, in case he turned up "coincidentally" during any of his other jobs in the near future.

Due to the darkness it would probably be pretty hard to see him against the star-spangled sky, most would probably assume that it was a shadow of some sort or a particuralrly handsome bird. Ah, the night was the trustworthy ally of any Fleeing, Flying Felon that wanted to avoid the attention of dull old party-pooping policemen. After a few minutes of flight soon hovered into his temporary hideout through the window that he had left open. The modest "hideout" consisted of a rather cheap hotel-room rented under an assumed name. Not the most exclusive of estates, but more than enough to keep him hidden untill it was time for the big payoff. After all, it would not be prudent to head back home with all these stolen gems in his possessions. It was one of Wilfreds golden rules. Never mix your professional and personal lives, because it would lead to nothing but trouble.

Gentleman quickly quickly threw himself on the couch and turned on the TV and starting to furiously click on the remote to see if any of the news-channels had something to report on his little theft. He casually divested himself of his tophat wich he put on a nearby table and his cape wich he threw over the back of the couch, before pouring himself a glass of champagne from a bottle already conveniently standing on the table, as a small celebration of his victory.