The Rubble of New York

Overload laughed at the thug's reaction, screaming in fright and surprise as they were thrown into one pile. 'So you're a living magnet...' Overload thought to himself as he charged a blast to conduct throughout the pile. 'That's why you can levitate. You push off of the buildings and rubble...'
Overload released his charge, and electroshocked the pile, roasting them enough that they wouldn't die, but that they'd become unconscious. That should appease Prime.

"Those guys are taken care of!" Overload said, as a thug with a bat ran up behind him, "But how are you in the style of hand-to-hand combat, magnet boy?"

Overload ducked the thug, and slammed his fist into the stomach of the thug, and scissor kicked him straight into the ground. Taking the baseball bat, Overload felt at home. A dark alley, a baseball bat in hand, and a few thugs to take down.
Looking back at Prime, he sees a thug behind him. 'Time to see how he takes care of himself.'

Prime watches carefully at how Overload performs in actual hand-to-hand combat, skillful, yet not martial arts skillful. He was gifted in other ways of fighting, street fighting. Overload looked to be handling himself quite well in his street fighting combos, while on the other hand Prime was gifted in martial arts. A sort of Ying and Yang combination was forming between the both of them.

As he was watching Overload take out the thugs, we was attacked by another thug with a baseball bat. The thug hit him in the shoulder, catching himself off balance, stumbling over to the side of the building, but quickly regaining stature. Prime smirks, sweeps out the thugs legs out from under him, he collapse to the ground, Prime then steps on the thugs throat just enough to make him gasp for air while knocking him out, quickly moving onto another 2 thugs, he jumps into the air, using the above average agility he has attained throughout his many years, he then kicks on thug in the face, then magnetically grabs the metal necklace hanging around another's neck to hoist him up, and flip him further into the air, landing a hard heel to the skull of a thug. He then flips himself backwards, landing both feet on the chest of the thugs chest, sending him flying backwards into the side of a garbage can.

He regains his stance and looks up at Overload to see how he's handling himself, He seems to be doing pretty good, but he's being overwhelmed at the same time. All of a sudden a thug runs up behind overload with a raised bat about to strike him, Prime reacts quickly, using his power he picks up a small knife and shoots it off towards the thug. It sticks in his leg, and catches him off guard. He stumbles back, dropping the back holding his leg to try and stop the bleeding. \

Prime then runs over to Overload, trying to help off the 5 thugs trying to over power Overload.

Prime yells out, "Back to back!" He fights off one thug waiting for the formation of the tactic.

Overload had been more than a little preoccupied with some thugs, so he was unable to take note on Prime's fighting skill. One thug threw a knife at Overload, and he dodged it, lodging it promptly into the arm of another thug, dropping him as he screamed in pain. Overload threw a punch into the face of another, but that opened him up to another thug, who landed a kick to his ribs. Falling to one knee, Overload charged his fist with electricity, and pushed the thug away with a quick blast, sending him flying into the wall, and leaving enough of an opening so that Prime could run up to him and help.

Overload heard Prime shout "Back to back", which Overload nodded a yes to. Getting back to back, about five thugs rushed both Prime and Overload. Overload grabbed Prime by the arm and swung him into a few thugs in front of him, and Prime did the same, swinging Overload into a thug. Overload jumping back behind Prime, charged a blast, and sent it right into a thug who fell into the one behind him. Prime kneeled, and Overload flipped overtop of him and landed a swift scissor kick into the head of one of the thugs while Prime sent another thug flying into the wall.

Overload charged his entire body with electricity, and shouted to Prime.
"Swing me!"

Prime interlocks his fingers with Overloads fingers to get a good grip with him. Prime then uses all of his strength to throw Overload into the air. Overload lands on a pipe, Prime then wraps the pipe around Overload's feet so he has a place to shoot from. Prime then grabs all of the metal surrounding him, puts it on almost every thug besides 5 of them, so Overload can electrocute the thugs in order for them to get knocked out.

Overload released a large wave of electricity out of his body, roasting the nearby thugs, and the ones further away had metal planted on them from Prime, so the electricity easily conducted right into them. Most of them would be out for days, only a few seemed to have some sort of consciousness left. Prying the metal apart, Overload swiftly landed on his feet, blows his hair out of his face, and walks up to Prime.

Overload quickly gives Prime the once-over again. A classic case of the prim-and-proper superhero. Strong, clean-cut, bold. Not that Overload wasn't bold, but he wouldn't be caught dead wearing some silly spandex. He preferred to get his message across with violence and noise. Shaking his head, Overload turned around and began walking away from Prime. Kneeling by one of the thugs, he picks a bandana off of him. Some sort of Red stitching with a very generic skull-and-crossbones based art.

"A gang." Overload said under his breath. "Should have figured that one." Looking back to Prime, he half-smiled. Time to see what hero-boy was worth.
"You have a phone?" Overload asks, pulling a card out of his jacket. "Here's my card. And don't bother trying to trace the number for my real name. It's registered to a friend who passed away." Looking to the streets, Overload smiled. "These guys are some gang. And I can't have them looting around here. That's my job." Turning to Prime, Overload speaks. "I'm going to go find and finish off the rest of that gang. You can come if you want."

And with that, Overload ran off to the streets.

Prime looks to the ground as Overload leaves... nothing here except moron gang bangers... Nothing of value, although there would be no reason for Prime to loot... he doesn't like the stench of unwashed bodies. So nothing could be of use to him here. He just gathered all of the metal objects, that he had destroyed or warped, around him and then formed them into a large flat ball, he then shaped it into a Spartan helmet and then smashed it into the wall of the building, his mark, so the rest of the gang knew who and what did this...

Prime quickly caught up to Overload tracking down a group of three looters, all wearing the same patch that Overload had found at the battle. Prime looked at Overload and gave a small shrug and a head nod over to the three guys shifting through the junk.

Prime then whispered to Overload, "watch this"

Prime concentrated hard on all of the metal the looters were carrying, once they were done finding anything of value that was metal, and anything in the big junk pile that was metal, Prime made the looters drop all of their metal, then he formed the metal into a human looking figure, he then made the metal figure do a ballerina pose, then karate chop one of the looters in the neck, he fell to ground holding his neck and looking at the metal man in shock. The other 2 looters were so scared that they couldn't move. Next Prime made the metal man kick one looter in the ground, then another he head-butted the last looter. they all recovered but were to scared to do anything, finally Prime made the metal man screech out a terrible noise and the looter ran away, but not before the metal man was taken apart and some of it put back onto the looters.

Prime just looked over at Overload and shrugged, "Hey... I tried to make it funny... just shock them already...."

Overload shook his head. He understood jokes in the heat of battle, but outright embarrassing the enemy and yourself was something else. Overload released a volt into the metal and took the thugs out. Looking at the one running away, Overload made a finger gun, and blasted him right in the back of the head.

"Headshot." Overload smiled. That was showboating. Not whatever it was that Prime was doing. Looking at Prime, Overload just didn't get him. "What's your story?" he asked. "Why bother doing it? Being the hero? You could do some much more for yourself."

Prime look around thoughtfully trying to make up a story out of thin air.. but all he could get from the pieces of junk lying around him was that he got hit on the head with a magnet and 'ta-da!" he got his powers... but Overload was smart... he'd never believe that.. in fact a five year old wouldn't believe that. Instead he told him the truth."

"Listen pal... don't say I didn't warn you. Here's the short version. My father was an assassin. My mother died in a house fire when I was young. My father then killed by his own Company that he used to work for. The brought me in, taught me how to kill using my power, they taught me how to control my power, and then told me to murder people. Then after 8 years of loyal service to this company they find someone better, and then send him after me to try and kill me. I cut his leg off and escaped... better my ass. Now I've turned over a new leaf... and I'm trying to help people... instead of killing them... whats your story?"

Overload scoffed at the man. What a sob story.

"My story? I kill people. I hurt people. I better my life. If it so happens that I do some justice, good for me." Overload walks up to Prime. "I won't lie; I've gotten myself pretty far doing this gig. I grew up with a great life. Both parents, nice jobs, friends. But that changed when I was sixteen. Got into some drug issues. Got out of some drug issues." Overload stepped back, and began juggling some electricity in his hands. "Then, after some horrible accident, I was put into the care of my good-for-nothing Uncle Jones. He liked to drink, smoke, and that was about it. I wasn't about to lose the house I grew up in to some twisted fate that the Gods had thrown on me, so I robbed a bank. And I've not quit since." Overload sits cross-legged on the ground. "Now, don't get me wrong, hero-boy. I've done my fair share of good. All of Ontario looks to me as their savior. I've solved drug problems in Montana. I've stopped gang leaders. I'm a good person. So why should I let the limits of this shitty law system we have stop me from getting ahead." Overload lies down. "What I'm doing," he says "is practicing Capitalism. This is what our forefathers would have wanted."

Overload suddenly jumps up. Smiling, he looks directly at Prime.

"I know you've felt it, Prime. The instinct. To kill. And there's nothing wrong with that. Their bad guys, Prime. Grade-A bad dudes. And if you just want to hurt them, lock them up for a couple of years, be my guest. But me?" Overload says, turning his back and walking away. "I'm doing the world a favor. I'm getting rid of these assholes. These drug dealers. These murders, these thieves. Because I'm not like them, and I'm sure as hell not like you, Prime. Because I'm the good guy..."

"And you're just a guy."

With that, Overload walked away.

Prime just stared at Overload as he walked away... one minute they were fighting foes like best buds.. the next Prime is getting a life lesson from a thief. Yet this thief seemed to have it all figured out. He knew what he was talking about when he told Prime to 'shove off'. He actually knew what he wanted from the world, and all Prime was doing was just staying back and letting the world do the 'right' thing. Overload was actually helping people... or was he? Time to take a chance.

Prime calls out to Overload, "Chris! My real name is Chris Winger... if I don't see you again... My name is Chris Winger."

Overload shook his head and laughed. Chris Winger. What an American name. He turned around and looked at Prime. "I'll just call you hero-boy, sound good? We'll just say that it's an affectionate nickname, or some sort of crap like that, huh? Good." Overload holds his hand out to shake Prime's, but pulls it back in. "You can just call me Overload... Or Hip. Nothing else, okay?"

Overload turns around again, and calls back. "You could be alright, you know that, Prime? Just a little work here and there. You could be a really good hero. But then again, why would you want that?"

Overload begins levitating, when he's suddenly shot by a member of that same gang that was chasing after them earlier. "Shit!" he calls out, and falls and hits the floor. "My arm!" The thug runs up to Overload, and begins to kick into his face.

Chris blinks once. He blinks a second time, he then blinks a third time, and all hell breaks loose.

Prime magnetically pulls the pistol out of the gang members hand and grabs the gun. He fires off four rounds into the thugs chest. He then drops the gun to the ground.
All of a sudden two more thugs run out of the alley way, all with assault rifles. They start spraying all over the place, but Prime puts up his hand, and turns his hand into a negative magnet, making all of the bullets stop in mid air. He then blinks a fourth time, he turns his hand around, thus making the bullets turn around to face the thugs. Prime then thrusts his hand forward, making all of the bullets hit the thugs with the assault rifles, they drop to the ground, dead.

Prime casually walks over to Overload who is lying on the ground. He bend over and crouches near Overload. "So..." Prime says in an arrogant manner, "You got shot huh? see... 'Hip? was it? bad things happen to bad people... I was a bad person for a very long time... I gave no remorse to my father what so ever, and I paid for it, I killed people, which no man should ever have to go through. But lucky for you, I'm not a bad person all of the time."

Chris smirks a little and then uses his magnetic power to get the bullet out of Overload arm.

"You'll probably want some Neosporin on that wound pretty soon..."

"Shut up."

Overload quickly releases an electric bolt into his arm, and cauterizes his wound. Mere human medicine wouldn't really help him anyhow. He was his own walking hospital. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a couple of bandages, and quickly bandages his wounds up.

Standing up, Overload smirked at Prime. " 'Bad things happen to bad people', huh? Bad things? Prime, I hadn't killed anybody in their gang. That gang was hell-bent on killing people. Be it me, you, or little old misses Jenkins on Baker Street." He gets in Prime's face. "That gang was going to kill anyone who left that alley, who walked on their streets, and if it were you, you'd have been the one taking those bullets, not me. And you'd better get it straight in your damn mind that I would have done the same thing; Killed them." Stepping back, Overload gathers his thoughts. "Prime, you don't seem to understand. Bad things don't happen to just bad people. Bad things happen to everybody. Because there are bad people out there, willing to hurt good people. And yeah, I'm willing to hurt good people. Corrupt officials. Cops. Hell, I'd hurt little old misses Jenkins if she ended up wronging me. Because there are bad people. And I plan on stopping them."

Overload holds his hand out. "And you can help me."

Prime looks down at Overload hand, and realizes... this guy... he's insane! Yet, with subtle genius, he knows what he's doing.

"Listen Overload... I'll stick around with you... for now. But don't plan on me helping you rob a bank or rob little old miss what's her face... Cause I don't care anymore. I thought I was being the good guy, locking the bad guys up in Prison, just for them to be released out into the world again by the same scum bag lawyer, or scum bag judge that takes money over what is right and wrong. But I will say that this is the turning point in my career. I'm not a murderer, but I am a protector. And if someone who can't fend for themselves is in trouble, I expect you to help me, help them. Do we have a deal?"

Prime holds his hand out half way, making sure he give an ample amount of space for Overload to make the decision on his own without making Prime seem to pushy.

"I don't care anymore Overload... just shake my damn hand and lets take this stupid gang down together... New York needs us now. What do you say? Friends?

"I'm definitely not your friend." Overload says, taking his hand. "But I think I can agree to not murder you anytime soon. Until then, we can stop this gang." Overload steps out of Prime's way.

"Would you like to lead?"

5 XP gained

2,634 words