Health & Sanitation Index (Mister Reaper; Others PM to Join)

Index walked along the streets of Los Angelos, chasing down clues to find her mother as well as the occasional purse-snatcher. Well, that was the pretense anyway. In truth, All she had done was walk around, get distracted, and get into trouble like she was about to again shortly.

She was odd looking enough to warrant the occasional glance, but normal-looking enough not to warrant too much attention until she drew it to herself. She stood at average height, with long platinum hair and straight-across bangs. Her eyes were a bluish-white silver, and her skin was pale and smooth. Indeed, her lack of color gave her a ghostly look but most people made an effort not to stare, assuming it was a birth defect or fashion statement. She dressed simply, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with blue jeans and white sneakers.

As she walked down the sidewalk, she was distracted by the smell of food and baked goods wafting from the patio of a small cafe. Without a second thought, she followed the smell through the doorway leading into the restaurant. "Wow, it smells so good in here!" she exclaimed as she walked in. the host at the front of the restaurant eyed her with a blank expression. "Can I help you Ma'am?" Index looked at him, then like a dog seeing a squirrel looked over at a waitress carrying a large brownie covered in ice cream. "Ummm, can I have one of those?" She said shyly, pointing at the dessert. She was almost certain the man would say no, as people seemed to be very stingy, but to her surprise the man replied "Of course, please have a seat over there."

"Wow! Really? Thanks!" Excitement filled her voice as she took her seat and waited for her dish. She smiled and tapped her feet on the floor in excitement, hoping it would taste as good as it looked. Once the dish was brought out she set upon as if she hadn't eaten in days, which was technically true though she wasn't capable of feeling hunger. "That was delicious!" She exclaimed as she stood up and made for the door. The same man stopped her. "Excuse me miss, that will be $6.99." Index looked at the man, completely confused. "Six-ninety-whuh?" She simply replied back to him. "Six dollars and ninety-nine cents, for the food you ate. You do intend to pay right?" Index was flabbergasted. She actually thought the man was nice! "Money!?" She exclaimed as if surprised by the notion of having to pay, which she was. "You want money too? but you said I could have it! Everyone around here wants money, but I don't have any!" she said, exasperated. The man got a serious tone, and before she knew it Index was being taken by the arm and pulled out of the cafe. "Just get out, and don't come back thief!" the man called out, while the larger man that had been summoned from the back tugged her out the door, giving her one final push out onto the sidewalk. the force of the push made her lose her balance, and she fell bottom-first onto the concrete.

"Owww..." Index muttered before standing up, a serious look flashing across her face as her small fists clenched. "If I can't eat here, neither will anyone else!" Suddenly at that moment, a swarm of large cockroaches appeared in the kitchen and made their way out for all the customers to see. People began running out in a disgusted panic, nearly running over Index before she was pushed out to the side of the entrance. The serious look vanished from Index's face, replaced by tears welling up in her eyes as she sat on the sidewalk with her knees drawn to her chest. she pulled out a small Owl keychain and began talking to it. "What have I done bro? I-I didn't mean to..." She stuttered as she kept herself from crying. "But they didn't have to be so mean, they said I could have it...." Index continued to busy herself with talking to her plastic owl, seemingly unaware of other passerby on the sidewalk.

It had been a long day already. First, the police had managed to track Mister Reaper down, something that very rarely happened. The villain guessed that he must have been a little too loud with the double homicide of the home’s owners. Then, he had not been able to get his breakfast because of the intrusion of the, quite frankly, rude police officers kicking the front door in. Normally Mister Reaper would stay in one home for about a week or so but with this development he would be forced to find a new place to lay his head, perhaps a dumpster. Last, thought certainly not least, it was hot and sunny in California despite the time of year and that just put the strange man in a foul mood.

“You know, you could probably get something to eat out of one of the countless dumpsters around here,” Screeched the ever present voice of Edgar as he flapped his tiny bird wings. “Then you wouldn’t run so much of a risk of getting reported. This place has a ton of homeless people. No one will notice one more going for a dip,” The bird tried to reason to the odd man. Edgar then landed on Mister Reaper’s shoulder, adjusting his fez and monocle, and moved to peck the man in the ear. “Are you even listening to me,” The bird screeched into Mister Reaper’s ear.

Swiping at Edgar, Mister Reaper again directed his attention to the woman standing outside the café, or whatever the place was. “Would you can it, Edgar? I’m trying to watch this kind of hot chick,” He said from behind his ever present mask. “She’s up to something. She doesn’t seem like the dine and dash type and now she’s sort of just standing outside the building,” The villain explained without looking at the talking bird. Then a crowd of people ran out of the café screaming about some kind of infestation, almost running the kind of hot chick over in the process. “Cool, she’s got to be one of those meta’s or whatever they’re called. She could come in handy,” Mister Reaper said as he slipped out of the shadows of the alley and toward the object of his new found attention.

She was speaking to something but Mister Reaper did not really care. He continued with his plan, or really lack thereof. Grabbing here and lifting her over his shoulder without ever stopping from his quick paced jog, somewhat blending in with the other people running from the café, he said, “Hey baby cakes, don’t struggle too much, alright. I think we can help each other out. I’m hungry and you can do something to scare people out of the place. Together we can eat somewhere and slip out without paying or drawing too much attention to ourselves.” He wore a devilish grin almost completely hidden beneath his mask. “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship if you ask me,” Mister Reaper said with a throaty laugh.

"Oh well." Index said to her plastic owl, standing up and dangling it by it's chain in front of her face. "I guess I should get away from here before I get into trouble." She replaced the owl into her pocket and turned to walk away, but as soon as she turned she saw an odd masked man running towards her her grabbed her before she could take another step.

He was much stronger than the small girl, and she could physically do very little to prevent him from hefting her over his shoulder like so many au gratin potatoes. She beat her small fists against his back ineffectively as he rambled on with his proposition barely listening to what he had to say. Unfortunately she did hear, and he said the wrong thing. After he finished his proposition Index stopped her futile struggling, but her fists clenched tighter than ever. In her mind, she saw a nightmarish flash of the crude man stepping over the bodies she had created to claim his free food, while she stood motionless and expressionless nearby. It was the same nightmare, new characters.

"Never again...." Index mumbled to herself. "Put me down, I'm getting angry..." A cold look swept over her face like clouds sweeping over the sky. "I...I have a name!" She yelled, getting louder with each word. "My name is Libri! AND I AM NOT A WEAPON!" With that her fists unclenched as white-hot electricity ran between her fingers. In her moment of anger, she forgot to think much on being nonlethal and just let loose the bolts of magical lightning into the man's back, making sure the lightning didn't spread but simply bounced around the man's body until it dissipated. The air audibly sizzled as the electricity shot out towards its target, which was merely an inch away since it was currently carrying her in a most undignified manner.

The kind of hot chick beat on Mister Reaper’s back for a while but the man paid it no mind and instead continued on with his one sided conversation. “Libra? That’s a pretty cool name,” He adds, trying to be thoughtful on some level. “My name is Mister Rea—“ The criminal was cut short by what felt like a couple hundred volts of electricity coursed throughout his body. His body locked, halting all movement and ability to balance, as he began to slowly fall face first. Once he came to a final destination on the sidewalk, Mister Reaper lost his hold on the girl as he laid there.

For a couple seconds, perhaps even minutes, he did not move. Mister Reaper was more durable then most given his perfect bone structure and close to perfect physique but that did very little to defend against being electrocuted. Letting out a groan, he began to pick himself back up from the ground. Ever present, Edgar attempted to give the man some quick advice, “Did you see that? She tried to kill you. That means you’re legally required to kill her back. It’s a law or something, you know.” The crow simply took its monocle and attempted to clean it as if giving everything it said little to no attention.

“Would you shut up,” Mister Reaper said to the crow under his breath. “Listen, Libra was it, if I wanted to kill anyone they would be dead. I’m already really good at doing that. I just want to eat though. Maybe you could help me out a little bit,” He said as he was still doubled over, breathing hard. It was somewhat out of character for Mister Reaper to not instantly resort to violence but he was feeling odd and did not know what to do about it. “If it makes you feel any better I could promise not to hurt you or something if you want, I don’t know. Deal?” He asked with a raised eye brow beneath his mask.

"Kyaaah!" Index screamed as her poorly formed plan of action sent her falling to the ground with her would-be kidnapper. As soon as she was free of his grip, she squirmed loose and stood up. The fall to the sidewalk had left her with a minor scrape on her right arm, and droplets of light pink blood were forming which she wipes off with her hand.

"Hmph! Shows what you know! I'm not alive, you can't kill me!" Index said defiantly with her hands on her hips, sure she had shown the unsavory man with her technicality. then she pensively put a hand to her mouth. "Uhhh...I am glad I didn't kill you though." Index's first thought had been to bring the man to the authorities, which seemed like the proper heroic thing to do. She then remembered though, that what she had done would have fried any normal person to a crisp. She began to worry that the police might end up locking her up for her reckless and evil action. "I should bring you to the police, but I guess if you don't cause any more trouble I can let it slide since you got what was coming to you." She said staring off to the side, hoping her bluff would fool him and keep her from the imaginary trouble she had invented.

"Unfortunately I wasn't made to help people get food, and all the people around here that are for giving people food want money, and I don't have any of that so I guess you're out of luck." Index said casually, somewhat forgetful of the fact that humans needed to eat to survive and not just to enjoy fancy desserts.

Mister Reaper only half listened. Most of this conversation seemed like it would be boring until there was a slight catch that struck him as more than a little odd. “Not alive? Now that is interesting. I’ve never met a lot of metas but I’ve beaten up my fair share,” He began to approach her looking her up and down, moving his entire head to do so given the slight decrease in visibility. “I must say though, I’ve never seen one that’s looked quite like you, white hair and all that is,” The villain then brought his finger to his lips, thinking things over in his head. Tilting his head to the side a bit he asked a single question, “How does someone even make somebody?”

“Not much fun killing someone that isn’t even alive,” Edgar screeched in his typical condescending tone. “Although, if she can tell how to make metas then we could kill her and keep the information to ourselves and sell it to the highest bidder. We’d be rolling in dough then. After that, we can see if the undead scream when they have every muscle in their body stripped from the bone one by one. It should be fun,” He concluded. Mister Reaper went on ignoring the bird, for the time being.

The masked man was being far much more calm then was common for him and he was not quite sure what was bringing this out of him. Mister Reaper was used to living his life alone and away from those that wanted to kill him. He had become Walking Death before he had even turned eighteen. Killing was the only thing the man knew, the only thing he was capable of doing anymore. He could not understand why he was talking to this woman so calmly but every word Edgar spoke pushed him closer and closer to his old ways. Over the edge and into the dark world he had grown accustomed to.

"Metas?" Index said to herself out loud in a confused tone, obviously never having heard the word in such a context. she continued to listen with a confused look until he mentioned her hair, where she took a defensive tone. "There are people with white hair! So what if it looks weird, it's not a big deal! I still look perfectly human!" She spouted with her fists down at her waist.

Then she quickly got over it, upon which she pondered the man's odd question. "Make somebody? You mean, make a homunculus like me? Well of course I know how, I am an Index." She said it proudly, with a smug look on her face. She decided she would neglect to mention that it wasn't possible for her to actually perform such a task. "I could explain it, but I'm sure it's all too complicated for you. I'd just be speaking a different language. Anyway, it takes a lot of magical knowledge and power to do it, only the most powerful can do it by themselves." She looked at the strange masked man. "So see, my mother is the most powerful there is!" She said proudly with a large smile on her pale face.

Once the girl defended her hair color Mister Reaper could not help but let out a hearty laugh. He had never been prone to caring about his appearance and he stayed that way until others fussed over theirs in front of him. The criminal rarely kept up his own appearance or personal hygiene due to the fact that to participate in it left him open to attack from any number of means. It was safer to go long periods of time without a shower or anything of the like. He had become accustomed to his faint odor and was not even sure if it still persisted.

When she mentioned that he would not understand the method by which she came into being it was Edgar’s turn to laugh. “You hear that? She thinks we’re stupid or something. She’s just making me want to see her cut up more and more,” He said with what must have been a snarl. It was hard to tell given the bird’s completely lack of lips or any means to convey emotion through facial expression. Mister Reaper took this as a good chance to pay no attention to the bird, like he almost always seemed to do these days.

“Just give me the spark notes while we walk,” Mister Reaper said as he began to walk past the kind of hot chick, “I might not be very smart but Edgar can usually put it in words I can understand.” When the villain mentioned his bird he jabbed a thumb at an empty spot on his shoulder, where a bird only he could see sat. “I guess you could say he’s more the brains of the operation while I do more of the muscle stuff,” Mister Reaper continued down the street, glancing slightly over his shoulder to see if the girl would be following him or not. He knew it would be much more simple if she did but if she did not then he had more than one back up plan he could use.

((Sorry it's short, I couldn't think of anything to add besides fluff.))

"Spark notes?" Index said curiously while holding up to fingers that crackled with electric energy. The two currents met in the air, and formed the shape of long sentences of Latin words that hung briefly in the air before dissipating. "I'm sure I'm unfamiliar with the term." She said, only then noticing that the man had already begun walking off. She quickly walked towards him, her smaller legs having to move fast to catch up with the larger man.

"But I'm just afraid I don't sense even a smidgen of magical inclination in you." She said while walking slightly behind the man. "As for your friend well... Well, I don't sense him at all." She said, looking quite puzzled when the large man pointed at an empty space next to his shoulder. "It's okay though, my brother is a bird too." She said, retrieving her small owl keychain from her pocket and holding it up above her so it dangled directly in the man's face. "He says you're crazy. Are you?" She asked nonchalantly before replacing the keychain in her pocket.


Index was forced to consider the possibility that the man WAS crazy, which only sent her off on her hobby of making up fabricated origin stories for herself, now projected on someone else. "Hey, maybe you were super smart before a tragic accident when the army tried to turn you into a super soldier, and now your nonexistant friend is your old intellectual side. Have you tried seeing a telepath?"

“Nah, I was born this way from what I can remember,” Mister Reaper said nonchalantly. “My dad was some kind kung-fu master so he trained me from when I was little and once I mastered that he pushed me into something else. After a while, I had mastered more than just martial arts and had learned to do things like ballet, boxing, wrestling, and ballroom dancing,” His normal offensive tone began to falter. The criminal’s voice began to soften as he continued on, still not really caring if the girl listened or not, “It didn’t take long for me to get tired of things so I killed him so I could be free. After that, I worked for some people to kill other people until I got tired of that and killed most of them as well. Now, I thought I’d give this whole ‘Supervillain’ thing a shot, you know, see how everything turns out.”

Mister Reaper had never given so much of his history away so freely and he was not sure how that would affect his new temporary companion. It felt strange to tell someone about it though. The most had ever said, regarding his past at least, was that he had killed his father because that normally gave him an edge in a fight while people were still caught off guard by for some reason. He did not know why he suddenly felt the need to speak or vent or whatever normal people would call this. If there was one thing Mister Reaper did know it was that he was not normal. He never would be either.

“You’re tellin’ her too much, man. If you keep this up we’re going to have to kill her no matter what happens,” Edgar screeched in his ear. “Why are you telling the chick all this? You’ve never done this before. Do you have a crush or something? Seriously, get over it. We got work to do finding a new place to stay. You know that,” The crow finished his rant but again was ignored. “You still ignoring me? You know what? Fine. I don’t care. See if you can dig yourself out of this hole on your own,” He squawked as he took flight and went somewhere else for the time being.

The man stopped abruptly and turned around to look at the woman he was walking with. “If you don’t want to run away yet, you want to eat?” gesturing towards the door of a fast food place. “It’s not much or anything and maybe I could teach you something about being human. You know so you won’t be so obviously different or whatever,” He said.

Index raised a brow. "You know, you're not exactly "Mr. Blend in" yourself. and I'll have you know I'm a perfect imitation of a human." She said defensively again, but this time her body language was rigid. "...in addition to that, I am also a 'superhero'. So you see, it's my job to bring in the 'supervillains.'" Index said glumly. Honestly, he hadn't seemed like that bad of a guy, but he was pretty crazy and he had attempted to kidnap her. Besides, he was after her knowledge. He just wanted to use her, just like before, before she had a name. He had said himself he was a villain, and villains trembled in the sight of Libra, the mighty Index!

She spread her feet apart in a ready stance. "I'm sorry mister, but please come quietly." She raised her left hand out towards the man as blue fire flickered around it, and electricity crackled back and forth between the fingers on her right hand that still hung at her side. "I'm going to take you to the police. Maybe when you get out, you'll reconsider this whole supervillain thing. If you want to use your powers, you should use them to help people." She said, and with a serious look on her face she added. "Please don't try to resist, or I'll show you first hand what an Index is capable of."