Gold Digger Insertion files Chapter 5: Gonna have some fun tonight.
Disclaimer: Gold Digger belongs to Fred Perry, the various other characters I use belong to whoever owns them.
"Portside engines are history troops! Our friends are getting better at their shots." Ace cried at the controls of our damaged chopper. Getting blasted from all sides by three gunships, I could safely say Ace had a pretty astute understanding of our situation. The resounding alarms blaring in my ear were becoming extremely annoying as I was loading my weapon.
"No shit pal." I cried from the open side. Currently in the form of the chronosuite beta wearing hero of Time Shift we had somewhat better odds against these foes compared to cannon. Having enough of the assault rifle's lack of doing any serious damage to our aggressors, I selected the crossbow and waited for our pilot to position the bird so I would have a clear shot. "Hold her steady for a second."
"Oh I'm sure you can handle it babycakes!" Gina said as she hit on Ace. With all the warning sirens and such blazing all over the place how the heck she could even think of sex was beyond me. Hell Brianna had the ability to focus better and she was the one everyone claimed was the impossible nympho.
"Gina stop buggin' Ace and help me find the emergency gear." Britanny cried out while standing next to me. "Alex that crossbow better do more than just shoot pointy objects or we are kitty litter."
It was at that moment that a terrible twang sound reverberated throughout the chopper and you didn't need to be wearing a time altering battle armor to feel time start to slow down all around you.
"Tail rotor's damaged! We make right turns only now!" Ace yelled as the transport shook like crazy and threw me off my feet. Took me only a second to get back up, but at this rate I was wondering what the hell was the point.
"Damn." I muttered under my breath. "Hey Ace try to bring this bird abreast of those guys! If I have a clean shot I can drop them like flies." I'm not sure what exactly was being said by Gina, but it had something to do with Ace's hands and taking on some country's Air Force.
"Give me a second bro!" Ace cried back to me with a smug grin on his face. This guy must have had ice water for blood and that was just what we needed in our pilot.
"That's all I'll need." I smirk under the suit's gleaming gold faceplate. As the doors opened I raised my weapon and slowed time. The familiar distortion in color and sound that accompanies temporal alteration kicked in as I scoped in the rotors. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger which launched the glowing red explosive projectile that imbedded into the shaft leading to the blades of one of the airships.
The next target I selected was the windshield of another helicopter right in front of the pilot's face. I had timed everything right, but since I only am allowed a few moments accelerated I was unable to focus on the last of the pains in our aft and cut my losses.
As time returned to normal for me I could hear Cheetah and Gina from the cockpit. That was followed shortly by two massive explosions and explicatives from our not so friendly airborne followers. I have no idea what they said but it couldn't have been polite. Not like I cared though as they were lucky I didn't have the rocket launcher.
"Quit hittin' on Ace you boycrazy bucket of hormones!" Cheetah's irate voice sounded as she grabbed her sister from Ace's side. "Do you want him to screw up and crash or something?"
"At this point crashing may not be unavoidable." I mumbled under my breath and grabbed hold of one of the door straps. Damn shaking nearly tore my arm out as I did so. I was not in a good mood but I would recover soon.
"Hey troops! We're over the objective now but I'm losing booko oil pressure! I can't stay here long enough for you three to rappel down!" Ace was yelling at the top of his lungs to make sure we heard him. "I've got to high tail it back to the airport NOW!"
I was focusing on my next transformation as Britanny grabbed her sister.
"Thanks Ace. We'll take it from here! Hold your stuff Gina! We're leaving!" I could hear Gina giving some pathetic attempt at an argument as she was unceremoniously picked up and held under Britanny's arm.
"POCAHONTAS!" Britanny yelled said at as she leapt into the air with her sister under her arm. I knew that jumping from this height would be suicide for me in my present form, as well as many others, so I changed once more.
Why am I in South America you may ask? Why didn't I just use one of the multitude of flying individuals to take Gina and Britanny to South America myself? Well that has to do with that promise I made to her folks so dear reader let us go back to a bit shall we.
*Flashback*
It was a pleasant day in Atlanta Georgia, which is saying something for me as I don't care much for the state. The sun was out and the Digger's mansion was relatively quiet, but that was because we were preparing for yet another set of "tests" to be conducted on me. Having seen the images of me fighting Dreadwing, the elves, and some more showoff actions earlier, Julia wanted to fight me. Yes that's right Julia Diggers wanted to test me, or thankfully the guys I can become.
"Now Alex," Mrs. Diggers said as she twisted her rapier in her hand with a smile. "You have demonstrated some very impressive individuals that you can become, but I am of the opinion that you can only know someone by facing them."
"Okay…." I was not looking forward to what was about to transpire, whatever it was going to be. "So what you want to fight me or something? Because I have to be honest there is no way on this earth that I will last any time at all against you. You are the Arms Master of Jade and I'm just a guy and…"
Before I was able finish that sentence the eyes and smile of my redheaded host grew bigger than dinner plates.
"I become the Arms Master of Jade!" Me and my big mouth. "How does that happen? Who do I get to face?" Julia Diggers continued to ponder question after question as I began pounding my head with my fists.
"Stupid stupid stupid…. Okay I said too much I'm not going to say what is going to happen again…if I can help it. Causes too many problems and I'm not going to start making paradoxes like Marty McFly."
"Are you sure that your friend isn't just insane Britanny?" Genn asked aloud at my antics.
"Oh trust me pal you ain't seen nothing yet." I comment to Genn after I stop beating my head. "You want crazy I can do absolutely freaking psychotic." With a list of whack jobs like Deadpool, Carnage, Green Goblin, and the most insane of all…burr…the Joker as playable characters I had a wide range of real crazies I could share.
"Another time please Alex." Julia Diggers commented back to me. "Now I wish to test myself against some of the brawlers you can become. Now defend yourself as I'm not going to hold my punches."
As Julia Diggers launched herself at me, I just wanted to duck and cover. My powers obliged and her sword clanged against an unmovable object.
CLANG
Before Mrs. Diggers could figure out who I was using she found her wrist grabbed, her arm pined behind her back, and a firm grip holding her in place.
"I apologize ma'am. I have a policy against fighting women, but I understand that you have your mind set on trying your skills against mine." Yep consummate gentleman all the way.
"Not sure who you decided on Alex, but I must say that I shall have to demonstrate there is a reason I'm a Weapons Master." In one fluid motion Mrs. Diggers twisted the sword in her hand, and attempted to jab it into my side. Thank you combat honed reflexes as when Julia thrust her blade at me I was able to deflect it up with my shield, pressed my free hand to the ground, and kicked her in the side with my booted heel.
I knew I had an opening, but I decided to put some space between me and Julia so I rolled and backflipped getting some moving room.
It was only then that Julia got a good look at my present form and saw a 6' solid mass of red, white, and blue mail covered patriotic muscle.
"Who on Earth are you supposed to be?" Julia Diggers asked having no idea just how to react to someone garbed as I was.
"You can call me Captain America ma'am." I said as I directed my shoulder towards her and kept my shield's face focused on her.
"Really? That's your name? Well you look the part but those old man ear hair things on the side of your cowl aren't doing you any favors there Captain." Julia joked as she pointed her saber at me.
"Perhaps. But I'm more than just a superhero, I'm a living breathing symbol of America and her ideals." Don't blame me I am forced to do these lines people. I become the character so I have no choice sometimes. "So while the outfit isn't stealthy, it does have a purpose."
"Well I will say this to you Captain, at least whoever does your outfits has more taste than my previous teacher's uniforms." Julia admitted a she and I started to circle each other. "Tell me though, does that shield of yours really have the ability to stand against dwarvian steel?"
Julia's attack was quick and powerful as she seemed to make a rookie mistake attack towards my unexposed right. I dodged rather than punch, just as Julia Diggers wanted me to do. She shifted her weight, spun on her heals, and was able to land a solid punch right into my chest faster than I could imagine. Hurt like the dickens but I didn't dare show it.
"So you can take a punch." Julia smiled. "Now come and get me."
Most would have tried to charge her headlong, and would have gotten their butt handed to them. I however did a running tackle to her side with my shield between us. My speed caught her offguard, and she was preparing to defend herself, but instead of launching at her, I tossed my shield at the tree line, ducked down , and came up with a devastating uppercut. I felt when her teeth slammed together.
As Julia was set soring into the air, or soreing as the case may be, she just caught sight of the famous disc shield returning from the tree-line and smashing into her. The dull thud of vibranium hitting flesh sickened me as I rushed over to where Julia lay after suffering what I thought was a seriously injuring blow.
"Ma'am are you…." Before I could even finish she was back on her feet and looking for more. This time however she had both my shield and her sword. "Okay I'll take it that you are okay then."
"Very much so, but you seem to be without a weapon Captain." She joked at me.
"I may be without my shield, but my real weapons I never lose." I smile back at her as she attempted to skewer me with her rapier and bash me with my own device. If I was any less a fighter it would have been the end of me, but Operation: Rebirth and the Erskin Super-Soldier Serum when combined with years and years of training did not make Captain America anything less than the pinnacle of human ability.
Every blow that was attempted at me I dodged or countered. Every thrust, slash, jab, or kick attempted at me missed their mark as I was constantly maneuvering and out-thinking Julia Diggers. It was no easy task as I knew that if things went wrong I was going to be in a world of hurt, but then again this was something that Cap lived for. It took several minutes of displaying just how far better physically I was than any normal human, but I was able to grab my shield's rim, pivot on it, and use my momentum to throw Mrs. Diggers to the ground in the leg-hold. In the struggle she lost her grip on her sword.
"I take it that I have shown my abilities to your satisfaction ma'am?" I joke to her as I pinned her arms behind her back and her head in my legs.
"As a matter of fact yes you have. I relent, for now." The red-headed mother of three said as she relaxed and I let her up, handing her back her blade as I did so. "Still I must say for someone who has the oddest sense of dress, you have proven yourself to be an exceedingly competent warrior. Tell me, if you don't mind, what is the metal of this shield? I have never felt anything as light but at the same time as strong hit me before."
"It's uncertain actually. It has been said that it was made from a mixture of adamentium and vibranium, but that has been changed many times in the story." I say as I accept my weapon back. "And thank you for a chance to push myself, I hope I didn't hurt you too hard."
"Oh please, I have been hit harder by my own mother, but you do have a very powerful punch for a supposed normal person."
"Actually I'm far from normal ma'am…"
"Julia please."
"Julia." I corrected myself. "Thanks to the super-soldier serum developed by Dr. Hans Ersken I was changed from a 90 lb weakling to the pinnacle of human ability, sadly a NAZI spy assassinated the good doctor before he was able to mass-produce the formula leaving me the one success of Operation: Rebirth. I dedicated my life to making sure that those who would challenge the rights of others are foiled."
"Is this guy for real?" Brianna asked blinking. "Seriously what kind of guy speaks like that anymore?"
It was later reported to me that a certain Kyrn prince started having a sneezing fit at that time.
"Well miss Brianna in my time we weren't concerned so much as what we would get for ourselves, but stopping the greatest evil the world had ever known." I smile at her, course I was also thinking how women didn't wear clothes that tight either, but best not to insult my hosts.
"Time?" Brianna turned to Britanny and Gina looking for an answer.
"He's originally from the 40's sis, don't question it just tolerate it." Gina said almost gagging.
"And don't try corrupting him." Britanny added. "Last thing we need is him to change from that baseball and apple pie kind of guy to any other type."
"Fine, spoil sport. First the priest and now Mr. Gentleman, you two will owe me bigtime after this. Serious bigtime." The lycanthropoid huffed as she playfully stuck her tongue out at her older sisters.
"I apologize for my youngest's actions, but you must admit that it is a breath of fresh air to have someone so well-mannered around here." Julia smiled. "Now on to the next opponent."
"Next opponent?" I asked.
"Indeed young man. I'm only getting warmed up." The smile on her face made me cringe. She then did the craziest thing I could imagine; she launched herself into the air and tried to come down at me with her sword.
Well crazy likes more crazy so….
Splut..
"Oh my God!"
"Mom what were you thinking?"
"Ms Gina your mother is insane." Mesha said, finally opening her mouth to speak since we started this mess again.
Sadly I was a bit…slow and slipped on the ground where I was promptly skewered like a martini olive.
"Why did you jab a sword into my chest?" I asked while pointing to the offending object sticking out of my body. "Seriously what crazy rationale were you using that you could jab a sword into my freaking pecs?" I was able to push myself up off the ground and started to walk around with the metal still embedded in me.
"I'm…sorry…?" Julia Diggers asked as she stared in complete bewilderment of me strutting around with the hilt of a rapier embedded on the opposite side of my upper body from my heart.
"Sorry? Sorry? Is that all you can say? Look I may be being used as a poorly designed plot device in the lowest form of writing known to man since furry Sailor Moon slash fics, but seriously here why did you do that?" If you can tell where this is going, I pity you.
"What am I seeing here exactly?" Brianna asked as she blinked several times.
"I have no idea." Gina returned her sister's expression. "Dad, Genn, what do you make of this guy?"
"I'm sorry to say Gina, but I can't seem to reach his mind with my telepathy." Genn commented. "All I'm getting is a general sense of…well craziness."
"Pardon me Mister Alex but who exactly are you now?" Tark asked as he held his wife's hand trying to ease her shaking at the site.
"Oh I'm glad you asked there Legolos." I pumped my chest out…then realized I still had a pretty big sword stuck in there so I pulled it out and tossed it to the ground. "I'm the number one guy, the best of the best." I started to jump and spin in a manner I had hoped was like Fred Astaire. "The number one-gun and best lover any woman will ever have. The merc with a mouth, the one and only….DEADPOOL!"
Yep if you had not yet guessed by now I was dressed as a red-suited ninja dude with no remaining sanity, or perhaps better said a hyper –sanity which gives him an ability to rationalize everything he does as he knows he is a comic book character and therefore none of those around him have any actual lasting significance.
"Hey you."
What? Hold a second here who said that?
"I did lame brain. Down here in this text story of yours."
Oh not now….look can we please not do this Wade?
"Like heck I won't. Look I know that you are sitting there at your computer. What possible reason do you think that I'm going to play along with this self-insert nonsense? What possible idiotic reason do you think you can…."
Britanny and Brianna have boobs.
"Come again?"
Look you idiot you're at the freaking Diggers' mansion. What possible other reason do you need to play along with this? You've got several women there who have bodies, 100% natural bodies mind you, that make plastic surgery look like crap and there are two if not more that have an interest in you. Think about it.
"Oh right…Sorry everyone forget I said anything."
Right thank you. Pardon that momentary mind-f**k, we are back on track.
So yes in case you are wondering the Diggers crew was flabbergasted at the vision of a red-ninja garbed guy with two swords strapped on his back, an assortment of firearms, and more explosives than Brianna's purse.
"Well that was weird." Gina said as she focused on her instruments again.
"Hey Alex you okay?" Britanny said walking up to me and looking at the tear in my shirt.
"Of course my super sexy lycanthropic love machine." I smile under my mask. "Now that I have you next to me all is perfect."
"Well that's goo…."
"Well you and that awesome body. Say how about after I get through making sure that your mother knows who's the top ass-kicker around here you and I go off and test regenerative abilities? What do you say?"
"Excuse me?"
"Okay so you aren't one for intense games." I continued. "You up to sharing some personal techniques then? Because I have a few that you are going to…"
I didn't get to finish my statement as Dr. Diggers blasted the ground at my feet with a mystic bolt.
"You missed." I said looking at him. "I don't." down the barrel of an assault pistol.
"ALEX!" Britanny screamed into my ears nearly perforating a drum.
"What?" I was busy sticking my pinky finger where my ear should be and didn't notice the irate werecat's look at me.
"Threatening my father's life once is more than enough. Now if you dare try that again you can count me out as a friend for the rest of your life." While she looked like she was going to bash me upside the head, I could tell it was hurting her to say that.
"Okay okay, sheesh it's not like it would have really hurt him. Probably would have been a through-and-through shot and he's an aura mage." I still removed the magazine and pulled the receiver bolt back emptying the round in the chamber. "There satisfied?"
Taking the gun from my hand, Britanny crushed it without any difficulty. "Now I am."
"Britanny please it was my fault." Julia said patting her daughter's shoulder. "And I owe you an apology Alex. I had no intention of actually harming you."
"Eh it's okay, besides it's not like you could actually do me any harm anyway." I said sighing over the twisted junk that was a quality tool of Deadpool's infamous trade.
"Well not to burst your bubble but…"
"No I'm serious. Look Julia I'm in the form of a guy you can't possibly do any long-term damage to. I mean I've been shot, stabbed, impaled, exploded, eaten, decapitated, eviscerated, frozen, crushed, smashed, and everything else. Heck I've even met Death a few times and I'm still around." I finished my tirade then went back to staring at Britanny's chest.
"Don't count yourself lucky just because you have come back from there Deadpool. That luck of yours will run out sooner or later."
"Oh I doubt that. See when I said I met Death I mean that literally. In the comics we actually used to date. Course the DC version is a lot cuter but if I was to wind-up with her I'd have to stay in a three-some with that blonde bastard Constantine and I can tell you that guy is a prick." Dear readers if you are following this I applaud you, if you are lost you are in the same boat as the Diggers crew.
"Hey Theo, is this nut being honest?" Julia cried to her husband while sheaving her sword.
"I can't attest to the accuracy of his story, as I can't seem to get into that head of his, but I can't detect any lies from his words." Dr. Diggers was busy scratching his head as he tried to relieve the tension of attempting telepathy with me. Not a pretty sight.
"Well now that we got that out of the way, do you still want to fight or am I excused to demonstrate to your daughter why this guy's old flame Domino called me a living energizer bunny?" I was sticking my thumb at Britanny, who went bright red at my comment.
The other responses were Julia getting that "wtf" face people do at something crazy, Dr. Digger's blowing his top in his demon head form, the two elves blushing greatly, Genn scooting away from Dr. Digger's aura, Gina's glasses dropping off her face, and Brianna licking her lips.
"Young man." Theo growled at me.
"What? Oh come on like that's going to do anything pal." I called him on his bluff while Julia regained her composure and lead Cheetah back to the porch. "Look you want to really dance we can dance."
"Very well young man I…" Before Dr. Diggers could continue his wife tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. "Very well my dear. Young man since we really have taken enough time doing this the long way, how about we retire to my daughter Gina's lab for a far quicker study." As the others took off only Julia and I remained.
"Oh fine, but if she tries to dissect me I'm going to have some choice words with her. She may not hear it over the sound of the grenades going off but I will have something appropriately bad-ass, probably something from Die Hard, or maybe that A-Team movie, or how about Clint Eastwood, yea he's always good for something badass to quote." Yes I did ramble on for a bit, but Mrs. Diggers stopped me from going too far.
"Alex. I want to talk with you privately. Not your alternate personas but you."
"Okay Julia. What can I do for you?" I asked as I changed back to my normal self and had to look up at the redheaded hostess.
"It's not for me. Look…I have a request of you, actually I want you to promise me something." She was dead serious in the most literal sense of the word.
"What is it?" I replied in equal sincerity.
"For the longest time I have been confident that my daughters will be okay, that they would be able to handle anything that they come across in their adventures and be just fine. But now you tell me that Gotherwaine will want Britanny dead, killed my mother-in-law before I knew her, and is responsible for my father-in-law becoming the Lich King. If that is completely true then I am concerned for all of our safety."
"And you don't want to take chances?"
"You know about wererats, and how fanatically driven they are as killers and breed to have no shred of humanity in them. If Gotherwaine knows about you then that will only compound his paranoia and he likely will attempt to take my girls' lives if not my entire family to the grave." The middle-aged martial arts badass squeezed her arms as she waited for my response.
"Ma'am, you won't have to worry about Iceron while I am here. He won't get Britanny, Gina, Brianna, you, your husband, or any other family you have left while I'm around." I finished this promise while changing into a rather tall cowboy esc individual with a broad hat, stylized bandito like mouth guard (which I pulled down), and a big overcoat. "I swear to God that I will do all I can to keep Britanny safe."
"Even if she decides she doesn't feel any romance for you?" Julia joked slightly smiling at me. "I ask because I saw how you reacted with her."
"Britanny is a friend, and I won't do anything to threaten the trust she has placed in me." I answer back. "And since she is a friend she will always be able to rely on me to have her best interests in mind."
"Well that is a fair answer, but tell me how do you expect to be able to take on the entire wererat clan?" Julia smirked at me as she towered over me. I just chuckled at this.
"Ma'am I have taken on threats from simple bank-robbers to international terrorists to cosmic level entities out to devour worlds. Facing a several thousand year old sorcerer who has become the slave of his own minion is more or less par for the course with me."
Julia was far from impressed with my response, so she continued.
"Yes but those are in videogames where you can replay if you lose a life, and regardless of this being a comic book in your world it is very real to us and filled with very real threats." Julia's voice was stern, but not truly abrasive at this point. "Now I am very impressed that you took down a full grown dragon, and I must admit that I was much like you in my days of a treasure hunter, but this is my family's lives you are talking about."
"Okay, so what kind of assurance are you looking here?"
"I want you to promise me that you will go on every expedition that Britanny gets dragged into from now on, much like she gets pulled into adventures with Gina." The very tall redheaded lady smiled at me as if she had something hidden in that request.
"Okay not sure what you are thinking of in that devious mind of yours, but since I don't have any plans but trying to figure out how I got here I may as well earn my keep somehow." I knew that Mrs. Diggers had another reason for getting me to agree to this, but for now I would just let it play out.
"That's the spirit young man. Now they are all waiting for you down in my daughter's lab so let's not keep them waiting." Julia firmly pushed me back into the house at that point to a place I really didn't want to go. "By the way, who exactly is it that you changed into right now?"
"Van Helsing ma'am, but you can call me Gabriel."
*End Flashback*
Now that you know the backstory, Gina found that damn jewel, dragged Britanny and myself to South America and wanted me as a back-up way out of here if needed. As for why I am falling? I needed to clear the chopper before I could safely change.
"Alex anytime now!" Gina cried.
Quick shift from myself to a dark clad individual with a long cape that I grabbed the edges of and drifted down to the ground while Britanny grabbed her sister and bounded to the jungle floor.
"You okay Alex?" Britanny smiled as she still had Gina under her arm. I stood up and draped my cape over my shoulders and gave Britanny a once-over. Not saying anything, I said everything. "Damn that stare is sexy."
"Speak for yourself Brit, that guy gives me the shivers." Gina said as she was let go and took the gem out from her pocket.
"Where are we going Ms. Diggers?" I asked in a tone that caused Gina to go into a series of full body shivers, Britanny was only slightly intimidated before going back to imagining the main objective she was after here.
"You're right of course. Okay now to business!" Britanny said as she got her sister out of the extreme state of shock I was keeping her in. "Let's find that 'lost temple of gold' and get back home with some Loot!"
"Yes well…" Gina focused back on the task at hand as best she could, but was having some difficulties with the current character I had chosen.
"As you know Britanny archaeology isn't about looting ancient ruins, Cheetah! It's about history! It's about discovering a piece of the man's past to fit into the BIG PICTURE!" While Gina had attempted to put on a brave face and show little of the uncomfortable nature she was feeling. The sensor arrays in my headset and the training the individual I used to glide down easily let me know she was quivering in her hiking boots.
No I guess Gina wouldn't like him, course you wouldn't call Batman likeable but he's not supposed to be. I needed the gliding wings of his cape to descend safely to the forest floor. If I had used any character with flight abilities the shock wave would have irreparably damaged Ace's aircraft as I accelerated to flight speed. But since we were finally on the forest floor and Batman's garment is hardly suited for the rainforest, I switched back to my usual self.
"Oh whatever." Britanny commented to her sister, not really acknowledging my shift but still seemingly aware I was no longer in superhero mode.
"You know, this is very unlike you Cheetah. Usually I have to drag you out on these adventures. Now you're all get up and go!" Gina did have a point as the time we had taken to prepare for this jaunt was one where Gina did all the work and Britanny spent her time, and money, at the mall. It wasn't a complete waste of time though, as it did allow me to get some personal time with her.
"Well to tell the truth….I'm sixty thousand dollars over my credit card limit and this is the fastest way I know to make some big-time dinero….(without breakin' the law that is!)"
"So you're flat broke again? Figures." Gina smirked. I was shocked to hear that Britanny was lacking funds as well after that incident with Dreadwing, but knowing how many of her clothes get ruined in this line of work or how they have to be custom made for her, yea it makes sense.
"So how are we gonna find this lost temple of gold?" Britanny asked her sister as I tried to remember what happened next, but for the life of me I couldn't quite remember if there was a trap, or some sort of badguy. I remembered there was an important plot point, but darn what in the heck was it…
"With this little trinket right here! The Gem of Returning!" Gina proudly displayed the bobble she had hidden away in her pack, some sort of cut ruby I would guess but I didn't get a chance to take a good look at it.
"Say what?" Britanny looked around in a huff, moving her ears from side to side as she seemed to be picking up some sort of sound.
"Oh its riddle was quite complicated, but it was no match for my IQ of 210." Gina's smile was about as big as her ego/IQ at that point. I was more focused on what could be around us, so I shifted into someone who was a fit for the foliage. 5'2" tall and twin katanas, Leonardo was back in action.
"Its corners measured upon its facets can produce the trigonomic distance and bearing to the temple no matter where you are in the entire universe…! Provided you know your own location in relation to…" I would have argued that Gina's claim was far too vast, but I would use Silver Surfer to check that claim of hers later.
"Okay OKAY! You're giving me an Excedrin headache this big!" Britanny punctuated that statement holding her hands shoulder width apart, which was a pretty fair distance with being as tall as she is. "Is that the rock you traded from the museum?"
"You know it! And it only cost us Greenbeard's treasure map which we found in the Bermuda Triangle. Those Smithsonian rubes are sooo dense!" Gina's giddiness was matched only by Britanny's annoyance and my disbelief. What pirate actually made treasure maps? Outside of Robert Lewis Stevenson it's a myth. Oh well comic book logic for you.
"I think you're the one who got gypped this time. Hey Alex you're being sort of quite lately, something bothering you sweety?" Britanny asked tapping my shell.
"I'm fine thank you Cheetah, it is just I know something is about to happen but I can't remember what it is."
"Well when you do, please let me know beforehand. I don't want to get caught in a dragon's trap again."
"Shh! We're near the entrance. We can find its exact location by looking at the special lens in the first facet. Hmn." Gina focused her new toy while I attempted to get a better feel of what dangers were possibly around us. "The temple's secret door is just twenty yards this way."
"Then let's get this over with." At that very moment both Britanny and I detected something was off, but "Hold up Gina…"
"Now what?"
"I thought I heard something." Britanny's ear swiveled behind her as Gina was starting yet another argument with her taller sibling, someone or something huge dropped down from the trees. This something was muscular, fuzzy, and yelled at us to.
"TURN BACK!"
Now for those that know Leonardo (the TMNT character not the painter) you know that he is one of the greatest ninja on earth so when something seemed to attack us…
SWIP
SWOOP
Things didn't quite go well for our assailant.
"Okay pal, I don't know who you are or what you are after, but you are going to keep your hands where I can see them and no funny business." At that moment my blades where at either side of the (I was guessing man's) neck and all it would take is for me to take his head off would be to slide the razor-sharp edges past eachother.
"Okay now who are you and why are you trying to stop us?" Britanny asked giving the guy a once over.
"I am Stripe." Ah hell that was the plot point that I was trying to remember. Yep Stripe Gia prince of the Kryn and Britanny's husband in the comics makes his appearance at this point. Damn of all things to happen it had to be that which I feared from the get go of the adventure. Well nothing to do but let it play out and see how Britanny reacts to him. "The Area you were advancing upon was once my home. That place is now home to a dark evil, and I must prevent you from suffering the fate that fell upon the rest of my people."
"Are…are you a were-cat like me?" Britanny was beginning to get a little hot under the collar and her blush was a bit obvious. I grit my teeth at this; seeing how the new pretty boy was affecting my first chance at a relationship. Damn why of all the times…but that can wait.
"I'm afraid not. I and the rest of my kind are called Kryn. And I mean neither you nor your friends harm and apologize for startling you all. I promise I will do you no harm so please could you take the swords away from my neck?"
I obliged and retracted the katanas from the man's fur.
"I thank you, and again I apologize for any offense I may have given." And this was the number one reason I was getting a feeling of resentment from the guy. Perfect gentleman like myself; nice, caring, carries the responsibility of such well. But where he naturally impresses Britanny and the like I had to use other characters to even get my foot in the door with her and no woman in my own world seemed to like me.
Damn I was not doing this again. Britanny is my friend and Stripe didn't do me any harm, not to mention nothing had happened yet and there were people who needed help. I switched back to being my normal mammalian self.
"Well you did startle us, but at the same time you don't mean us any harm. So let's start this over shall we?" I smile and offer my hand in friendship. "The name's Alex McLean, and these are my friend's the famous scientist Gina Diggers, and the lovely werecheetah Britanny Diggers."
"A pleasure, but may I ask weren't you a giant turtle a few seconds ago?" Stripe asked as accepted my friendship.
"I've seen him turn into turtles, robots, mutants, spirits of vengeance, and even a god or two." Britanny smiled proudly at me. "He's a one-person superhero team."
"Course he's also turned into a few women, but please don't ask to see that as it's not a good idea." Gina said in her uber-scientist voice.
"Fascinating." Stripe said in thought.
"Course he also claims he's from a universe where we are comic book characters so it's very possible he's just insane." Gina joked at me.
"Well that's certainly a new one on me. Forgive me for asking but how is it that you two are sisters when you are human Gina but Britanny is not?"
"Well actually I'm her father's ward." Cheetah answered with a hurt expression on her face. I took the moment to place my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to say it would be okay. To be honest I have no idea why Stripe asked that question as it was sort of personal and in a very rude manner. For crying out loud pal you just met them. Well anyway Cheetah went into detail as to her history (with the details about Gotherwaine causing the near total genocide of her tribe) and Gina told her story of her love of science.
"That is very interesting Ms. Gina, tell me since your father is skilled in magic, do you happen to have any talent in it?" Stripe asked with a great deal of hope in his voice. "It could help us all a great deal."
"Sadly no I do not, but thankfully our friend here can turn into a few magic users that can really help out if you need it." Gina said sticking her thumb at me. "Cheetah and I go on these archeological outings once in a while though so we're far from helpless."
"Especially if we need to call in some backup." I smile while tapping the side of what looked like a blue-tooth headset. "Hey Brianna you getting all this?"
"Loud and clear good buddy." The sweet sound of Brianna's playful voice was a pleasant distraction from my jealousy. "You keep giving me toys like these and I'm likely going to try and 'convince' you that I'm the best choice."
"I'll keep that in mind. So how's the new equipment going?" I continued to chat as Stripe let the way towards the entrance.
"Fantastic thank you very much." Brianna's glowing pride was going into the "rivals the sun in intensity" level as tapping of some sort was heard in the background. "With your ability to use technology from a variety of super-genius guys I'm going to be a very happy girl for a long time to come. Even going to try to turn some of this 'bat-tech' into my personal 'Brianna-tech' if I can."
"Just don't try to build an army of organic-hating robotic killers and we'll all get along fine."
"Sounds fair to me." I heard a few other noises in the background, noises which didn't quite sound like electronics or even Genn crying to be untied from the bed. Sounded more like a lot of hissing and spitting. "I take it that your assistant isn't very happy today?"
"Hey she's your freaking cat pal." Brianna joked back to me. "She's a sweetheart and I don't mind watching her while you play bodyguard for my siblings, but when you are gone she is not being a happy camper."
"Probably didn't like the fact she got caught is subspace limbo for several days when I got ported over here. Just give her a rub behind the ears for me and I'll find some way to make it up to both of you."
"Don't worry Alex I'll find a way for you to pay me back, just don't complain about it when I go into details. By the way, could you please give Gina the com unit? Every time you shift character the thing disappears so I lost you during that firefight."
"Will do." I removed the doo-hicky from my ear and tapped Gina on the shoulder. "Here your sister wants to talk."
"Oh thanks." She took the device and hit the on-switch for the camera. "Let me know if you have trouble receiving this Bri, I want to make sure I document everything."
"You have another sister?" Stripe asked Britanny, who was having difficulty tearing herself away from staring at the cat-man's backside.
"Yea buns…I mean hun." Cheetah caught herself. "Brianna's back home working on some personal equipment right now so we'll introduce you to her later. So can you unlock the secret door?"
"I'm not sure…When my people were cursed I fled through the portal and never returned." The prince led the way for a bit as I fell to the rear and shifted form again. Bigger and even less human than my last form, I thought that a Yautja would be a pretty good selection in our current location. For those rattling their heads that's the species name for the creature called "Predator".
I flipped through a number of vision moods and added Stripe to the database of allies in the helmet. It wasn't too long before our trek ended and we were standing before a doorway hidden by the brush.
"Here it is. I'll see if I can open it." Stripe started working on opening the door while I overheard Britanny whispering to Gina.
"Gina, get a load of the muscles in his lower back, girl! Umph!"
"Yeah, but it's a bit too furry for me, tho!"
I could actually smell the pheromones rising from Britanny and wondered if I ever made her feel that way. Thankfully I just focused on covering our backside and was able to put such thoughts away.
"Speak friend and enter." I joked using a recording of Ian McKellen's voice from Lord of the Rings. Sadly the movie had yet to be released by the time I was doing this so the three people looked at me like I was insane.
"Well yes, its opening. Our luck seems to be holding up…Let's hope it stays that way." Stripe mentioned as we journeyed into the darkness of the cavern. While it didn't affect Britanny or myself due to our ability to see in numerous wavelengths of light, Gina had to use a flashlight. When she finally got the miniature camera in the speaker unit focused on Stripe, let's just say that the device was bouncing like crazy on Gina's ear. I just smirked and shook my head.
As we continued Gina switched focus to her nature as a scientist.
"Was this cavern used very often by your people Stripe?" The dust on the floor and the absence of any markings would likely reveal the answer to that question, but since Gina didn't have infrared or electromagnetic vision I couldn't exactly blame her for not knowing.
"Not really Gina, my people lived a secluded life far from the interference of outsiders." Stripe answered, and for a moment reminded me of ruler of another kingdom with abundant amounts of a rare metal in a jungle. Course the Black Panther is in Africa, but it was a close comparison.
"Then how come you know how to speak English so well? You hardly have an accent." Gina was asking our new associate a lot of questions, while Britanny just kept trying not to be obsessed with the new guy.
"Gina if you don't stop interrogating Stripe, I'll personally slash your tongue out!" Note to self, do not upset a were-cat with little reserve for violence. "Stripe is kind, considerate and caring. There's no need to confuse him with you nit-picking little questions."
"My my. Aren't we over-protective today? Afterall don't you have someone special from our last little trip? Someone who defeated a dragon to avenge your apparent death?" Gina's teasing was hurting more than her sister as she was making it very difficult for me as well.
"Alex, I think it best if we perhaps scout ahead to make sure the way is safe." I nodded at Stripe's suggestion. "We'll call back for you when everything is safe."
"Be careful you two." Due to the inability to converse I just nodded my head and followed the now smaller man along the way.
"I take it that you are the other man that Cheetah spoke of, and understand if you do not wish to answer." Stripes started. "But if you do not mind my asking, how is it that you came in contact with Cheetah? I do not mean to be rude, only I have never met a woman like her before. And they say you took on a dragon?"
While I was unable to verbally answer the question I flipped open the com-unit on my left forearm and activated the hologram device. In a moment the bright red images of Dreadwing and a short overview of the fight were shown. After a moment I deactivated the hologram and looked at my new friend to see his impressed face.
"I see. I hope that you and I don't have to be on opposite side anytime soon then." I gave him a thumbs up and returned to flipping through vision moods to see that all appeared to be clear, but that likely would change.
"I cannot detect any of my former kinsmen, so it should be okay for the girls to join us." Stripe's comment I knew was going to be a set up for a classic monster movie attack, so while he headed back towards the tunnel, I started going through my bandoleer for something to help even the score.
I thumbed through a few items, but soon found a few traps. With a quick flick of the wrist I sent these motion tracking bombs flying to the side of walls, the floor several paces from us, and even a few places over our heads. When I took a look around it seemed as if it would give some protection if we were attacked. If not, well I had the option of turning them off.
"Gina, Cheetah…this is my home. It's as beautiful as it is dangerous. We must be cautions." Stripe said as he brought Gina and Britanny in to take a look. Gina's response was one of absolute wonder, Britanny…not so much.
"ZOINKS!"
"Funky." I wasn't sure if she was talking about the view, or the fact that she got a whiff of her new love-interest and his lack of having a bath in a few days, but Britanny's comment certainly was an interesting one.
"This isn't the lost temple of gold, it isn't even the lost skyscraper of gold…THIS IS THE LOST CITY OF GOLD! YEEHAH!" I don't blame Gina for her enthusiasm, but I was getting images of that intro to "Road to Eldorado" going through my head thanks to her. I just shook my head and tried not thinking of elephants so the song didn't get caught repeating and repeating in my mind.
"Get a grip Gold Digger!" Britanny replied, thankfully quick enough to be a diversion from any future mental images of a Disney knock-off with the guy who played Data. "Is this whole city made of gold Stripe?"
"As far as I know. This gold was the only building material here when my ancestors built this city." If I wasn't so enchanted by the beauty of the place I would be wondering just how in the heck gold could work as a building material. It may not react chemically, but how on earth was it able to support a structure so vast? I'd ask later.
"This city…Once home to my proud people." Britanny put a comforting hand on his shoulder as everyone could probably feel the sorrow in the prince's heart. Sadly I also figured that this is about the time when…
BOOM!
"What was that?" Gina asked as we were assaulted by a legion of what looked like golems with catfaces.
"NO! They've found us." Stripe's assessment was not only accurate, but also unsurprising as we had been making far too much noise for attacking an enemy stronghold. I decided to switch to cloaked mode and selected my combstick.
"Wha?" Britanny said as one particularly aggressive one attempted to jump her. Thankfully they only seemed to see in normal color and it found itself thrown several feet, hitting another foe, and causing both to set off another explosive turning them both to powder.
"Jinkies! These guys are made of stone."
"These are what remains of my people." Stripe informed us. "Mindless slaves turned into animated magical statues."
"But how can we defend ourselves without hurting your friends Stripe?" Gina asked, only to see a blur as time and time again a stone kryn would be impaled in the chest or head, struck hard in the shoulder, or decapitated. "And sorry for the one's Alex seems to have killed."
"Do not worry Gina, they are cursed. No matter how you destroy one, it will regenerate itself!" It was good news, but I seemed to be the only one actually doing anything about our current dire situation.
"The let's bust them up. A few supersonic left hooks should handle this one." Britanny's calm demeanor was complimented with swift action as she effortlessly turned one opponent into gravel.
"Set phasers to 'flame broil' crew!" Gina's retaliation was the use of a plasma cannon of sorts, but it only caused her to get knocked on her ass as her shot was completely wild.
"Ooops. That was my tachyon beam. I meant to use my photon charge. How many did I hit?" It was Britanny who answered that one as I dropped cloak and tossed my weapon to Stripe.
"You totally missed all of them, but the friggin' shockwave from the blast wasted half of them though." Cheetah's banter with her sister could have waited till later, but it wouldn't be the same if they weren't busy gabbing. I was focused on stabbing another foe in the head with my wristblades. I didn't have time to claim a trophy, so just moved on.
"Thank you for the weapon my friend." Stripe said jumping over two charging foes. "But beware their claws. If they touch your blood you'll turn into one of them." It seemed as if Stripe knew what he was doing as the addition of a weapon in his hands was allowing him to keep his advisories at bay.
I nodded in understanding and grabbed the weapon attached to my right side. My clawed hand slid across into the finger holds and in one seamless dance of body and computer, my vision mood switched to electromagnetic, my HUD targeting activated, I selected the targets, and I let fly my disk-blade.
The sonically vibrating plasma forged black disk sliced effortlessly through the torsos, necks, and even abdomens of several of my opponents before returning to my hand. The moment my tool was back in my grasp the damaged foes fell to the ground dissipating into dust. I smiled (or closest a Predator can smile as it has mandibles not lips) then swung around on one foot as I was assaulted from behind. The years of combat and killing my character had lived through was an advantage though as I grabbed the hilt of my maul in my left hand and sliced up and through cleaving my target in half before it knew what hit it.
Sadly our seeming victory was not going to be gained without something going terribly wrong. And boy did it go wrong. Britanny was easily holding her own, but wasn't bothering to keep aware of her surroundings as she was grabbed by the collar and tossed right into Stripe's back causing both to crash into the ground.
"He's charging! Look out!" Britanny cried as she was laying ontop of the prince. Of all the things that continued to be forcing them together I was not having a pleasant day today. Of course I was worried about their safety, but deep down part of me was pissed off that the first potential significant other I have ever had was going to wind up with the guy she marries in the comics.
"Don't let him get you Cheetah." With two of our party incapacitated and Gina messing around with her rifle for some reason, I just decided to take this last pain in the ass down old-school.
As the stone kryn was focused on the two cat-like individuals I leapt at it, knocked his right arm off with my maul, and grabbed him by the throat with one hand. I took a good look at the face of my struggling opponent and was disgusted by how the dark magic's inflicted on him had warped what was supposedly human face into one of horrid vileness. As I decided what to do with him, three little red dots appeared on his forehead.
"You are one ugly mother f**ker." I played the Arnold line over my speaker as a bright blue explosion from my plasma caster obliterated the head. I dropped the remainder of the body to the ground as the neck was still smoking from the impact. I helped both Cheetah and Stripe get back on their feet as Gina pipped in.
"Wow talk about losing your head. Course you were probably thinking of another head there Cheetah. I saw you copping a feel on Stripe. Shame. Shame." Gina's constant teasing of her sister was really beginning to be a pain and my patients with the little brainy blonde were running low. I clenched my hands around my combestick as I retrieved it from the ground.
"I was not!" Britanny retorted towards her sister's needling. "I was bracing for a counterattack. Anyway thanks for the save Alex I owe you bigtime." I cupped Britanny's shoulder and gave her a re-assuring pat on the back.
"Indeed Alex thank you, but we should be moving as soon as possible. It won't be long before the reform themselves." Stripe's observations were astoundingly accurate as even now the cobbled mass on the floor seemed to be twitching with life. Having seen Terminator 2 I had no desire to remain here for a second fight.
It was several minutes later that we found ourselves in what seemed like a secure area of the city, but I laid down some laser traps to make sure that if anyone followed us through the hallways they would be sliced to ribbons. Taking the time to get some intell on the foes we just faced, Gina took out a fairly famous looking piece of computer tech and started running some tests. It seemed to be taking a while, and I was getting a little nervous as any time we spent in the open like this was time we could be attacked.
"I'm almost finished analyzing the data I collected from those stonecats with this computer-book guys. I just wish I could have taken more readings before we broke away from the scene." While I don't fault Gina for wanting to know more, in fact agree with her it was a good idea, I thought that getting out alive was more important. "Brianna did you get anything special on your end?"
The blue-tooth like device made it difficult for anyone but Gina to hear what Brianna said, but from the oldest of the Diggers sister's response it was a big negative.
"I've never seen that computer-book before. Where did you get it Gina? Doesn't look like anything Alex shared with us." Britanny's observations were surprisingly astute as the tag "property of Penny" with a capital G on the side meant that a certain pony-tailed girl with a cyborg uncle was missing her gear.
"I borrowed it from that quiet little girl with the weirdo uncle from around the way…"
"Is it working?" Stripe asked, and I would have too as it seemed to be processing about as slowly as a torrent download.
"It's processing speed leaves much to be desired, and even I could find the sixth root of a ten digit number faster than this 'dinosaur' can, but it's sensor array is extraordinary and precise. I have all of the molecular data on our petrified pals back there!" Gina noted while holding the book up. "I agree Bri, when we get home we'll take it apart and see if Stark, Wayne, or that Lexcorp tech Alex has access to can make this thing into a roadrunner."
"Enough already! Let's cut to the chase. What happened to Stripe's people miss genius?" Britanny may have been asking Gina, but she should have asked Stripe first. While Gina may have figured out how the changed chemically and such, wouldn't Stripe have at least given us something to start with?
"Ya know with all the data I've collected and all of those high-tech calculations and formulas I've derived, I really don' have the foggiest idea." I just slapped the top of my headpiece and pointed to Stripe.
"You know Alex since those stone things aren't attacking you could just change back into your usual adorable self." Britanny pointed out as she smirked at me. My reply was to activate the hologram projector again and show that I still had some traps waiting for those that meant I harm.
"Oh right got yea." Gina said instantly getting it. "You shift form, our safety net goes too."
"Well that stinks." Britanny countered. "I've gotten so used to your inside knowledge that not having your insight sucks."
"Yes well I feel I could shed some light on the subject, without having to lose our level of protection." Stripe said sheepishly. "The cause of my people's everlasting damnation lies with the cowardice and incompetence of their prince and protector…"
As Stripe began his story Britanny was hanging on his every word, much like she was with me in Dreadwing's cave.
"This Kryn was the sworn protector and executive of his subjects. Among his many tasks was the protection of my people most precious yet dangerous artifacts. These artifacts could cause terrible harm when wielded by the wrong hands." Stripe's attempt to do a third person insult to himself was about as lame as it was in the comics. Good grief at first I thought that Britanny feel for him because he was a genuinely good person and a responsible ruler. This telling of the story in which he is avoiding saying he was in charge made him sound…well like an epic fail.
"A short time ago, an enemy intruder made his way into the royal keep and the chamber of the crown of the ancients. The crown's magic protected my people from the powers of our enemies. Although the intruder was soon challenged, the prince of the Kryn detected the intruder much too late." Why Stripe didn't say it was he who is the prince I never think I ever will figure out.
"He couldn't prevent the intruder from capturing the crown and using its power to render him helpless. With the prince taken care of, the intruder had his way with my people." Boy did that just sound wrong.
"The intruder somehow reversed the protective powers of the crown and turned everyone into the mindless abominations we fought earlier. The prince…I…escaped to live with the memory of my failure." For the love of mike. Britanny was listening to his story with sympathy, and I too felt sorry for him, but this attitude of his was getting us nowhere.
"It's not your fault Stripe." Britanny smiled at her new friend. "Sometimes there's very little we can do. Right Alex?" Britanny turned to me, and was looking for some level of agreement or something behind the soulless reflective lenses of my faceplate.
If it had been me there without Britanny and Gina I would have just Gibbs slapped Stripe for the sake of policy. However, since I didn't want to seem as a complete jerk to my friends I had to use a more subtle approach, or perhaps more tactful. I took my combestick from its holder, extended it, and slammed it hard into his grasp.
"Huh? What did you do that for?" Gina asked as Stripe took the weapon from my hands.
"Yea Alex there's no reason to be rude." Britanny commented. "We are afterall guests and Stripe is a prince."
"It's alright, after failing to protect my people I may not deserve to…" TWHAP. I had enough of the self-pitying pretty boy and just slapped him in the face. Not hard enough to do more than stop his train of thought, but I was tempted to just belt him. As the other three were wondering just what in the hell I was doing, I growled a bit at the Kryn royal and again pressed the length of the weapon against his chest. It took him a moment to figure out what I meant by what I was doing, but when he did he smiled.
"Come on you apes, you want to live forever?" the sound from Starship Trooper's call to arms was seemingly appropriate as I got the tiger-striped guy in a loin cloth out of his depressed mood. All the more so as I used the recorded of Rayjack and not the main character of the film as Rico wasn't nearly as badass.
"Very good my friend." Stripe said taking his borrowed implement of combat firmly in his grasp. "I see that you don't waste time with words."
"Well now that we are all on the same page, what's next?" Britanny asked as she scratched the side of her head. If this was the comics this was when she and Stripe escaped to have their first make-out session, but thankfully that didn't occur as Gina piped in with her battle plan.
"Well let's try to find the source of this power that's turned Stripe's kin into mobile lawn jockeys. Maybe we can stop it if we find what's responsible." As Gina was continuing to run the computer, I figured that maybe some Predator tech would be use full and tried to see if I could get my projector to form a hologram to match Gina's 2D scan. "A-hah! I've got a positive fix on some very weird electron patterns."
Sure enough, those same abnormal patterns were detectible by my alternate vision modes, but strangely I wasn't able to get anything from them beyond the fact they appeared odd.
"It looks like it's coming from the center of town. I'll just gather my stuff and we can head out there. Alex can you get that projector of yours to show a map for us to follow?" Gina's request was a fair one, but I wasn't able to get my image inducer to make what her device was indicating should be.
"Looks like it's on the fritz." Britanny said as the red lines of the hologram flickered erratically. "Maybe you should get that thing debugged when we get home."
"Well it's better than nothing, besides Stripe can fill in the details as we progress." Gina commented as she looked the images over. "But according to what Alex and I are seeing the bad guy is likely held up in this central tower area in the center of the city."
"That would be the main throne room, and sadly it will not be easy to assault as it is also the most heavily defended part of the whole city." Stripe pointed out as I tried to see if there was some sort of short range scanner I could use to make a zoomed in version to formulate a plan of attack. Since the whole freaking town was coated in gold, that was proving to be an impossibility for now.
"Well that makes sense." Britanny pointed out. "So any covert ways into the inner passages or perhaps a secret door?"
"There is one way that perhaps may work, but it's a narrow access tunnel which would require us to have to get in fairly close to the structure before entering. My people may have been worried of attacks from our ancient foes the Atlantians, but escape routes into the jungle was not part of any plans we had." Stripe's expertise meant we did have a way in, but the way to it was pretty darn open to assault. Not something I was looking forward to.
"Well enough waiting around, we've got a city to save and a series baddie who needs a butt-whooping." Britanny smiled as she cracked her knuckles at the prospect of more fighting. "So lead the way Stripe we've got work to do."
It didn't take long at all for our party to make it to the outside of the structure, mainly due to not actually encountering any resistance. This for me meant that this was way to freak'n easy and at any moment we were going to be accosted by a horde of stone kryn, so I didn't give in to the lax sense dread that Gina and Britanny seemed to have.
"Well so far so good." Gina said as she took out a portable apple drink and enjoyed some fresh fluids. "Looks like they weren't expecting us." Before any of us could do anything one lone stone foe had slipped past all detection and jumped down on Gina from an overhanging ledge.
"Gina!" Britanny cried as her sister and Stripe's former subject scuffled on the ground.
"Now little one I shall turn you into one of us." The solo advocacy had seriously underestimated the amount of retaliation she was about to get, or perhaps didn't care as once Gina was turned there would be little we could do to save her and the kryn would merely reform later.
Whatever plans the kryn may have had, where sidetracked as the little bobble from earlier fell out of Gina's pocket and in a mighty flash stone was returned to flesh and blood.
"Zoinks! She-She's reverted back to normal!" Gina said as an exhausted female kryn was carefully laid to the ground and checked to make sure she was okay.
"You okay there Gina?" Britanny asked her shocked sister, well we were all sort of shocked but Gina was likely the most so due to what just happened right before her eyes.
"Yea just a little surprised that's all." Thankfully no one was harmed and the Kryn's vital signs were more or less normal. "And it seems that we've found a way to save the rest of your people Stripe."
The petite blonde picked up her trophy and examined it. "The Gem of Returning, it has some kind of magic power."
"I think that after seeing what just happened that's sort of a 'well duh' Gina." Britanny commented as she took a close look at the stone. "Since we don't want to get attacked like that again I say we boogie on down to wherever the entrance to the backway is."
"I agree Cheetah, we are far too open here." Stripe commented as he pointed to a very narrow separation between two parts of the building. "Thankfully there is where we need to go."
As the Kryn prince pointed, I noticed something moving in the shadows activated my cloaking tech again.
"Where did he…?" Stripe asked as I had gone to nothing but a shimmer.
"Don't worry about Alex there pal, worry about what he noticed that we didn't." I hear Britanny say as I crept up to where I saw the movement, wristblades extended.
What I found hidden within the allyway was a small African American (based off facial bone structure) female of comparable age to Gina and Britanny. This had to be Gina's biggest rival the infamous Penny "Pincher" Pincer and she seemed to be armed with a single-shot crossbow.
Although such a weapon would likely only be an annoyance to me in my current form, I didn't wish to alert any additional advocacies and so jumped several feet into the air and onto the top of the causeway. Remarkably I did so without making a sound and made my way silently behind the young lady.
"Should we investigate where our friend went off to?" Stripe asked several feet away; predator hearing is such a wonderful thing.
"Nope, trust me Stripe. When Alex is doing his creepy alien head-hunter guy you don't want to follow him when he's using his 'cloak of invisibility'." Britanny warned with all seriousness. "He'll be back in a bit as he's almost as tough as me in that form."
I smiled a bit in pride that Britanny still believed in my abilities, and wasn't going ga-ga over Stripe when I wasn't there. But that passed as I climbed down the wall behind Penny and stalked up behind her. I retracted my wristblades and the very slight sound of the metal running past metal alerted my quarry to my presence. While this may at first seem like a novice hunter's mistake, it was a calculated move. As Penny turned to see what that noise was she lead with her right side and instantly I grabbed her weapon from her hands.
While still cocked and loaded, the crossbow was now far out of reach for Penny to grasp; seeming to float in midair.
"What kind of a…" Before the other archeologist could form a coherent sentence, I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her up off the ground several feet. As she struggled, though really pointlessly, I just carried her off to where the other three members of my party were located.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" Gina smiled smugly as she got a look at her long-time rival being held helpless in the air by the back of her shirt. "Doing some investigation of your own Penny?"
"Can it Gold Digger." Penny spat back, almost literally. "I don't know how you were able to discover me or what kind of magnetic lifting device or invisible robot you are using, but I know you are somehow responsible for this mess."
"Prince Stripe may I introduce my main rival in the field of archeology and exploration, Penny Pincher." Gina said as she fell into that arrogant state of hers where she believes nothing bad will happen because of her actions. That gal just doesn't seem to want to learn.
"It's Penny Pincer you Gold Digger, now why don't you let me down already?" The irate female in my grasp still hadn't figured out Gina had no control over what was about to happen to her, but such was a temporary situation.
"Take it easy Penny, look we could use your help here as Stripe's people are cursed into stone statues and we need to find a way of using a magic gem Gina has to free them all. So are you willing to help?" Britanny asked the woman staring her face to face.
"Okay fine I'll help, just put me down." Penny's reply was matched with her completely relaxing the tension in her shoulders and back.
"Okay Alex she's one of us so you can let her go." I dropped the field of invisibility and Penny finally got a good look at who and what she had been at the mercy of these last few minutes. Her response was the exact one I expected.
"Jesu…" And I dropped her on her bottom, but only so much as to stop her current statement. "What was that for?"
"Don't worry about it, so you really into helping here?" Britanny asked as I handed Penny back her weapon, sans bolt though.
"Fine. But this big lug and I are going to have some choice words after this. And that shape-shifting or no shape shifting I will get you back for dropping me on my butt." Penny's verbal threat was combined with sticking the crossbow under my helmet near the jawline. I just held up the arrow bolt as she took a look seeing her weapon was now more or less useless. "Okay maybe we can forget this whole thing then."
I nodded as I handed her back her projectile with the arrow-head pointing towards me. Penny took back her weapon with an uneasy expression on her face and her body looking like she had a serious case of the willies.
This was not the first time Penny and I didn't get along dear reader, in fact we ran into eachother shortly before the trip to South America started.
*Flashback*
The day after the first attempt to use Gina's Bacta tank thing to get an details scan of me and my alternate forms, which was forever called the "lab incident" and never talked about again but suffice to say that when you try to open up a newly discovered weapon's space portal and find one's cat while in a tub of nutrient rich fluid it's not going to be a pretty sight, I was finding that there was not a whole lot for me to actually do at the Diggers mansion.
After I spent hours drying Lily (and bandaging my chest), cleaning up the gallons of liquid on the floor of Gina's cave, and tried to introduce Lily to her new (hopefully temporary) home, I went through what was starting to be a normal schedule. It began some very early morning work-outs with Julia (having demonstrated the abilities of Batman and Terry Bogart), followed by assisting Dr. Diggers in some sort of mystic research as Dr. Strange, but there wasn't a lot for *me* to do after that and it was still morning.
Gina was busy repairing her lab and going over research, Brianna trying out a new plasma weapon system from the illustrious Tony Stark (or rather me as Iron Man but you understand), and it was about time that Britanny was going to go on her run, so I was stuck trying to figure out what to do. It was most likely insanity, or maybe I was a little "twitterpatted", which caused me to find the lovely lycan and ask her the dumbest thing a normal human…okay second dumbest thing a normal human can ask her.
"You and me on a run?" The lovely and very tall Cheetah lady asked me in a fit of giggles. "Look cutie, you may have the ability to use the power of the gods, and a few other awesome guys, but there is no way that this gorgeous cheetah is going to race with you."
"And may I ask why that is?" I hate running. I honestly freaking hate running. I will sprint for a bit, walk for several hours, but I absolutely have always hated long distance running as it always hurt my teeth and I was never good at it. So why do you ask that I would volunteer to run with someone like Britanny who lives for speed? Take a second look and ask yourself that question again.
"Well for starters I can tell you don't have a runners build, and secondly no human alive can keep up with me." Britanny said this while arching her back a bit and thrusting her thumb at herself is a display of pure machoness. If there is one thing one should never do with Britanny Diggers it is to belittle her fashion sense or her speed. The former I would never do, but I was seriously going to be doing the later just to see how she would react.
"Is that a challenge?" I asked as I looked her right in the eyes and smirked at her as cocky as I could be.
The way Britanny's ears perked up and the edges of her mouth formed a sinister smile combined with the shift in her voice made me seriously reconsider what I asked to do. "Oh sugar you better believe it is."
Before I knew what was going on I was yanked outside with so much force that my boots never touched the ground till I was set onto the asphalt. And yes I mean set as I was lifted up and physically set in place by Britanny and she did so in a rather painful manner as I was still wearing the same boots I had on to begin with.
In case anyone has never worn cowboy boots, specifically actual riding boots, they have a similar arch to them as a woman's high-heel which forms the notch that catches the stirrup while riding. So when I was set in place, I landed hard on my heels wearing boots with no absorption to shock. In other words I was gritting my teeth for a moment.
"What? Don't tell me I'm squeezing you too hard." My very muscular female companion teased me.
"No, but my ankles would appreciate not being slammed into the ground like tent stakes." I laughed back at her.
"If you only have those boots then I don't think that you should be trying to run with me in the first place cutie. I would love to go running with you but really there is no way that you can keep up with me so maybe we can find something else fun to do when I get back?" She tickled my whiskers playfully, toying with me very much like her cat nature to do so.
"Sounds fantastic." I was barely able to enunciate that as I was transfixed on the most wondrous reflective green eyes on earth and I'm an everyday sucker for green eyes.
"Good." Her smile was the nicest I had ever seen and as twittled her fingers in a wave and was about to head out for her run.
It took me a good 30 seconds to bring myself together, and since Britanny was out of sight in about 5 that's saying something. "Awe man…dumb dumb dumb. I am so freaking dumb." I shook my head and slapped my hand over my face.
"Well I was going to say that myself, but since you already did I'm not going to." Gina chuckled behind me. She looked like she was going out on another expedition with her Daisy Duke shorts, green T-shirt, and broad brim hat.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" I shot her as menacing a glare as I could at the brainiest of the sisters.
"Oh you have no idea." Gina smiled. "Britanny hasn't been like this in forever loverboy so I'm going to be needling you and her every moment possible."
"As if my sister wasn't bad enough when I was a kid." I thought to myself, but in this case Gina wasn't someone who would be able to get away with teasing me like crazy and I had a few ideas of my own if needed.
"You know Gina, sisterly teasing may be a requirement for the position but since we aren't related I don't think I will be putting up with it as well as Britanny does."
"Well I don't care how well you put up with it mister, it's just going to happen." Gina then walked up to me and pressed her finger into my chest. "And there is not a darn thing you can do about it." Oh that smug smile and over the top arrogant attitude was classic Gina, and boy was this is too good to pass up.
"Oh now I wouldn't say that…." Gina was wondering what in the hell I was talking about as she felt her finger move with my shifting body. Before she could figure out who I had decided to turn into, a crimson blur whizzed around her with great speed. Before Gina knew what was going on, she found herself pulled up into a low pressure vortex only to find herself fall flat on her bottom.
"Have to be pretty fast to keep up with the Flash there cute stuff." It was only then that Gina got a good look at who I had used on her. Dressed from head to toe in a tight red garment with a lightning bolt in the center of my chest and similar bolts on the side of my head, I was the most peculiar dressed individual Gina had ever seen, still didn't stop her razor sharp wit though.
"The 'Flash' huh? With a name like that I half expected you to be naked." Yep completely unfazed by my attempt to catch her off her feet, that's Gina.
"No that's the streak, but glad you like Ray Stevens." I would have stayed longer, but I had to catch up to Britanny before she was done with her run. I waved bye to Gina as I raced towards my intended other. I wonder if Gina realized what I had done as a practical joke to her, and what she was going to do to me in return.
Such thoughts I put aside as I raced faster than I ever thought I could move. Dodging cars and the occasional pedestrian I was able to easily catch up to the racing female I had my eyes on.
"Well hey there beautiful." I said as I pulled up beside her and effortlessly kept pace with her stride. "Fancy meeting you here."
The look on Britanny's face was priceless. Just the complete and utter shock that someone was able to keep up with her and it wasn't Brianna was probably astounding.
"Uh hi." Britanny said as she gave me a once over and waved politely.
"Would you mind if we ran together for a bit?" I asked as she was still not sure how to react to me.
"Uh okay; just don't make any suggestions Red Lightning cause I'm not interested and already have someone extra special in my life and no matter how fast you can run that's a race you will always loose."
I was disheartened for a bit after hearing that, till I realized Britanny hadn't a clue who I was. The other thing I noticed was that I was running over 100 miles per hour and wasn't even feeling it. Well I felt some wind rush by me and such, but I wasn't even feeling the least bit tired. I felt as if I could continue this pace for eternity if I wished. Thank you speedforce…or whatever other lame title that DC was calling it now. My only complaint is that I felt I was stuck in low gear.
"Well that's okay by me. So who is this guy? Must be really something to impress someone as awesome as you." So I was going to have my ego stroked for a while, could you blame me? Especially if it's being stroked by Cheetah Diggers?
"Darn tooting fella." Britanny smiled. "He's sort of a strange guy, but kind of cute." There was an obvious glow to Britanny's cheaks that her fur couldn't cover. "And he took on a firebreathing dragon by himself and beat the tar out of it with his bare hands so as far as I'm concerned he has earned unlimited brownie points."
I wanted to just keep my mouth shut, really I did, but Barry Allen is such a blabber mouth I couldn't help it.
"What's the conversation rate of brownie points to homemade cookies? I want to know because I still owe you a batch." I was stifling a giggle as I said so and passed a guy in a Ferrari like he was parked.
When Britanny heard what I said she immediately went stiff and hit the brakes. Like one of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons she stood there stiff for a second till a devilish grin graced her face.
"Awe nuts…." Yep I was going to pay for this somehow, even if I hadn't actually done anything wrong.
"Oh Alex wait up, your sweet loving Cheetah is looking to get you." Britanny's statement was made in a very similar fashion as a certain famous skunk too famous to name.
"Gotta catch me first." I smiled back just enjoying the game for what is was going to be. Yea most people would have fled in terror, but why? Britanny was annoyed at me but she wasn't going to do me any real harm. Besides, no werecheetah could keep up with the fastest man alive.
Britanny's grin was pure feral as she exploded at me like a freight train someone strapped a Titan class rocket to. So what does one do when a woman like Britanny starts running at you? Ask the Roadrunner how he deals with the Coyote.
"Beep beep." I joke back at her as I took off like a shot. Course I had no idea where I was going, how to get back to the Digger's residence, or how fast I was going, but hey I didn't care I was having too much fun.
"Come back here you reject from a Saturday morning cartoon show." Britanny cried out as she poured on the speed and tried to overtake me. I looked over my shoulder from time to time smirking at her while she called out pseudo-threatening expressions at me.
We continued our merry chase for who knows how long, but eventually I was completely turned around and just stopped and scratched my head.
"Now where exactly am I?" I asked as I moved my head all over in an attempt to find something familiar. This was not exactly a wise decision with a quick, determined, and very stealthy predator was after me. I found this out the hard way as I was tackled to the ground by someone far bigger than I was.
"Finally got you." An exhausted and very irate female voice said to me.
"Ah nuts." I started to run, but Britanny was just fast enough to grab my feet and I crashed into the ground.
"HA! Finally caught you you little imp." She smiled as she pulled me in a bear hug tight enough to hold me in place.
"Okay okay you got me." I said turning back into myself. "So now what?"
"Now? For having me chase your sorry buns halfway across the state of Georgia?" Britanny exacerbated. "Oh don't worry buddy the wrath of a werecheetah is not to be messed with so you will have your competence."
"Half way across the state? Wow I didn't realize we ran that far." Yep we were in the middle of nowhere Georgia probably a couple hundred miles from Atlanta.
"How freaking far can that red tight guy run?" Britanny said letting me go and looking around to see if she had any clue just where the heck we were.
"Well in the comics he has run from New York to Shanghai in about 1.0085 seconds." I said trying to remember when Flash raced against Superman and I thought that was right. Britanny's face just dropped at that.
"He ran from New York…across the country…across the ocean…and into Shanghai…"
"Yea…"
"AWESOME!" I was once more in the grasp of an overly affectionate and superstrong werecat. "You little guy are now going to be my special friend." I don't have to tell you just how mischievous her smile was.
"Okay…." I wasn't exactly sure how to reply so I was treading as if on thin ice.
"Yep, you are going to help me go beyond my current limitations by speed training me. Oh I just thought of something, with all your other characters you can become I bet there are some insanely awesome fighters that I can train against too." Her smile was over a mile wide at this point.
"I took on a dragon and you have doubts of be having the ability to become great fighters?"
"Oh I know that sweetie." She said posturing for a bit. "But I just realized that you probably have a variety of guys of different styles to try against. Think about it for a moment, I don't have to go too far out exotic locations to pit myself against the best of the best now. I can just have you do that nifty trick of yours and I can pit myself against probably a number of grandmasters."
"Did not expect that as a possibility." I replied turning my head and wondering just how it the heck I didn't come to that conclusion myself.
"Nobody expects the Cheetah Inquisition." Britanny said as she pointed her finger at me and was doing the worse British accent I ever heard. "My chief weapon is surprise and fear…"
"And nookie." I added just kidding.
"Oh come again." Well it was settled; I was going to be stuck as Britanny's new coach and 'special friend'. Not a bad thing, but I knew how physical Britanny was and that was nothing to how dedicated her mother was to the art. Yep I was going to be very busy keeping up with those to in martial arts.
"Well that was fun really. I haven't just run like that in, well ever." Cheetah smiled at me.
"Me neither. Now how are we going to get back?" I was scratching the back of my head as a small crowd was beginning to form around my friend and I. Apparently strange things were not as common where we were standing as they are in Atlanta.
"Hey you got us out here, you figure it out." Britanny teased me.
"You didn't have to chase me you know." I said heading for the nearest gas station.
"I'm a werecheetah pal, and as part cheetah I am very much a cat and as you should know as you own a cat…" While not as annoying as Gina's "professor" voice, the lovely werecat by my side's matter of factly manner was becoming a pain.
"Cat's love to chase things. Got it." Looking around the station I found what I was looking for and pulled up the folded piece of paper. "Here Cheetah hold this." I said handing her the free pamphlet.
"Why do you need me to hold a road map?" Cheetah asked as we left the gas station with the crowd getting larger. I didn't answer my friend but instead went to implement my plan. Since I had gotten us into this mess I figured Brit was right and I should get us out.
I focused on one of my more ostentatious characters and felt my skin changed from living tissue to cold shiny metal. My feet shifted into wheels and my height shot up above Cheetah's head by a good measure. Britanny's intense stare at me was coupled by a sense of wonder as she took a look at my new forms sharp angles and very reflective personality. Sharp blades on my forearm and the bouncing hydraulics made me look like I was begging for someone to start something.
"Now good looking you're going to love this." I smile as my now silver colored surface sparkled candy apple red. Thank you very much G1 colors and DLC.
"Hem…like the color, but how exactly are you going to get us home Mr…" My lovely female companion asked as she gave me a once over followed by a full walk around.
"Sideswipe there Cheets." My new voice was energetic and brash, but still very playful. "And if you though ol' Ironhide was the only Autobot on my list, just watch this." I spun around on my two wheeled feet and shifted my arms and head so that now instead of a tall super cool robot standing by cheetah's side there was a brand new bright red Corvette Stingray.
"Well what are you waiting for sweetheart?" I joked at her as I popped the passenger side door open. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
"Oh how can a lady refuse such a polite offer?" Cheetah smiled and climbed in. "Kind of a tight fit, but I'll manage. Nice seats by the way."
As Britanny buckled her seatbelt she was surprised when the door shut by itself and a blue flickering hologram of myself appeared in the driver's seat. I manipulated the image to turn and smirk at my accomplice.
"Now that is just showing off." My spotted friend chided me while folding her arms under her chest.
"Like you wouldn't?" I engaged my clutch, shifted gears, and revved my engine before taking off like a shot to the interstate.
"Darn right I would hot stuff. Now let's blow this pop stand."
Britanny's euphoria was short lived after she found out she was going to have to act as my navigator. It was then I found out that she's not too good at reading maps. Thankfully being completely lost does have its advantages and we were likely going to be stuck together for a while. Inevitably we started to talk to pass the time and something important came up. A promise I had made a few days ago I was going to be called to fulfill.
"Hey Alex, you remember that conversation we had in Dreadwing's cave?" She asked me as she attempted to find just where the heck we were while I was dealing with the confusing mess of traffic that had picked up.
"I remember a lot of things, but if you want me to keep my attention on the road you need to be specific." I smile at her through the hologram. My attempt at a joke didn't really work so it was clear she was being serious.
"The one about helping me find any remaining members of my family, my biological family I mean." She sighed going deep into thought.
"Ah that one. Yes I remember and you have my word that I will help you locate any remaining werecheetahs." I said while shifting gears and changing lanes and wishing that I was back west in Montana where there isn't a speed limit during fair weather conditions. I wanted to just tear up the road right now, and that's not surprising since I was in the form of Sideswipe.
"Well…after I am able to pay off my credit card bills, could we take a trip to Africa or something? I've been thinking and was wondering if any of your alternate forms would be able to do some sort of worldwide scan or something…just been thinking a lot about it after you talked about Cerebro and Professor Xavier."
To call Britanny Diggers weak would be the biggest load of overused motoroil on the planet. She also didn't wear her heart on the end of her sleeves so if something was tearing her up inside then it was a real problem. Well darn tooting I'd help.
"I have no doubts I could build a Cerebro unit if needed to help, or think of something else to find something to go off of to find any remaining werecheetahs that may be out there." I said which really brightened her expression a bit, till she asked the obvious follow-up question.
"Alex, I may not be a genius like Gina or such, but I've watched all the crazy sci-fi movies and shows about time travel and all that jazz so I know what knowing about the future may cause, but…."
"But?" I asked her to continue her thought.
"But are there any other werecheetahs to find?" Damn she was sharp, sharper than I thought she would be. Yea I was thinking that Britanny was mostly a fashion obsessed, sexed-up, kick-ass fighting woman, but I had completely forgotten how just plain smart she could be.
"You want the truth in all its gory details?" I ask her wanting to make sure she knew I could tell her, but it was her choice to know.
"My dad, Dr. Diggers told me a lot as is, but I bet you have even more insight on what actually happened." Britanny paused for a second. "But at the same time I bet that you know a lot that would seriously mess up things if shared too soon."
"Dang you have put a lot of thought into this Cheetah." I was impressed, but probably shouldn't have been since Britanny had a ton of common sense compared to Gina or such. "So tell or no tell?"
"I've wanted to know this for as long as I've known about the massacre….so tell." Britanny's conviction was impressive so I had to oblige.
"Okay. Britanny in the entire run of the comic there has only been three other werecheetahs that I know of who have appeared." She immediately perked up at this.
"There are more of my kind out there? Oh Alex thank you for…"
"Now wait just a moment my high performance feline friend." I stopped her. "I hate to rain on your parade but none of them are survivors of Brendan's betrayal. As much as I hate to tell you right now you are probably the only werecheetah alive on this planet."
"I was afraid you were going to say that. But at least you were honest with me enough to say it rather than sugar coating it. I hate it when people try that and it bugs me like crazy." Britanny's attention went from me to the window at this point as she noticed the passing trees and such.
"I may have sleek lines and awesome style, but only Ironhide is a more brutally honest Autobot." I tell her as she thought for a bit. "Then again I said you're probably the only one as I was shocked to see Brianna was around at this point."
"I'm not following you." This had caught Britanny's attention and she focused once more on me.
"Well in the comics Brianna didn't exist till long after you and your sister kicked Dreadwing's butt. The fact that you have been to that cursed treasure and Genn and Brianna being part of your family before Tark and Mesha means that some things alter from the comics." I'm a bit of a blabbermouth as well as a geek, but the conversation was nice.
"So you don't know everything huh?" Britanny joked. "And for all you know there may be many more werecheetahs out there just waiting to be found and you are going to stay by my side and help me find them if they exist. And since you've promised to help me I guess you are going to be stuck on all the various adventures I get pulled into."
"Sounds fun. Just don't do something crazy and mindlessly barge into danger and just expect me to swoop in and save your cute toosh every time."
"Are you saying that I need rescuing buddy?" Britanny growled at me in fury, or furry as the case may be. Her claws were beginning to tear into my apaulstry and sting like crazy.
"No way hot stuff." Thank you superfast processors for this save. "Gina seems to get into more trouble than she should and I'm guessing because you always have her back and it would be a crime bordering on sin for a fellow speedster like you to become that lame."
"Oh please, you're full of it pal." She chuckled at me and then rubbed her tummy. "Speaking of which, I'm running on empty so next exit with food I need you to get us something to eat."
"Us? Who exactly are you expecting to pay for this meal lady?"
"Well you of course. Afterall a gentleman always pays for the meal does he not?" Yep fast with her mind as she is with her feet.
"Slag…okay fine just pick a place that sounds good to you and I'll foot the bill." I grumbled as I hit traffic again. "Man I freaking hate cities."
"Why's that? They've got all the great things of society; malls, restaurants, malls, department stores…" Cheetah's eyes glistened at this and her smirk twisted in a manner which reminded me of a certain green furred foe of Christmas.
"Oh no. No way Cheetah. I am going to pay for lunch but I am not going to treat you to the mall as well. I can't afford that." Hey I still hadn't collected my pay from the job we got back from.
"Awe come on, pleeeeeaasseee…." Britanny begged me with big doe eyes, toothy smile, and her fingers in a praying motion.
"No way. I know how you get when going to the mall and there is no way that I am going to be able to fit all of the stuff you buy for yourself in my trunk."
"B.S. pal just use another guy then. Besides it's not for me, but you. Now I've been nice and asked, before I put my foot down and tear off your door and carry you over my head to the mall you will change course and head right to the freaking food court at the Atlanta mall immediately."
"Yes ma'am." Discretion is the better part of valor sometimes and a hungry werecat is a easily angered werecat. I figured once I got food in her Brit would be more civil. My cat numing my hand for dinner was one thing, but I didn't want to think of what Britanny would do
"That's what I thought you were going to say. Now my cheetah sense is telling me that we are about 45 minutes from a great shopping center." For some reason known only to her, Britanny pointed straight ahead as if that was actually going to do anything.
"Okay…." I just ignored the strange antics of my passenger and decided that such would be a survival requirement for my sanity.
But wouldn't you know it, 45 minutes later I was pulling into the parking space of a particularly large and seemingly high-class mall.
"How did you slagging do that!" I asked her in shock as Britanny opened the door and strutted out of my passenger compartment. Like one of those cheesy scenes out of a movie, my very tall companion strutted out in a manner that drew attention to her very long legs, trim waste, and arched back and looked as if she was standing on her tip toes. Thing was I don't think she was consciously doing.
"Damn you look good." I just blurted out without any thought to what exactly I was going to say.
"I know." Britanny smiled as she turned her head slowly to face and did that weird thing where women run their hands through their hair while turned to face you with those doe eyes and pouty lips. If I had a face I would have gone completely derp face.
"So you just going to be staring at me or are you going to actually going to come in?" Oh man did Britanny know she had it.
I had to shake my processors for a moment as I shifted my body around and stood up.
"You know, you're really cute from this perspective." I joked at her before going back to being human again. Her reply was she poked me in the nose.
"If you think you are getting out of paying for lunch with flowering me with complements you got another thing coming little guy." Britanny joked with me as she grabbed my arm and yanked me inside the building. Her grin was two miles wide while she did so.
Since I hate shopping for clothes, you can understand that I was not looking forward to what was about to happen. It was only by good grace that Britanny's number two biggest love actually overcame her first and we were able to get something to eat before any really massive purchases.
"Something bothering you Alex?" Britanny happily asked as she happily tore into her very large tuna sandwhich. "You aren't eating that much."
"Just enjoying the company beautiful." I smile at her as I enjoyed my meal slightly less quickly as she was. "Besides I've been noticing we've got company behind you."
"Wha…." I was given the wonderful image of a half-chewed quarter of a tuna sub as Britanny turned around and her head darted about looking for who I was talking about.
"Well that's a delightful sight wouldn't you say?" a female voice joked as a young African American woman in an explorer outfit similar to Gina's walked up to us. Britanny had to remind herself to swallow before addressing our new guest.
"Well hey there Penny, how are you doing?"
"So far so good. Just heard from Ace that your sister got back from a big find in England and whom do I meet at the mall but you and someone fitting the general description of a guy who turns into a giant robot truck or some other nonsense."
"Well nice to meet you too." I shoot back at her deciding to focus on my lunch.
"Alex be nice." Britanny corrected me. "This is Penny Pincer, Gina's big rival in archeology and another sciency geeky things." This was said as a joke.
"Don't believe everything Gina tells you pal. I'm a much better treasure hunter than her. So what is this about you turning to a truck? You some sort of robotlycan?" Penny sat down next to us and gave me a once over.
"And hello my name is Alex how are you doing. Very good thank you very much. How's the weather we've been having…" I said to myself deliberately ignoring Penny's attention. She got angry while Britanny just chuckled.
"Hey pal I asked you a question here." Penny said getting into my face.
"Oh he knows. Alex just was trying to make a point." Britanny said. "And he's made it so you can stop." The force behind Britanny's voice made it clear on that point.
"Okay Cheetah I got it." I smiled and hold my hands up. "Anyway I'm Alex and I don't listen much to what Gina has to say about you as I can read the comics and make my own opinions of you and everyone else."
"What the heck is he talking about Brit?" Penny asked flabbergasted.
"Oh yea, apparently Alex is from a parallel dimension where we are a bunch of comic book characters with a movie he was watching and somehow he got pulled in through his games like some crack version of Tron." Britanny answered as she took another bite from her sandwich.
"Uh Brit are you on catnip or something? Because that is the dumbest…"
Comic book physics being what they are it came as no real surprise that it was that moment that something ruined a quite boring (or at least recoverable) afternoon. A store owner screamed as a bunch of teenagers started vomiting out of his store with high price stuff under their arms.
"What the hell is that?" Britanny asked as she caught sight of the same thing I did. Sadly it wasn't a mall cop or a couple of police having lunch stop a flash rob.
"Something that shouldn't start for another 15 years." I answered as I jumped out of my chair and changed in mid bound. Since Atlanta is used to crazy I didn't care if I was seen as no one would report it. Before anyone could see what the heck was happening very famous red and blue tights clad hero was in the mists of action. Nope not Superman, think invertebrate.
This was not what a lot of the punks were focused on though as I pressed my middle fingers into the palm of my hand and two huge webs blocked the main exit routes.
"What is going on now?" Penny wondered as Britanny raced after a number of the robbers and quickly subdued a good number of them.
"Just playing superhero here Penny, don't worry." Britanny smiled as she demonstrated why the idea of taking people's stuff was a very bad idea to two juvenile delinquents (or as I like to call them robbers). "Okay now I don't know what you two were thinking but didn't your mommas ever tell you stealing is wrong? Expecially in MY mall?"
It was later reported that both teens need a whole change of clothes when they were booked. Nobody cared but Britanny felt proud of it.
I was a little more focused on the particular youth trying to take off with a half dozen pairs of jeans. He tried jumping off the rotunda into the ornate fountain below. The moron was either a movie junky or bucking for the Darwin awards but I wasn't going to let him kill himself so…
TWIP
"Man what the hell?" As he hung there in midair he saw his bag dangling from one thread just out of his reach.
"I wouldn't worry about getting down if I were you since your face and concrete insolation don't go well together from a thirty foot fall." I piped in hanging upside down in his face.
"YEA WHAT THE F**K!" He went for his pockets to grab something, but found his hands now trapped there.
"Don't worry about falling though. Spidersilk has a tensile strength 10 times that of steel cable so you'll just be here for the cops to take care of."
I swung back and forth for a moment to build up momentum and then released in mid-ark up into the air, thrust my hand out, shot another webline, grabbed a female crook with several purses, pulled her into my arms, tossed her into the air, and shot two streams of webbing from my wrists catching her on the ceiling. I then caught the bags before they hit the ground and hung them from another bit of webbing so no one got any bright ideas of stealing them.
Britanny had given up on the two youths she first apprehended and tackled three others that had who knows how many leather goods. The hypersonic fem friend of mine would have made the Justice League proud as she first overshot them, grabbed the belts in their arms, then proceeded to race around the three connecting the belts together so that the assailants were now bound together in a proceeding succession of tight fitting leather binding.
"All wrapped up like a nice Christmas gift for the police." Britanny smiled at her own work and the dwindling number of badguys. "Now where is the rest of your posse?"
While my lycan friend was busy looking for another punk to chase, I stumbled on the last of them trying to escape out an emergency fire exit. An emergency fire exit now held in place by a few well- placed globs of silk.
"What the f**k is this s**t?" One of the more uncouth of them blurted out trying to rip the door off its hindges, only to find his mouth instantly covered in a very strong single layer of sticky silk.
"Silk not scat, but since you don't seem to care much for manners or the rights of people's property I don't think you would care much for your own education. You probably should look into that." Parker's personality was really rubbing off on me, but the guy's wit just made it too easy with these punks. The strange thing was the way I was sitting more than anything else as the classic Spider-Man squat just felt natural at this point.
"No way some cheap a*s spandex wearing bug guy is going to send me to jail." Another one of the remaining four said pulling out a switchblade knife. Before his hand even moved to the blade, my spidersense flared like crazy.
The kid charged at me with extreme recklessness and slashed at me wildly. I dodged his poorly attempted strikes without much effort and quickly side-stepped, grabbed his wrist, twisted, and dropped him to his knees. In one fluid motion I had stopped the kid cold and webbed his wrists together before cocooning him.
"Okay now how about you three make this easy on yourselves and just surrender. I'm sure that it will go a lot easier for you if you do and you've seen that you aren't going to win if you fight me." I gave them the chance, I really did. But darn it some people just don't listen.
"You know, you're right." One finally said as he tensed his arms. "I don't think that I could fight you, but I'm not going to do something stupid like turn myself in when I can just outrun your sorry…ass…"
The twit threw his ill-gotten gains at me and the two others with him followed his example. He thought that he would be able to loose me in the confusion of cloths and electronics. They thought that they would escape to robe someone else. They thought WRONG. Spider sense and reflexes against three teenagers loaded on unhealthy snacks and sodas? Who do you think would win? They didn't even have time to turn their heads as I was standing behind them.
One did try to throw a punch, but one quick light jab in the diaphragm knocked the wind right out of him. He didn't offer much resistance as I globed him in a thin layer of spiderwebbing to hold him there. The other two didn't learn, but did run. Sadly in opposite directions so I choose one and bounced off the walls at him with speed he couldn't dream. The world was in superslow motion as I grabbed the thug by the scruff of his neck, lifted him up off the ground, and just webbed him to the wall.
"Let me go man. You ain't got no right to do this to me." His struggles only made it worse as I shook my head.
"Wow your grasp jurisprudence is as limited as your understanding of English syntax. Try opening a book sometime." I would have corrected him further, but I had other fish to fry. I didn't even care what he said afterwards, as that one last guy had to be stopped. I may never have had an Uncle Ben, but I wasn't going to let someone become one.
I jumped into the air again and bounced and bounded from ceiling, to wall, to floor, all in an attempt to find that last little pain in the spinneret. Sadly I had lost him in the crowd. I had hoped that Britanny had found him, stopped him.
"Hey Cheetah where are you?" I called out trying to see where she was over the running people that were not used to a guy in a pair of long-johns stopping crime with string shooting out of his wrists.
"You called?" I heard a familiar female voice say as she instantly was behind me.
"Talk about instant response." I smiled, but wasn't a complete one. "Did you see where that last one got off to?"
"Sorry there Bugboy, but looks like she got away." Britanny sighed as she tried to hear her out or smell her. With as little time as Britanny got wind of those thugs I wasn't surprised that the last one was able to disappear without a trace.
"It's Spider-Man, but we can deal with that later." I jumped to the ceiling and crawled along it trying to get a glimpse of someone running or something to get a heads up. It sadly looked like a lost cause. I dropped to the floor and just stood there wondering what the heck to do.
"Hey sugar you did what you could." Britanny said placing her hand on my shoulder and trying to reassure me. "You stopped a robbery dead in its tracks and saved someone's livelihood. I don't think that even Danni would be able to have done better."
Britanny was right. I did all I really could do. Real life and comics don't often match, not even in a world that was a comic book. Thankfully someone was looking out for me that day and as I was about to go for a phone…
"I wouldn't get too worried there Mr. Superhero, cause the lady is right." Wondering who just said that Britanny and I saw a member of Atlanta's finest walk up to us with a smile on his face.
"Thank you officer, but really it was nothing." I said, not sure if this was going to play out like DC or Ultimate Marvel, or who knows what.
"I wouldn't say that son. You and your lady friend just stopped a spontaneous robbery, caught most of the little punks responsible, and were able to collect all the merchandise. I don't know why you're in town but I for one am glad to have you." He offered his hand and I shook it. "And thanks to you two these kids are going to learn a valuable lesson in law, order, and how crime doesn't pay."
"Officer I'm just trying to help. I don't want to step on any toes or you doing your job. I'm just a guy doing what's right." I will remember that smile on that man's face for the rest of my life. As I stopped shaking his hand he said to me.
"Son, I wish more people were like that. This world would be a heck of a lot better if that was the case. In any event there are a few delinquents that need to be processed. Including one we caught at the front door."
"What the h*l is wrong with you dawg." The punk on the floor spat at me figuratively and literally. "You may think you are cool with that suit and powers, but you just another nobody working for the man."
"If that man is with a capital M and the one upstairs that's good enough for me." The youth in question had no clue what I just said and spouted a prolonged series of insults against me, Britanny, and everyone else in ear shot. Britanny was going to smack him, I just splatted him in the mouth with a glob of webbing.
"Anything else I can do for you officer?" I asked about to leave.
"Just one thing; the exits you blocked with this gunk, how do you get rid of it?"
"Spider silk may not burn, but it shrivels like crazy when exposed to heat so just get a bunch of hairdryers or cigarette lighters will take care of it." I jumped in the air and escaped into one of the mall's service halls and wall crawled on the ceiling to an empty bathroom. Shifting back into my normal form, I just walked out. Thankfully this was still the nineties and security cameras were nonexistent here and I was easily able to avoid detection.
If you are wondering why I even bothered to try to go through the process of hiding my identity and such it has to do with the fact I had no desire to answer a whole lot of questions, deal with hero worship, or whatever else may come from what I did. I have no idea how they always escape in the comics, but this seemed like at least a potentially good idea, course changing from robot to person in broad daylight wasn't a good idea but I hadn't just played the hero then either. So yea ducking for cover and not letting people know who and what you are is a good thing as all superheroes that have gone public have seriously messed up lives.
"Now to find Britanny and skedaddle before any more craziness happens." I really hadn't a clue where the heck I was going but I knew I had to find my friend, get our stuff, and book before anyone noticed. Okay so jumping in to play hero in a crowded mall was stupid but really could I have just stayed by and not helped?
Thankfully all malls come with these hand little maps that tell you exactly where you are, if you can find the darn things. So what exactly did I decide to do in this situation? Just head back towards the open area and look to find someone who knew where the food court was. Logical, but had to remember than Britanny was also looking for me and no idea whether or not she had lost me or not. These worries and plans lasted about as long as cans of white albacore last around Britanny and Brianna as I had forgotten something rather important…
"Well there you are." Britanny said as she caught me before I even left the access area. "I thought I smelled you head this way. Nice attempt with the ditch and change, but you weren't too stealthy for me to follow."
Yep there was the wonderful lady on my mind with a big grin on her face and her tail riding high.
"Cheetah, do you know how impossibly wonderful and infuriating you are sometimes?" I ask her just shaking my head.
"I'm a were-cat cute stuff, it's part of my job." Cheetah answered as she led me along a pathway with no cameras, people, or any real signs.
"Uh Cheetah, where are we going?" I asked as I was almost dragged along through the concrete labyrinth. I could not believe such an odd-ball pathway existed, nor that security could be so lax here that a mall would even allow such a route to exist.
"Back to the food-court, and hopefully our stuff. See pal I did the whole super-hero thing back in high-school and they never bothered to fix the holes in their security system here." My furry friend's confusing and seemingly convoluted path was as crazy as it was brilliant. Though the mall had been engineered with some level of reason, I saw that compounding on layer and layer of reasoning without extended thought and re-engineering without double-checking previous security measures gave rise to a possible pathway where we could make our way back to our stuff without there being a clue we had done so.
"You wouldn't happen to be friends with a Selena Kyle would you?" I asked as Britanny made good on her word and we were back at the table were we had seen the youths attempt to flee with their ill-gotten gain.
"No I don't think so, just some ninja things mom taught me that Grandpa taught her." My lycan lady said as she and I found Penny was waiting for us there at the table.
"Well took you all long enough. Where in the world did you go?" Penny was fuming as we returned to our seats, found our food had gone bad, and decided to just get another serving (with me now paying for two ladies' meals).
"Sorry Penny that's a secret." Cheetah smiled as she sat down and enjoyed her fresh tuna sub. "Have to be a member of the super-hero club to know about it, and sadly you aren't so…"
"You know I would say bite me to that, but with you being a werecheetah there Britanny…" Penny joked as she sipped her soda. "But that doesn't excuse this guy from going into details as to what that was all about with the guy in spandex."
Penny Pincer may be a great archeologist, but her manners leave a lot to be desired. I am the first to admit I am stubborn as a mule, blunt, very politically incorrect, and don't sugar coat things, but there is a great difference between bluntness and rudeness.
"Ms Pincer, I answer questions about myself that Britanny asks because she is my friend. I answer questions asked by Gina because I am a guest at her parent's home and that is my version of paying the rent. I also answer questions asked of me by Brianna as she is also my friend and potential business partner. You on the other hand I have never met before and I don't owe you an answer to what just happened." I almost barked back.
"Alex please." Britanny said as she continued eating. "Now I know that Penny can be very focused on learning but there is no reason to yell at her."
"I'm sorry just I've been poked and prodded and asked 20 questions from the moment I set foot in your home and I was looking forward to spending some time away from that with you Cheetah." I smiled as I focused more on the taller woman sitting with us. "Instead…"
"Instead you had me chase you across the state, drive me to my favorite mall as futuristic red corvette, went shopping with me, and then we got to play super-hero." Britanny joked as she poked me in the nose. "So just because you have to put up with another super genus pestering you with questions, doesn't mean you aren't going to have to give up on spending some time with me babe."
"Fine, but if you try to draw blood or put me one of those annoying bacta tanks Penny I shall introduce you to the Hulk." I say as I start to tell my story yet again for what was likely the fourth or fifth time in under that many days.
*End Flashback*
"Well looks like we've got a fifth member to this little rescue party." Gina said, abet a bit unhappy about it.
"Yes, but please let us hurry as we have wasted too much time." Stripe took the lead with Britanny behind him. Gina and Penny found themselves in the middle of the formation and I took the rear yet again. Since Stripe knew where he was going it made sense for him to take lead and without significant light Britanny was his navigator.
Soon we found ourselves standing around a large circular opening at the top of the throne room. Our chief opponent was there with an assortment of cursed kryn and an amassed armament of magical artifacts.
"Dang, Bri are you seeing this?" Gina asked into the little device still attached to her ear. "Yea I know there is a serious amount of power in this place so looks like we got ourselves the main baddie. Hey Alex do you know who this guy is?"
I indicated yes as I tried to keep everyone quite so we could hear what was going on.
"The prince and his new allies have eluded us Lord Gyphon." One of the still cursed of Stripe's people said groveling before his master.
"Silence." Gyphon boomed in anger. "I know that they have escaped you fools. These unexpected allies of the prince should have been no problem to you but it seems as if I am surrounded by useless imbecilic wretches."
"So looks like you four have been busy lately." Penny joked as she took aim with her weapon.
"Alex I know that I shouldn't have to ask you this, but do you think you could get behind Gyphon and take him out of commission?" Stripe asked me as he gripped the weapon he had borrowed from me in his fist. "I know I have no right to ask you, but your display of stealth may be exactly what we need as if we can eliminate his concentration he will be unable to cast spells on us."
It seemed as if Stripe was using that head of his to good use and I used my cloaking device again to seemingly disappear into the shadows. I dropped slowly into the open airway and hand-over-hand made my way carefully to the edges of the room. With remarkable physical skill and almost impossible grace I was able to not only avoid detection, but also palm a couple of flash-bangs on the sides of the wall to help if we really needed to blind this guy.
I was almost in range to do Gyphon in when…
"So you are are the one who has been able to prevent my total victory against my most accursed enemies the Kryn." I didn't know how he was able to notice me, but as I was blasted with an electrical discharge from Gyphon's hands I really didn't care. Good thing it didn't do anything more than recharge my batteries due to my alien physiology.
"ALEX!" Britanny cried from above.
"Well looks like shit's hit the fan now." Penny commented as Stripe and Britanny dove into the room. As Penny was about to do the same, Gina stopped her.
"Hold up a second Penny, I have an idea." The blonde's voice was barely audible to me as I was getting up from being blasted by the psychotic villain.
"So tell me what reason do you have for allying yourself with the prince? Or are you just some sort of savage beast which is thrall to the lycan female?" My response was simple and direct. I extended my wrist-blades and did a mock charge at Gyphon hoping to duck under him and gut him quickly.
"Damn how many of these things does he have Stripe?" Britanny yelled out as she smashed rock kryn after rock kryn.
"Sadly for our current situation, my city's populous was in the thousands." Stripe answered as he smashed one of his former subjects in the head with the side of the combestick while impaling another in the guts. "I fear that we aren't going to be able to hold off much longer.
My mock charge didn't work out as well as I had hoped, and Gyphon proved to be quite adept at close-range combat as I was never able to get close enough to tear out his entrails. Thankfully he still hadn't figured out that electricity wasn't actually harming me, so we were in a stalemate. This wasn't something that I could keep up as we would eventually be overwhelmed just by sheer number of minions so I pressed the detonate button on my left forearm.
Instantly the room was alight with a bright flare and a loud boom which caused Gyphon to completely lose his concentration and I blindly lunched hoping to tackle him. Really freaking stupid move. While I had activated the flash-bangs Gina had swung in on the curtain and kicked me hard enough in the back that I landed face-first into the ground.
I shook my head a few times only to discover Gyphon had recovered first and he took that advantage to blast me in the head damaging my visor. I was again stunned as another mystic bolt smashed right into my face. I couldn't see anything except a loud "error" message and so I popped the airlines and chucked the helmet at Gyphon.
"What the hell are you?..." He said in shock, getting his first look at the pointed teeth and sunk-in yellow eyes of a Yatja.
"What the hell…" I repeated as I roared my battle cry and laid one punch right to Gyphon's temple. I wished I had made sure I was actually using my wrist-blades, but no time to waste on what-ifs as I was still in combat for not only my life, but the lives of thousands of others.
"So demon, you wish to continue this…" Gyphon's mystic nature apparently made him a lot tougher than he looked. "You may be hard to defeat, but now the wars between the kyrn and the Lords of Atlantis will finally be finished as the prince is here and my victory is soon to be complete."
"Victory pal? Get a grip we're kicking your butt here." Britanny said as she took out more of the kryn under Gyphon's command.
"Perhaps lycan, perhaps not." With seemingly great effort Gyphon unleashed another bolt of energy, but this time I was knocked to my knees in pain. "For you see I finally think I have figured how my attacks would not hurt your friend. Electricity may power him, but magnetism seems to weaken him."
It was as if all my muscles just died on me. I couldn't even hold my Predator form as I coughed and gagged.
"Jinkies." Gina said, fiddling with her shield generator and trying to prevent Penny from robbing the kryn treasures.
"Alex?" Britanny said as she looked at me slowly coming to my senses again. "You bastard, I'll tear your limbs off."
"Cheetah wait please I need your assistance." Stripe asked as he found his weapon had disappeared along with my shapeshifting. "We will help Alex together."
"No I don't think you…AAAAHHH SHIT!" Gyphon yelled as I jabbed him hard between the legs with my pocket knife. I knew he was somewhat fish in nature, but I was betting that I would still hit some sort of major blood-path in his limbs. "You dare to strike me, prepare yourself for Purgatory!"
The mad Atlantian grabbed me by the throat as I was finally recovering from his assault. As I got a good look at his face all I could think of was how much I wanted to "clobber" him. I took a wild chance yet again as I choose a familiar character that may just have given me enough of an edge here.
"Well it seems as if your friend is even more susceptible to my spells than your own people prince." Gyphon gloated as he pulled my knife out of his leg. "Now my minion, kill these former allies of yours."
"I ain't kill'n nothing pal. But you ain't gonna like your face in the morn'. IT'S CLOBBER'N TIME!" Yep what the Atlantian thought was another stone cursed minion was actually still me, but as the ever-lovin' blue eyed Thing of the Fantastic Four. I landed two solid punches right to the fish-faced kisser of his and wound up busting the crown a bit in the process.
"Kick his ass Alex." Britanny smiled as she continued to help Stripe and Gina keep the bad-guys of stone off my back.
"You kidd'n this guy ain't nothing to the punks I deal with on Yancy St." I joke back as I started seriously smashing the guy up. "Hey Stripey pants, want me to save a piece of this guy for ya?" I call back to Stripe as he narrowly was able to avoid being sliced by his former friends.
"No need to think of my personal gratification or vendetta my friend, but we need to end this fight before we get completely overwhelmed." Yea the guy was a class act, and for all purposes a damn good leader. Too bad we had to cut this fight short because I seriously think Stripe wanted to tag-team this joker.
"I agree, what this place needs is a change in attitude." Gina yelled holding up the Gem of Returning, and yet again blinding everyone. "Whoa! This trinket didn't do that before…this place must have high concentration of magical energy or something!"
"Next time you pull a stunt like that Gold Digger, warn me to put on my super-nova blocking shades." Penny complained aloud.
"Boy you and strecho lady…" I said rubbing my own eyes with my stony hands.
"So where's that spell-casting son-of-a-b**ch?" Britanny yelled as she took a look and a very busted up fish-person.
"So you think you can defeat me once and for all? Fools." Gyphon said as he stammered to his feet, still looking like he got in an argument with a wrecking ball. "With the powers I wield, it would be a simple task to transform you back into my slaves."
"Yea yea whatever. You and old tin-face don't know when to shut your yap after you've got your keesters kicked." I smile as I slam my fists into my palms and turned on the shielding ability from Marvel Ultimate Alliance. "But I'm all about clobber'n you some more."
"You managed to stop Stripe before he could prevent you from taking over the City of Gold last time, but there's no way you can stop all of us. So give it up chump." Gina pointed at Gyphon as she looked in a state of complete disarray. Spunky little gal isn't she.
"C'mon. Say no. Please!" Britanny almost roared as she helped a few of the recovering, and very much flesh and bone, kryn to their feet.
"Hmm. Perhaps I have underestimated you and your new friends Stripe." Gyphon acknowledged as I was going to bust his teeth some more. "The next time we meet, I shall not make that mistake again. Until we meet again my friends." In a flash of brilliant radiation Gyphon dissipated casting some sort of teleportation spell.
"He's fading away." Gina noted in shock.
"HEY! He's taking the artifacts with him." Penny said as her greed was left unfulfilled.
"Never mind that junk. Stripe is hurt and I want to give you a look over too Alex." Britanny said as I went back to my usual self and was still a bit groggy on my feet. "Oh man are you two okay? I just feel awful about you both getting roughed up like that. I keep forgetting not everyone has inhuman regeneration like I do."
"You were not to blame Cheetah, but now we must determine what to do about Gyphon." Stripe was a little banged up, but not too badly. Looked like he had been through a bar-room brawl so he should be fine, but since the other kryn may have had long ranging problems from their time under the curse I figured I should do what I can to help patch everyone up. But first the room had to stop spinning.
"Scientist? Has Gyphon means to control the power of the artifacts he has stolen?" Stripe asked a senior looking gentleman as I sat down on the ground.
"Indeed he does. While we were enslaved he had many of our best engineers constructing a most horrid weapon." Was the reply the prince received.
"Then he means to use our artifacts to power this weapon." Stripe continued that train of thought as Britanny smiled sitting next to me and passing me her canteen. "He means either to give it to his masters, the Lords of Atlantis, or to use it to enslave them."
"Thanks Cheetah." I said taking a big swig of water. "I needed that."
"Oh hush you, and drink that slowly. I don't want you throwing up or somethin'." Britanny smiled as she kissed me on the cheek. "You may act like a jerk sometimes but you really do care about people."
"Whatever Gyphon's intentions, they mean doom for us and the outside world. You must go to Atlantis to stop him, but you have no way to get there in time!" I chuckled a bit as I rose to my feet and took another swig of water from Britanny's reserve.
"No way of getting there in time? Pal allow me to show you something." As my pink skin was replaced by a very reflective silver one, I stepped up on what appeared to be a surf board and summoned a great source of light that spread throughout the room. Instantly the wounds on Stripe, Gina, and Penny disappeared under the light of the Power Cosmic's rays. "There is very little I now consider impossible."
I let what I just did sink into the naysayers and awe-struck of the populous.
"What manner of being are you, are you some sort of a god?" The elder kryn asked in fear as he stepped away from me.
"Hold." Stripe said sternly. "This man may be very different from us, and able to become many frightening entities that I cannot even dream about, but he has proven himself a noble ally and a trusted friend. Not only were Gina and Cheetah pivotal in regaining our freedom and our city, but Alex helped me to reclaim my focus as a ruler who had lost his kingdom and his dignity. If not for all three of them I would still be wondering the jungle and you all slaves." Stripe then walked up to me man-to-man and looked me in the eyes.
"I know that I have already asked much of you, but I also know that while Gyphon may have access to information on humans and lycans it is very unlikely that he would have any idea about you or those who seem to so effortlessly shift into. If that is the case, would you be willing to continue to aid my people Alex? I would even be willing to pay if needed for your assistance."
Gina, Britanny, and Penny's eyes became about as big around as dinner-plates at that last comment. Me? I just smiled and closed my eyes in thought for a moment.
"Stripe what I am, and what I intent to be for better or worse is a super-hero. Helping people and stopping super-powered villains is something I do not for money but because it is right. That's all the reason I need to be of assistance." Definitely corny, but this time it was me saying it and not just playing Captain America or some other idealistic comic guy.
If I had been entrusted with these powers it was not to use them to get anything from the people I helped. Earning money on the side through copyrights and investments maybe, but not from accepting payment from those in need. As having access to both Iron Fist and Luke Cage meant I knew it wasn't going to last anyway.
"Now Gina and Penny may wish to research your culture and technology, and maybe we could stay for dinner or something, but beyond that…"
"Consider it done then my friend." Stripe said as he slapped me on the back with a smile. "You, Ms. Gina, Penny, and the lovely Ms Cheetah will always be honored guests and friends of my people. But first we must deal with Gyphon ."
"Don't worry folks, Cheetah and I can get Stripe to Atlantis in no time." Gina prided herself as she retrieved her stuff from the ground. "It'll be fun to pay Gyphon a little visit. You can come too Penny."
"Sounds like big fun to me Gold Digger." The dark skinned woman joked back to her rival.
"Don't call me that! Anyway It's not every day you get to discover two lost civilizations on the same expedition. Besides I've been looking for an excuse to skip Professor Myer's class tomorrow anyhow."
To be continued….
Author's notes: Okay I just read over my story again and noticed it needed some editing for grammar and spelling. If I missed anything please let me know.
