The screen flickered violently, lighting the small room and somewhere a man became entangled in its glare. The screen depicted a street, Atlas Park, Constellation Row, and like it could have been a glitch in the reception, something darted across its gaze. Somewhere a man smiled...
"Clear! Small object lodge in chamber one... Tweezers!" came disembodied calls to the waiting room. Nothing could have been more odd, or disturbing than a Half man, Half machine and a demon sitting in a hospital waiting room, or in the man's case, pacing around the waiting room. While Usurpo didn't seem generally concerned or even aware of were he was. Hank's eyes bore a look that had not possessed them for quite some time. Hank had chosen not to sit down because he knew all too well how much cheap aluminum could support his five hundred pound body, so he paced and waited for any news on Weibe. "Hank?" cried the com on Hank's arm, breaking the eerie silence and sending a jump into a number of people within the waiting room. "What you got Baulder?" Hank responded, glad to have someone other than the demon Morticus to talk too. "I just got Splycies to run stats on Weibe's registration, officially he isnt a hero, he just showed up one day and started fighting crime and with all the heroes in Paragon, well none bothered checking up on him. Weibe Falke hasn't got a grid chip." Hank nodded, though his attention lay only on his friends well being, not on the trivialities of what had landed him up in this hospital.
The night moved slowly, mostly due to neither Usurpo nor Hank needing sleep of any kind. When finally a doctor came to talk to them, Hank had contented himself with sitting on the floor as not to concern any waiting citizens. "Um, Mr... Broken Sentinel... We have stabilized your friend, he will be OK though he will require Weeks of rehabilitation. We found this on his person." the doctor said, handing Hank a small, crumpled note.
The note was address to Hank, or rather The Valiant Broken Sentinel and contained a challenge to which Weibe would appear to have been answering. Though anonymous, Hank knew that the writer was well informed about his activities, the line "... taken an interest in you..." appearing more than once. Hank crumpled the note and drew up his COM. "Baulder! Get Splycies to get as much information about the "Cetz Oil Co."-"Cetz Oil? Hey mate, that place is in the Hollows aint it? Well Splycies an' I will get right on that. Baulder Out." Hank turned to the sitting demon, who had not moved the entire evening, and commanded his hellish companion to attention. "Come Usurpo, we have work to do, we have to check some things..."
Hank and Usurpo returned to the battleground were Weibe had been injured, finding it to be much in a similar state to which they had left it in. The Outcasts that had been lucky enough to escape Usurpo's rampage had long since left, leaving everything else behind. Hank scanned the area to make sure it was safe for him and the demon to investigate. Commanding Usurpo to begin searching, and then beginning to himself, they set upon the task of locating whatever Hank sought to find.
Success came much later, when upon turning a fallen Cooler's body, Usurpo located a small box. "Tin man, TIN MAN, ME FIND BOX..." the demon stated, dull wittingly. Usurpo presented his find to the monolithic Cy-Borg.
Upon opening the box, Hank found what he had been dreading. Contained within the small box were two things, a small piece of scrap metal and a chunk of polished granite. Though trivial in appearance, Hank recognize these objects for the sinister calling card they were, a small piece of clockwork and a piece of gravestone. Several weeks before, Hank had been contacted with information regarding the accident he had suffered at the hands of the Clockwork, a legion of small robotic toys commanded by The Clockwork King. Though the investigation Hank led into the activities of this brilliant little psionic had show him that the raid that inevitably led to The Broken Sentinel's birth, Hank had learned that someone else had been manipulating the King of the Clockwork.
Hank's thoughts were broken by the sharp "SNAP" that was closely followed by a rush of electricity coursing through Hank's metallic form, and that of Usurpo Morticus. Usurpo whirled around to be met by several men, each of which holding a unique weapon. Usurpo blindly threw a fist at the nearest, only to be met by another blinding blast of energy from one of the curious weapons. Though the blast did little but enrage the demonic hero, Usurpo had not noticed the subtlety of their maneuver. As Usurpo brought his sword down on the nearest foe, he was met by a blast of pain and another and another... Hank's vision cleared of static just in time for him to watch Usurpo drop to the ground, yelping in pain. Forgetting about shielding of any kind, Hank drew back and punched the nearest target. Hank's fist impacted hard against the chest of the nearest man, his blow sending out a concussion of air to all sides.
"INTROSCAN GRID ON, Thirty percent power to Shields." Hank ordered into his internal defenses, "Log Nanites." A display of numerous warnings and meters flickered into Hank's veiw, likely too much information for an average human to comprehend. "Display stats on targets." He ordered as one of his larger foes moved in on him.
"Database unable to find info on targets, test sensors." Called an inhuman, mechanical devise deep within Hank's head, much to his dismay. "Time to wing it I guess." Hank sighed. A second time he threw as much power into the burly figure, a crack sounded as Hank's fist connected the man's barely protected skin. The man smiled and effortlessly shoved the five hundred pound tanker back into an adjacent wall, a mess of servos and gears singing from his arms as he did so. Hanks sensors rang with surprise and shock, but he shot back at the man who had downed him, a quick hay-maker repaying the favor. "Remaining power to offensive systems, auxiliary to defensive, deploy herculine!" Hank roared in a somewhat unusual war cry. The downed man laughed and unclipped a small orb and tossed it at the defiant Sentinel. A screech sounded from the device, and lightning jumped from the orb to Hanks chest-cage. Hank's sensor activated in chorus and shutdown almost as suddenly. Hank was blind. Hank felt his body crumble and slam, only able to guess what destruction the assailants were unleashing. He lashed out aimlessly, feeling his blows connect more than once, but for all he knew he could just have easily been aimed in the wrong direction demolishing a building. His vision glimmered, and reactivated.
"Shields at 30. Main Power at 68. Auxiliary power failing. In need of repairs." The voice bellowed from within. "All power to offenses." Hank ordered, ignoring the waves of warnings and queries in his vision.
Two of Hanks opponents lay prone on the ground, not injured but surprised. Hank grabbed the nearest, the burly man, and launched him at the female villain in a white cloak lying a few feet away, a satisfying crack echoed. Another man, dressed in dark Gothic clothing, stood just across the alley, unclipped a small chain-gun and unleashed a hail of energy in Hanks direction.
Hank's screams fell distant. Usurpo barely felt the twinge of pressure on the back of his head over the agonizing torture. His mind was flooded by a forgotten presence and his eyes open like the gates to hell, suddenly he realized how much he enjoyed the pain. A murder of joyous roars erupted from the demon. This surprised the villain next to Usurpo, a man appearing to be made of a silver alloy. Usurpo found his hands coated in a dark energy. He lept to his feet and lunged at the silver man's throat, attempting to tear the flesh. The man in silver fell back in surprise and terror. Usurpo's mind sang a cacophony of hellish images and three main goals, kill, maim, and torture. Usurpo clutched the silver man's head and squeased with all his might, the dark energy coating his it like a death shroud. "OPEN YOU MIND TO THE TERRORS OF THE LOWEST HELLS!" Usurpo roared in a voice not his own. The mans mind was suddenly flooded with a vision of terror too horrible to describe in any good willed tongue.
Usurpo, contented with the torment he had unleashed, focused his unbridled rage on the one that had placed him in the state of pain that had risen his demonic heritage. With one hand, the other gripping his now glowing sword, Usurpo roared and slammed the man repeatedly, sending rush after rush of blood down his arms. The demon smiled maliciously and threw the man into his previous and somewhat tormented victim. The remaining villains, lifted from the state of shock and surprise the demon had put them in, acted to stop the soon to be rampaging minion of hell. The first, a woman in black, appearing to be the twin of the woman in white, disappeared from vision entirely in less than a secound. The burly man, regaining his footing, lunged at the demon. The Gothic man loaded a new clip into his sophisticated weapon.
Usurpo was suddenly bombarded by a bright energy, coating his body in a heavenly, searing light. Usurpo roared in anger and pain, swinging his sword at the burly man, hurling a rift of dark energy at the goth. His blade cut deep into the mans metal armour, causing little more than malfunction and delay in his mechanical suit. The goth was more adversely affected, dropping down to his knees, screaming and releasing the demon Morticus from his heavenly confines, the dark energy clawing at his skin. With his last ounces of strength, Hank hurled all his available force into the nearest opponent, an invisible woman in black. Suddenly returned to the world of the seeing, the woman crumbled to the ground, screaming in agony at her now broken ribs. Hank, driven by sheer spite for his ambushers, drove the energy of his five hundred pound form into the man Usurpo was engaging, knocking him clear off his feet and into the dirt.
Usurpo, now relieved of one burden, moved on to take sweet vengeance on the man who had chosen to unleashe the positive force of God on him. He smiled sadistically and lifted the man into the air, crushing his throat and then hurling him into and through a nearby stack of crates. Pain, again, began to course through the demon's body, only this was the pain of his mental inhibition chip, located at the base of his spine. Usurpo's rage subsided into a delirious confusion as the chip limited his mental activity, leaving the demon open for attack. The woman in white hurled shards of ice at the prone demon, then commanding a block of glacier to take stand around his feet, immobilizing and injuring the bewildered hell child.
"Display remaining power, and estimated duration to depletion." Hank ordered his mechanical form.
"Auxil:lar:RRRR:y D:DDDD:EEEEEE:Plete:DD, 32 Ma:MAI:MAIN: power r:re:ree:MAining. :2:2:2 minutes:unti:un:until :SHU:SHU:SHUU:SHUU:TTTTDown."
"All power to basic function." Hank called.
Hank leaped at the woman in white, easily taking her of her feet and injuring her severely. The woman in white yelled in anguish, and tried to force Hank off, being crushed under his weight. Usurpo, suddenly released from his icy prison, charged the final enemy, the man in silver that was still clutching his head in terror. Usurpo raised the man above his head and let loose a roar that left his jaw at an impossible angle and all glass within ten feet shattered.
"PLEASE! DON'T KILL ME!" The man begged.
With his remaining energy, Hank forced himself off of the now unconscious woman and slowly stood up. He looked over to Usurpo who, up until this point he had been ignoring, and reached out to the man Usurpo held. "Usurpo... How much blood is in the average human body?" he mused menacingly. Usurpo, obviously not catching Hank's drift, was drawn away from maiming the man any further, "Stupid Mr. Silver heavy, lots of blood." he responded bluntly. Hank smiled upon noticing the terrified mutant's face. "So Usurpo... how long would it take u to drain him"-"Usurpo go fast or slow?"-"I don't know, be inventive"-"Me make blood drain slow"-"Good, we have time..."
The man, unable to take any more, burst out "OH DEAR GOD PLEASE DON'T, I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!". Obviously receiving the desired reaction, Hank smiled and signaled Usurpo to drop the shivering man. "Who sent you?" Hank said imposingly. "I don't know, well... I do'nt know" He said shakily. "Usurpo... That sounded like he was lying." Hank mused, "Usurpo drain?"-"OH GOD! OK I'LL TELL YOU!". "THERE WE GO! OK... WHO?" Hank yelled impatiently. "He calls himself Calypso," (This statement causing Hank's eyes to widen)"He payed us in advance and told us what we need to beat u and the demon..." Hank's glared. "Calypso..."
Thanks again to anyone who reads these, so If you have reviews, or comments, feel free to drop em down.
