Xenozip: ...that ending tho
Re: Didn't give Athena her name purely as a Borderlands reference~
Jebest4781: This was quite enjoyable and had some good laughs. Really can't wait to see the chaos that'll occur in the next chapter along with other reveals, especially that cliffhanger you did here.
Re: Yeah, I've been building up to that for a while. I didn't make Moxxi and Paula old friends, or have them be estranged, for no reason at-all~
UndeadLord22: I am still rather confused on what the "Two-Percenter" term means. I have a crude understanding someone can kill without hesitation, but i wanna know the exact details of it.
Re: Otherwise known as the "Warrior Gene" in the Metal Gear universe, in the moment you have to consciously "make the choice" to kill someone, for a Two-Percenter, your Conscience won't tell you "you shouldn't", instead it'll tell you "it's time (to)". You can still feel guilty afterward, but "in the moment" you aren't inhibited by… inhibitions. In essence it's a "throwback" to prehistoric times where killing your neighbor for stealing livestock was a common occurrence, since if you didn't kill your thieving neighbor "now", they'd commit a similar offense against you "later".
superpierce: which Kaiju are in japan?
Re: It isn't a matter of "which Kaiju" are in Japan (in the DC Universe), it's a matter of "that there are (Kaiju)" in Japan in the DC Universe. They all get dumped in a place called Monster Rock, similar to Dinosaur Island.
: KONO DIO DA!
Re: Hō…? Mukatte kuru no ka?
fallendemon248: Well s*** does that mean the harems growing to add Artemis?
Re: No. Artemis isn't into Harems and she's still processing "the whole half-sister" thing. Also, Virgil himself has relegated her to the Friend Zone.
Featherboi: Thats one hell of a plottwist, though the names did make me suspect as such it was still rather well done
Will we see more interactions with People like artemis zatana or the rest of young justice/other leauge members and small time hero's like the house after this as well? Maybe in costume, so to speak? I love that you include virgils personal life as a big part of it, but maybe another set of chapters which are more in costume orientated soon, or perhaps virgil talking about his isseus with someone?(like athena for example), though i admit id like to find out more about virgil, and to see more interactions between him and the other freelancers whilst not at work, all and all i have a pretty big wishlist but its realy good all things considered! Out of curiosity, how did you come up with the idea behind the story? Afterall its rather uniqeu compared to other fanfictions
Cheers :D
Re: Athena (Borderlands alt.) and Artemis (Young Justice) being related wasn't always the plan, but when I got closer to the Giving Thanks Arc, somehow it all just worked out so perfectly. Like the thing where Hecate is the Greek goddess of Magic, and Snakes.
Virgil being the impetus for them meeting before 2010, in a more-informal capacity, will radically change their character dynamic from the Canon; all the multi-crossovers that change the Lore of the world will also create new possibilities. The benefit of a multi-crossover writing style.
As for Virgil's personal life, it may've been 50+ chapters since he left the Red Zone/Manhattan (Prototype 2), and the story was published 7 years ago, but for him, it's only been 4 months, so he's undergoing radical changes from the person he was before Mercer turned his life upside down. Killing him is still his "life goal", be it directly or indirectly (it doesn't matter if he does it or not as long as someone kills Mercer), but he's been keeping his Personal and Work lives separate so that when this is accomplished, he'll still have something "to go back to". He is still in it for revenge, and also the money since he's too "cracked" to be good at anything else full-time, but the fact of the matter is, he's trying to "put his life back together" like the vase you knock off and put back together with superglue; you still get something shaped like a vase when you're done, but it isn't 100% "the same".
I feel like Jay Garrick (Flash I) told it better.
As for how I came up with the idea for this story… My Teen Titans OC-centric story was published in late-2011, two years after I joined FF dot Net. It was a blend of the Earth-12 DCAU continuity (Justice League, Teen Titans, Static Shock, etc.), and most of the crossovers were in cameo as fiction-within-the-fiction. As my writing style improved and I got older, branching out into darker, more mature literature, I wanted to make something a little more… realistic, and that's when Young Justice came in. In YJ, the overarching storyline meant there were consequences for the actions they took, they weren't purely Episodic in nature like most cartoons, and I'd gotten really into Prototype, Crysis, and a little of Metal Gear beforehand, so after getting a good Beta, I started making an ambitious multi-crossover where the lore of multiple worlds was fused together. Captain America (Marvel) and Wonder Woman (DC Comics) fought together in Earth-16H's World War II, Roanapur (Black Lagoon) was destroyed by Metal Gears (Metal Gear), the "Mercer Virus" (Prototype) created a no-win situation for the superhero community (Young Justice), and so-on.
And… I guess that's "The Making Of…" as it were. I just wanted to make something unique that people couldn't Predict like with Naruto crossovers that saturated the medium, and I guess I did a pretty good job if I'm still keeping people on their toes and pulling the rug from under them~
BlitzNeutral69: Give the man a harem already, especially for all the b*** Virgil went through, the man totally earned the right for an harem. XD
Re: He might be "deserving" of a harem after all he's "suffered", but Vincent isn't "in the market" for a Harem. He wants to have some modicum of a healthy relationship, with one girl, because clinging to whatever element of "normalcy" he can is all that's stopping him from going over the deep end and becoming another of the Villains that he criticizes the Justice League for not killing off. Because he knows that if he becomes known as "the guy that went nuts", he'll never get his shot at taking down Mercer, whether it'd directly or indirectly.
*GIVING THANKS*
Suffice it to say, the news that Athena and Artemis were the fruit of the same man's loins was a great shock to the two blondes. In fact, the news was so shocking that the stunned silence lasted for three whole minutes before Tiny Tina blurted out what was on theirs and everyone else's minds.
"Say whaaaaaaaat?!"
Hm. Yes. That summarized their thoughts quite nicely.
Athena for her part wasn't in complete shock at the news. Moxxi's "free love" approach to pre-marital coitus was bound to have created a situation where she slept with another woman's man. She just never anticipated she would meet the offspring of the hypothetical cuckolded wife.
At least not from anyone outside of Bludhaven…
Then again, the day "was young".
Artemis on the other hand was stunned stupid, but at the very least she realized just what had been bugging her about Athena all that time. She clearly lad Lawrence's face, but the genes she got from her mother softened them up into something that was quite prettier than her own, and though she was a "nerd", she clearly had muscle under that lab coat of hers.
That of course didn't make the bomb Moxxi and Paula dropped on them any less shocking.
" . . . And the two of you waited until now to tell us!?" Artemis demanded once she found her voice, which was a full minute or two after Tina found hers.
"I… didn't think it was really necessary… At least not until Moxxi had her tenant sneak that letter into my lap-"
"Giggidy~" Moxxi chuckled.
"-and tried to become friends again…" Paula said with a reddened face, shooting Moxxi a mortified look at the innuendo. "I'd have told you if it became necessary… It would've been too embarrassing otherwise."
"Oh, and why might that be?! Because you made a menage a trois with dad and some bimbo!?" she shrieked jabbing a finger at Moxxi.
"Hey, you can't talk about my mother like that!" Athena growled at her half-sister.
"Yeah! You tell her, sweetie!"
"Only I can talk about her like that!"
"Yeah…? You… tell… her…?" Moxxi said a little less confidently.
'I could never have seen this coming… And yet, I know exactly where this is going…' Virgil thought as he slinked out of the room with every ounce of stealth he could muster, practically vanishing from the others' senses out of sheer desperation not to be caught in the fallout.
It only took one State family reunion to know not to get in the middle of that shitshow…
*GIVING THANKS*
Moxxi's Red Light
November 27, 11:33 EST
Athena, Artemis, Moxxi, and Paula exchanged words both cool and heated for what felt like hours onward, and there wasn't enough money in the world to make Virgil leave his room. He was confident in his ability to magic the bars on his window off and escape into the night if he needed to, but he'd rather not draw any attention to himself, lest some of the backlash wash over him for delivering that damned letter.
After unpacking and re-packing his "Get Out of Dodge" bag until the exercise got old, Virgil decided to tuck in early for the night.
That wasn't to say that sleep came readily. It mostly came in fits, but at least he was getting some rest.
Right as he was about to nod off for real however…
*Knock*Knock*
"Virgil…? You awake?" a voice whispered in the dead of night.
"I am now…" Virgil muttered, rolling over. "What is it, Z?"
"Can I… Can I come in?" she asked.
"Sure. Sure. I'm awake anyway," Virgil groaned as he rolled out of bed and shuffled over to the door, unlocking it and letting it swing wide.
Zatanna's choice in pajamas, at least as much as he could see through sleep-squinted eyes, were completely wholesome and inoffensive, doing absolutely nothing to reveal her budding curves brought about by the onset of puberty. One button was undone, only revealing a hint of collarbone, the very definition of an innocent Catholic schoolgirl, which, technically, she was. For all intents and purposes, he'd known her since she was in pigtails, and while Zatanna didn't wear her hair like that, Tiny Tina, who was of the same age group, did, so he couldn't bring himself to find anything overtly sexualized by her lavender colored pajama shirt and pants.
Not that she was trying, thank god he got the point across.
"What is it, Z? Did you forget where the bathroom is?" he yawned tiredly.
"Ah… Um… I uh…" she stammered, face reddening as her eyes rose and fell.
" . . . I'm only in my boxers, aren't I?" he asked sleepily.
The blushing Catholic schoolgirl could only nod her head in reply, trying to pull her eyes away from his lean muscular body and failing.
" . . . Hold on a second while I throw something on," he said sleepily whirling around, reaching into a drawer and pulling some PJs on over his boxers. Once Zatanna's face stopped glowing in the dark, he sat on his mattress and slumped forward, beckoning her over. "So… What's the problem?"
"I…" she paused, trying to gauge the appropriate distance to sit from him before putting two feet of empty air between them. "I had a bad dream."
"About what?"
"Back there… in the basement… Everything kept going wrong and I…" she sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Have you talked to your dad about this?"
"I have, but it's just… I don't want him to worry. This is supposed to be a family vacation and-"
"And you think sneaking into an older man's room in the middle of the night won't worry him?"
"You're not that much older…" Zatanna pouted, her nose dusting with pink. "I… Can I stay here with you…? Please?"
" . . . You're not going to leave if I ask you to, are you?"
"Probably not."
"And you can't stay with Megan because…?"
"She… doesn't know about that, and…" she paused, scooting over so her elbow brushed his. "And I trust you more," she said looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes.
" . . . Alright. Fine."
"Wait, really?" she blinked.
"Yes. Now hurry up before I change my mind," he said lifting up the covers. "And keep them above the waist."
"What kind of girl do you take me for?" she asked before remembering where she was and at what time. " . . . Nevermind. Don't answer that," she said crawling in behind him. The older teen's back to her, Zatanna leaned into it, sighing contentedly as some of the tension eased out of her body. "I never knew that boys had such strong, muscular backs before," she said as her hands went to broad shoulders, his latent heat warming her palms.
"Hm. You really do go to a Catholic school."
Zatanna playfully swatted him for that.
*GIVING THANKS*
Moxxxi's Red Light
November 28, 7:26 EST
Breakfast that morning would prove to be an… awkward affair for the two newly-revealed half-sisters.
Even after sleeping on it for the night, Athena and Artemis still couldn't get over the fact that they had another sister in their lives. Athena for her part was less-shocked by the development because… well, Moxxi, enough said… but also because her relationship with her sisters was moderately healthy; and much like Artemis had been, Ellie, Shaula, and Rina were all borne from different fathers. In essence, it was just "more of the same" and the shock was simply momentary.
For Artemis, the shock was more pronounced because the only baseline she had for sisterhood was with Jade, who more or less had been the cause of her latent abandonment issues. That, and the idea that her normally straight-laced mother would have a three-way with a "slutty magician's assistant" in of itself was rather jarring. Sure, in the morning as they had breakfast together, Madeline Moxxi without her slutty clothes and makeup looked pretty normal, but the image of her rather provocative and form-fitting bar tending attire had more or less been burned into her brain, and she couldn't bring it in herself to completely separate the two disparaging images.
Of course, the shock of that truth bomb being dropped would be divested to something new coming up she'd had no idea she'd learn during this break.
"So… Did you know V-man's a cuddler?"
*SPRRT!* was the sound Athena and Artemis made as they spat out their beverages.
"H-How the hell do you know that?!" Artemis squawked in "Tiny" Tina's direction.
"Magic-girl had a bad a bad dream, found them spoonin' this morning," the manic thirteen-year-old answered nonchalantly jabbing a thumb at Zatanna. The girl in question blushed while her father shot her a look, while Megan remained blissfully ignorant of why cuddling in such a fashion was something to be embarrassed about.
"Magic-girl, what are you… Wait…" Artemis paused. "Wait, yeah! I thought I recognized you!"
The shock that Virgil was seemingly a "cuddler" took backseat to the other thing that'd been nagging at her since last night.
"Oh god…" Zatanna groaned, her father shooting her a cross look.
"Your dad is that Giovanni! The illusionist who works for the Justice League!"
"With the Justice League, not 'for'," Giovanni corrected. He might not've been one off the founding members like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter, or Aquaman, arguably the most-famous SPBs in the western world; but he still had his pride to think about and he wouldn't let himself be relegated to third banana.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis gawped at the literal celebrity drowning his pancakes in maple syrup right across the table from her. It was a little hard to see because he was currently in lounging wear, had bed-head, and his mustache wasn't expertly groomed, but the man before her was definitely Giovanni Zatara, world-famous illusionist.
"It might relate to why my daughter sought… comfort with him," Giovanni said shooting his daughter and Virgil a significant look, "but when he and my daughter met up during his trip to Vegas, he saved her life from-"
"Some performing arts rejects," Virgil cut in.
"Okay, seriously! What were you doing in Vegas!?" Artemis asked incredulously, because there was no way it was just "performing arts rejects" which caused a man of Giovanni's standing to suddenly have Thanksgiving with who was effectively a complete stranger.
"He helped us out with a job and was on break from work, so we took him with us," Lilith shrugged, ignoring the way Artemis was staring at her "tattoos".
"Oh, what kind of job?" Megan asked innocently.
"Pest control," Virgil answered. "And nothing else…!" he told the Fortune Hunters significantly.
"Yeah, 'cause that isn't cryptic at all," Artemis said rolling her eyes.
"Well of course it isn't," Megan said with complete seriousness, causing the blond to sputter.
"Sooo…" Athena said drawing attention back to her. "Zatanna… Why were you snuggling up to my boyfriend last night?"
"I… had a bad dream…" she answered with an ashamed flush.
"What about?" Athena inquired firmly.
" . . . About being held hostage by the playing card mafia," she answered somewhat truthfully, since she wasn't all that great of a liar.
Territory of being a Catholic schoolgirl.
"Oh shit! You have those dreams too!" Tina gawped, causing Zatanna to gawp openly at her in turn.
"Well that went in an unexpected direction…" Artemis hummed as she went back to eating.
*GIVING THANKS*
Moxxi's Red Light
November 27, 7:57 EST
Deciding to get while the getting was good while everyone was groggy from the crazy-huge breakfast the adults had whipped up, Virgil slipped out of the house to visit Sunny and the others over at The Bunker, which he hadn't been back to since that thing with Peter and the radioactive Russian. Sarge wasn't on-duty that day pending a "patriotic American holiday celebrating the ass-kicking of filthy savages" (the wording on Sarge's memo), so it was easy for him to get by the more cool-headed Andersmith and make his way into The Bunker proper.
'Geez, doesn't that guy ever sleep?' he thought as he passed by Lopez, still working on modifying the ever-loving hell out of his car.
He wasn't sure where Sunny would be, so first he checked the cafeteria to see if she, Otacon, or Snake were still eating breakfast.
"Yeah, bitch! You take my stuffing up that ass!" Donut cried out aggressively from the kitchen, out of sight. "And just wait 'til you get a taste of my hot gravy!"
'Okay. Not gonna touch that with a ten-foot-pole…' Virgil said turning on his heel and leaving the cafeteria behind. Whether or not Donut was talking to/about a turkey didn't matter, he just didn't want to get caught up in all that weirdness.
At least not as long as he could help it. Doing so didn't make him a hypocrite.
*GIVING THANKS*
Avoiding that… that… whatever the fuck that was… Virgil made his way deeper into the base only to be accosted by another sexually-charged-and-attractive woman who made him uncomfortable.
"Dr. Gray…"
"Virgil, hey, Virgil, how're you doing? You doing okay, Virgil?" the attractive doctor asked, nervously wringing her hands.
"Dr. Gray… What did you do?" he asked tempering his sense of decency in expectation.
"You uh… You haven't been taking those pills I gave you, have you?"
"The counter-adrenalants or-"
"The night-before-the-morning-after pills," she interceded. "So, you haven't been taking those, have you?"
"Well, given I'm not chasing tail like a horny teenager… No. No I haven't," Virgil said flatly. Sure, he wanted to have sex, but he wasn't going to let his hormones destroy what he already had. That and since he lived under the same roof as… well, it kinda spoke for itself. " . . . Whyyyyyy…?"
"There uh… May've been a liiittle mix-up back in the lab… But you haven't taken any, so it's all good!" Dr. Gray replied in a relieved tone.
"Why? What was in the bottle you gave me?"
"It uh… may've been an experimental… libidoheighteningpsychoactivemeantforpandas," she said quickly.
" . . . I'm sorry what?"
"LikeIsaid… You didn't take any of it, so it's not important. Just be sure to dispose of it properly and we'll just forget about-"
"What was in the bottle then?"
"Um… Well… Those pills were to Viagra what Viagra is to blue M&Ms."
" . . . How the fuck do you get the two of those mixed up?" Virgil asked incredulously before his flattened expression became one of unadulterated horror. "WHAT THE FUCK WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF I'D USED THOSE PILLS!?"
"Watering down the nerd-speak… your penis would've shot off your body like a bottle rocket."
"EWWW!"
"Funny. That's what those lab techs said when it happened to some Rhesus Monkeys," she hummed aloud. "Good thing they were wearing safety glasses, otherwise-"
"Ew! Eww! EWWWWWW!"
*GIVING THANKS*
Sooo… Yeahhhh.
Suffice it to say after that fiasco, he would be unable to look at over-the-counter phallic stimulants the same way ever again.
'Good god I need normal friends.'
With that sentiment applied to his imaginary "To Do List"… somewhere down the line, he went over to one of the wall consoles and did what he should've done from the get-go.
"F.I.L.S.S. When you have a spare moment, can I ask you something?"
"I am capable of multi-tasking, you know," the AI quipped.
"I figured, but didn't want to assume. Anyway…"
The directness through which F.I.L.S.S. sent him on his way to Sunny only further-reinforced the fact he should've asked her first. With real-time locational data, it was ridiculously easy to find Sunny in Otacon's lab working on the computer, her fingers dancing across the keys at such a maddening pace, the second-hand computers he learned typing on in public school would've burst into flames.
"Morning, Sunny. You busy?"
"Not at all, just writing a little code," the pre-teen replied casually spinning her chair about. "What can I do for you?" she asked with large, innocent eyes.
Best to get through it quickly.
"Hey uh, Sunny, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be spending Thanksgiving topside."
Like tearing off a band-aid.
"Oh, I understand that. It'd be kinda hard to keep up your cover otherwise," the little blond girl replied.
"Oh! Uh, okay then… That was easier than expected," Virgil hummed scratching at his cheek. "So um… What're you doing there?"
"It's above your paygrade."
"If that's code for 'nerd magic so-complex you can't understand'… I understand."
"Well, I figured, but didn't want to assume~"
" . . . I feel like the Freelancers are a bad influence on you?"
"Well, what can you do? I'm wanted indirectly in three countries and can't go topside all-that frequently."
" . . . It's rather telling that I don't know if you're joking or not."
*GIVING THANKS*
After conversing with F.I.L.S.S. and learning the Freelancers he was more or less acquainted with were off-base at the moment, Virgil made to leave The Bunker when he was approached by-
"Dr. Yumeno, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Before you return topside, I'd like to upload some new software to your DNA Computer."
"*Sigh* I'll get the corn starch," Virgil sighed hanging his head.
"That won't be needed," the doctor waved off. "Some new equipment was developed that'll let us interface with SECOND independent of the Nanosuit; using the Cradle all the time just isn't cost-effective."
"Well that's a pleasant surprise," Virgil hummed.
"I also need to ensure your radiation exposure isn't causing SECOND to develop any cancerous growths pressing against the soft-tissues of your brain."
"That's… less-than-pleasant…"
*GIVING THANKS*
"Sooo… What exactly'd you put in there?" Virgil asked as he removed what looked like a sensory deprivation helmet from his head. He didn't feel like anything changed, but then again, it isn't like his regular brain would give him "updates" whenever he learned anything new…
That and it wasn't like he could use SECOND like a smartphone or anything.
"Nothing too major, just a few linguistic upgrades to help you with infiltration missions, if not every day life; pitch, tone, enunciation, a new language package. You know, 'the usual'," he said making air quotes.
"Oh, so, that makes English, Spanish, Russian, and…?"
"You'll find out during your next mission. This is all in preparation for that after all, and you'll be quite busy very soon."
"Still feels weird… knowing there's a whole new language crammed in there that I didn't study myself. I mean, sure I took a year of Spanish in high school, but…"
"The brain is the most-powerful computer in the world barring AI Blueboxes or Quantum Processors. You'd be surprised the benefits a DNA Computer can give you," Dr. Yumeno answered in turn. "Admittedly though, you'll still be a bit slow with the written word, but that'll change with practice. Can't have SECOND doing everything for you."
"That's fair," Virgil shrugged. "Hey, uh, random question. Is there any way you could have a program whipped up that lets me talk backwards really affluently? Hypothetically of course."
"There's no need to beat around the bush about it," Dr. Yumeno said making a note. "You wanna be good at the backwards magic you got from Giovanni Zatara; a little cheat code here and there couldn't hurt. And all things considered, Magic itself is like a cheat code."
"Hmmm… I feel like Charms, Jinxes, and Runes would be the 'cheat codes' of Magic," Virgil hummed aloud. 'And trust me, if I learn how to enscribe Runes, I'm going to abuse the hell out of that.'
And noooo! It didn't have anything to do with a certain Scotsman's indestructible Scottish Claymore.
Really, it didn't.
-thought Virgil to himself unconvincingly in case there was a telepath of Psycho Mantis' caliber skulking about.
"That's fair," Dr. Yumeno nodded unaware of the teen's internal turmoil. "I'll pass this along, see what the lab techs can get out of Beta, but don't hold your breath. It's a really long backlog and for all we know, by the time they actually get around to making what you're asking for, you'll already be affluent in jibber-jabber and not even need it anymore."
"Also fair."
"Anyhow, until your next visit, try to keep your head down. Your life is a valuable commodity."
"As long as no-one irradiates any turkeys or decides to turn Pet Sematary into the new Thanksgiving special, I think I'll be fine," Virgil chuckled good-naturedly… before quietly sobbing to himself at how-badly he jinxed himself.
"I hardly doubt we're talking cause-and-effect here," Dr. Yumeno deadpanned observing his expression.
"You don't know what it's like to be a superpowered teenager today…"
" . . . I'll just leave you to stew," Dr. Yumeno hummed as he walked away.
*GIVING THANKS*
With all of his business in The Bunker concluded, and a certain redhead who was on-site well avoided like radioactive isotopes…
"Virgil? You stopped short. Is something the matter?" F.I.L.S.S. inquired as the brunette's foot halted mid-stride.
" . . . I need to take care of some personal business I can't at home," Virgil answered as he turned on his heel, walking back into the depths of The Bunker. "Am I right in assuming there's no recording equipment in the private bathrooms?"
"You are right to assume so."
"Alright… Good. That's good," he nodded with a relieved sigh. "Pardon me then."
*GIVING THANKS*
"Virgil," F.I.L.S.S. spoke up a brief time later, the young mercenary riding the elevator topside.
"Yes, F.I.L.S.S.?"
"Might I inquire as to the nature of your 'personal business' you 'can't at home'?"
"No you may not."
"Very well," F.I.L.S.S. ceded, the elevator camera detecting an increase in blood flow to his cheeks despite his best efforts to conceal it.
*GIVING THANKS*
'I feel both relieved and humiliated…' Virgil thought himself as he jogged back to the Red Light, feel-good hormones coursing through his system following the completion of his much delayed… personal business. 'God, it feels like forever since I did normal teenager stuff.'
Sure, his new life was an exciting one, and he had no idea what he'd have done with himself if things hadn't turned out as they had, but sometimes he genuinely contemplated what his life would've been like if Mercer had just decided to stay dead.
'Thoughts for another day,' he ruminated to himself as he slipped through the rear door of the Red Light. Bombarded by music and the scent of cooking food in the stairwell, Virgil decided to poke his head into the bar where he found his female acquaintances all lounging about; Athena, Artemis, Shaula, Gaige, Zatanna, and Megan all sitting on stools with their backs against the bar were looking into the corner where a small stage and a karaoke machine were rigged up, Tiny Tina singing an off-key version of T.N.T. by AC/DC.
Because of course the little maniac would choose a song named after 2, 4, 6-trinitrotoluene…
"Well this is a rare sight…" Virgil said making his presence known. "I didn't know we had a karaoke machine."
"Yes, well, most of the time we've got nothing but drunks willing to use the thing, so Moxxi only puts it up on special occasions or when we close the bar," Athena hummed. "How was your jog?"
"I worked up a good sweat."
-said Virgil answering to the pretense he used to step out of the house.
"You definitely have. You're positively glowing," Megan hummed brightly.
"Guys don't 'glow', they sweat."
Artemis shooting him a look, before Megan could open her mouth to say something damning, Zatanna ribbed her, shooting her a knowing look.
" . . . Well at least you didn't do it while I was around."
"Oh what would you know. You don't even have a-"
"Shaula!" Virgil and Athena both gaped aghast before the younger Moxxi sibling could say anything else damning.
"What?! We all knew where she was going!" she huffed.
"What're they talking about?" Megan whispered, Zatanna's face lighting up like a Christmas tree as she looked at Virgil before quickly averting her eyes.
"Artemis, whatever I do or don't do in my free time, is none of your concern," Virgil said flatly.
"Yeah, whatever," Artemis shrugged, Tiny Tina's solo coming to an end. "Hey Tina! Pretty-boy's up next!"
"What?! Why me!?"
"Just curious~" she hummed. "Can you sing, or are you as tone-deaf as this little nutbar?"
"Hey! I am not crazy!" Tiny Tina snapped. "Moxxi had me tested and everything!"
"Yes, and I'm sure it was done by a reputable practitioner…" Artemis said dryly as she got up from her seat and shoved Virgil toward the stage with deceptive strength. "Well, go on then. If I have to suffer through this, so do you."
'Well… At least I'm not getting shot at,' Virgil thought as he took the path of least resistance, taking up the mic with one hand while turning to the selection screen with the other. " . . . Ah, screw it, I'll just hit Random."
*Beep*
Piano notes coming out of the speaker and setting the tempo, a few seconds later the sound of an old-fashioned typewriter in the background joined the music, and text with the pace-setter began to appear.
"Well I tumble outta bed an' stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition, an' yawn and stretch and try to come to life~ Jump'in in the shower and the blood starts pumpin', out on the street the traffic starts jumpin', with folks like me on the job from 9 to 5~" he sang like word vomit, his eyes going wide with shock as he sang a masculine version of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5… with perfect pitch, tone, and enunciation that definitely wasn't there the last time he sung recreationally!
And apparently he wasn't the only one that was shocked by the development, because most-every eye around the room were wide as saucers, jaws dropped as the room filled with his sonorous tones.
"Holy shit…!" Artemis gawped.
"My boyfriend can sing…!" Athena awed.
"Whoo! Sing it!" Megan cheered excitedly.
"Shake that moneymaker!" Gaige crooned since all he was doing was tapping his foot and snapping his finger, swaying from side to side as he sang.
'What the actual hell, Dr. Yumeno?!' Virgil thought to himself as the lyrics continued to roll off his tongue like it had a mind of its own, his captive audience whooping and cheering as he serenaded them. His cheeks were flushed red in embarrassment, and the song couldn't end soon-enough. "Uh… Thank you, I'll be here all week, make sure to tip your waitress-"
"Oh no you don't," Athena said palming his chest before he could leave. "It's my turn next, and we're doing a duet~"
*Gulp*
What followed was his captive audience turning the tables on him, forcing the brunette into a series of duets one after the other. With Athena, he sang Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee; with Zatanna, Do You Believe in Magic by The Lovin' Spoonful; with Megan he sang Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison; with Gaige he sang Mr. Roboto by Styx. Artemis and Shaula abstained, but nonetheless enjoyed themselves. With each performance the brunette loosened up, growing more-confident with his newfound singing voice and dancing more-animatedly with his partner. Something Athena greatly appreciated since their last outing as normal teenagers kinda went pear-shaped.
He supposed technically it was still his voice, it was just his technique that improved… but he couldn't help but feel like he was still cheating somehow.
On a possibly-unrelated note, he felt like the universe was fucking with him with these music selections because there was no way these so-thematic songs would all happen on Random…
*GIVING THANKS*
The gathered teens singing duets on Random until Virgil's voice started to creak, the formerly captive audience decided to give their mutual male acquaintance a break to lounge about, watching the TVs scattered across the room with Athena doling out fountain drinks from behind the counter on the regular for several hours. Athena took the opportunity to have her boyfriend try out the non-alcoholic cocktails her mother had taught her, leaving Artemis to gag and retch at all the namby-pampy pampering going on. Zatanna nursed her beverage somberly, while Gaige threw back hers like hard liquor.
Hopefully she wouldn't develop an alcohol problem…
As the day went on, the smells of cooking food continued to waft down the stairwell, causing more than one rumbling stomach as the bar filled with the scent of Thanksgiving. Occasionally, one of the teens was called up to help with preparations, whereas Virgil was reprimanded to "Tina duty", and if the burn marks were any indication, the reasoning was self-explanatory.
Eventually the Thanksgiving Day Parade began to play on the TV, or maybe just a re-run of it, and it was a fine lead-in to the evening meal to come.
"Hey, why aren't they having the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York?" Megan asked as the floats drifted over the streets of Metropolis instead.
"A while back some damn fool of a Human Rights activist tried hijacking a parade float to ferry the Infected out of the Red Zone," Shaula answered lazily. "I mean sure, the naval blockade stopped them and stopped them hard, but it was still a security risk."
"Is it really that bad in New York?" Megan blinked.
"Only in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx," Virgil answered nursing his beverage. "Based on what the 'Red Zone' looks like, I wouldn't want the Mercer Virus getting anywhere near the mainland. If that shit could commute across large bodies of water, we'd probably be screwed already."
"You seem pretty well-informed on the subject," Artemis hummed.
"I make it my business to know when the most-wanted bio-terrorist in the world turns American soil into his stomping ground," Virgil waved off. Sure, people didn't actively talk about it, but everyone was living in fear of The Mercer Virus escaping containment; doubly-so since this wasn't something the Justice League could magically fix by punching in the face and throw it in jail.
"I feel like that'd be kind of a narrow list…" Shaula hummed.
"Have you seen the Red Zone lately? That shit looks like an alien planet."
Say whatever you want about the information blackout, wrap as many naval barricades as you want around Manhattan, and even try to claim that all the photos people got with telescopes are all fake; but there's no fucking way you can hide an entire city from its neighbors on the shoreline looking at it with caveman eyeballs. There just isn't. It was basically an open secret that Manhattan was a borderline Hellscape, and since the last group of B-List Villains who wanted to steal some of the Mercer Virus to use in their schemes were completely annihilated by the Navy and the Army…
Yeah, you could understand how people can still go on about their days even when a bio-terrorist is making his meat-fortress right on their shoreline.
"Anyway, I'm just glad the Justice League has the good sense to stay out of it," Virgil said finishing his drink.
" . . . Well that's a bit of a downer," Artemis hummed before turning back to the TV. "Oh my god, did they seriously make a parade float of Lex Luthor?"
"Well, he does own most of Metropolis," Athena hummed.
"At least he didn't put a cape on himself," Gaige added, since the CEO's animosity toward superman was also an open secret.
"You all have fun, I'm going to see how things are doing in the kitchen," Virgil waved off as he climbed the stairs now that Tina had crashed from her most-recent sugar high.
*GIVING THANKS*
"Giovanni… I feel like this is a grievous misuse of your power," Virgil said flatly as he watched the Justice League member prepare a litany of traditional and nontraditional Thanksgiving dishes with nothing but his magic, his wand dancing about like a conductor's baton.
Honestly it looked like something out of the Harry Potter movies; ingredients moving to serving dishes and self-cooking all without ovens or stoves.
It was understandable since they were serving for so-many people in only one kitchen, but still…
"Yes, well, what's the point of having Heat Vision if you don't use it to heat your coffee?" Giovanni asked while "John" awkwardly scratched at his bald head.
"As long as you don't turn Pet Sematary into the new Thanksgiving special, I do not care…" Virgil waved off as he walked over to Moxxi. "You need a hand?"
"No, sug', but you're a peach for asking~" she said sweetly, bereft of makeup now that she wasn't tending the bar. "You go back to making 'sweet music' with the girls~ We've got things handled here~"
"It was just karaoke!" Virgil said with a red face.
"And you have one hell of a set of pipes on you," Moxxi smiled. "I wonder what sound you'll make when my daughter-~"
"Right! Okay! Gladyoudon'tneedhelpbye!" Virgil said scurrying out of the kitchen and into the living room where the Fortune Hunters were all lounging about. "God, that woman…"
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."
"Lilith… I'd rather not."
"Trust me, kid, you're better off getting a place of your own as soon as you can," Mordecai said somberly as he downed a whole bottle of beer.
"What's his problem?" Virgil asked. "Actually, you know what, I don't wanna know."
"Good call," Roland stated. "Still though, I had no idea you could sing."
"You ever think of doing that on the side?" Brick asked.
"Not really, no," Virgil waved off, hoping he wouldn't have to infiltrate a boy band in the future or something. "So, what're you watching?"
*GIVING THANKS*
Moxxi's Red Light
November 27, 18:11 EST
The day went by in a flash, the scent of Thanksgiving dinner so-intense Virgil though the smell might've become sentient.
"Ugh, I hate sentient smells…" Mordecai groaned.
Virgil didn't know if the drunken sniper was joking or not…
Anyway, once all the food had been prepared, everyone formed a caravan up and down the stairwell to take all the food into the bar, since the dining room upstairs was way too small to accommodate so-many people. With the entirety of the bar turned into a buffet line and everyone getting their own tables, Virgil noticed something out of place after doing a headcount.
"Hey Moxxi, I think you put out too many places," Virgil said as he eyed the three extra place settings at an unoccupied table.
"No I didn't," the bar tender replied with a knowing smile. *Knock*Knock*Knock* "Oh! They're right on time!" she said going over to the door.
"Wait, who's right on OH HOLY CRAP!" he yelped as a platinum blond girl bowled him over squealing-
"I missed youuu!"
"S-SUNNY?!"
"Oh my god she's adorabllle!" Megan squealed happily as Sunny nuzzled her face into his chest.
"S-Sunny, what're you-"
"Roll with it," she muttered into his ear with Codec.
"Well, well, if it isn't my favorite, and possibly only, nephew!" Otacon greeted excitedly as he came in, bereft of his white lab coat for a more-generic winter coat. "Mrs. Moxxi, thanks for looking after this trouble-maker. I really appreciate it."
"Actually, it's currently Ms. Moxxi~" the matron purred sexily.
"Mom, don't, we were just about to eat…" Athena groaned.
"Yeah, save the flirting for later," a familiar gravelly voice groaned.
'Ah, geez… I never realized how thin he was,' Virgil thought as Snake closed the door behind them, clad in a suit and tie. Without his Sneaking Suit filling him out for training exercises, he looked every part the old man accelerated aging made him out to be. Sure, the Medical Nanotech he was currently using was taking the edge off, but in everyday clothes, his age still showed.
If ever there was a man who'd "been there, done that, wrote the book, directed & starred in the movie, and designed the T-Shirt", it was Snake. No contest.
A few nearby winced at the burn marks dominating the left side of his face, but at least they had the decency not to say anything. Hell, for all they knew those were napalm burns and he was a WWII veteran.
"Here, sir. Let me help you in," Megan said kindly offering the man her arm.
"Well aren't you sweet," Snake said with a grandfatherly smile, really hamming it up as he let the disguised alien guide him to his seat.
"Virgil! Virgil look!" Sunny said happily as she held up a Tupperware container, her face beaming. "I cooked them right!"
'Well…' Virgil hummed as he eyed the sunny side up eggs she'd brought. 'Wouldn't be the first out-of-place item at the table,' he thought eyeing the caprese salad on the bar he'd seen Zatanna prepare earlier. "They look delicious, Sunny. Thank you," he said mussing her hair, the little shut-in preening happily.
"Um, mom, who is this?" Rina asked warily.
"This is Virgil's uncle, Mr. Emmerich, his cousin, Sunny, and over there's his gramps, David," Moxxi introduced. "I've been in cahoots with them behind your boyfriend's back like I was with the others~"
"Any other surprises in store?" Artemis asked, given how well the last one went off.
Sure, having another blood-sister in the world was a shock, but compared to the last one, there was very little Athena could do to put her off.
"Mmmm. Nope. That should be about it," Moxxi smiled sweetly.
"Oh thank god," the half-sisters sighed in concert.
"Anyway, we can chat later. For not, LET'S EAT!" she said waving everyone over to the buffet line, more than one person gulping down their drool as they beheld the picture-perfect food from the turkeys to the stuffing to the pies. "TINA! No pie until you've eaten your vegetables."
"Aw maaaaan!" the world's most-dangerous thirteen-year-old whined.
'God, I can't believe I'm the same age as that girl,' Sunny thought making a sour face.
*GIVING THANKS*
Since there wasn't any explicit "kids table" in the bar, which actually looked respectable when it wasn't filled with drunkards, everyone in attendance broke down into their respective cliques; Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick sat in one group; Moxxi, Paula, Giovanni, and John in another; Virgil sat with Athena, Gaige, and Sunny, while Rina, Tina, Zatanna, Megan, and Artemis sat with his "family" asking questions about Virgil.
Snake and Hal for their parts did a pretty good job establishing their "relationship" with Virgil without ruining anything. The story went that they weren't related by blood, but were close friends of Virgil's parents who'd died when he was very young. When asked why Virgil didn't live with them, the answer, as Hal painted it, was that Virgil didn't want to "be a bother" but had said he'd call them for help if he really needed it.
To anyone else, that story would've had more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but for a family as-dysfunctional as the Moxxi's, or even Artemis' for that matter, it wasn't completely out there that Virgil's family life would be "complicated".
Speaking of which…
"Hey Moxxi."
"Yes, sug'?"
"Remind me again why Ellie and Scooter aren't here with us? Shaula said she was hanging out with the two of them to keep Scooter 'civil', but she didn't really elaborate further…" he asked, since keeping Scooter 'civil' could just-as-easily be done at a big family get-together.
"Oh, well, I'm surprised you weren't told more already," Moxxi said aloud, growing a little more pensive. "I guess the cliff notes version of it is, when I told Ellie she should slim down and actually care about her appearance and work in my bar instead of living out in a scrapyard in The Dust, she… didn't take it well."
"Oh is that all," Virgil hummed, recalling the animosity that occurred at aforementioned State family reunions he'd been privy to. "All things considered, you could've done worse things to alienate yourself from her."
"Yes, yes, because – GOD FORBID! – I want her to actually care about her appearance," Moxxi trailed off, a small fit of anger showing.
"At least you actually care about your daughter's wellbeing. I've seen plenty of mothers and daughters who can't even stand one another. You might not have the healthiest relationship with one another, but at least you're trying to be civil…" 'I assume,' he thought. "You genuinely care about Ellie, and even though being a parent is a thankless job, I'm sure somewhere deep down, she appreciates it."
"Thank you, sweetie. I appreciate it," Moxxi nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing him in for a hug. "I'm just glad that whole thing with the Hodunks and Zafords is said and done. Maybe now I don't have to worry so much."
"The who and the who?" Giovanni blinked.
"Don't ask," Virgil and Moxxi said together.
"Fair enough," the magician replied.
"Moxxi."
"Hm?"
"Thank you for reaching out to me after so long," Paula hummed, a somber expression on her face. "Without you, it would've been just Artemis and I, but this…" she said gesturing to the bar where everyone ate and chatted excitedly. "This is a Thanksgiving to remember."
"I'm glad we could meet up again," she said setting her hand on Paula's own, the two looking into one another's eyes for a while before their daughters coughed loudly into their fists.
'If they wanna do the dance with no pants, I'm not going to judge,' Virgil thought to himself as he went back to eating, piling a little bit of everything onto his plate as he tried to push down the memories of all the women he'd met who got his motor running.
As he ate, thinking back to the time he'd spent with the State family, thanking the Moxxi family for the life they'd given him and promising his departed family he'd continue on living, even after Mercer was out of the picture, Megan approached him with an old-fashioned apple pie with braided strips on the top.
"Here, Virgil! Try some of my hot pie! I made it myself~" the red-head said with a grin that made Athena spit-take and the others laugh aloud at the double-entendre.
"Hey Virgil~" Gaige purred as she leaned into his shoulder. "You wanna try my hot pie~" she asked huskily.
"I didn't know you baked a pie," Megan blinked.
"I didn't~" the ginger genius purred as she stared Virgil right in the eye, not-so-subtly tugging at the waistline of her pants.
" . . . I don't get it."
"Oh you sweet summer child…" Artemis deadpanned while her half-sister quietly raged at the other girl genius.
*GIVING THANKS*
'That… is a lot of dead turkeys…' Virgil thought as he stared into the trashcan filled with skeletonized birds, stripped of meat to the bone as the numerous groups gathered together tore into one expertly-cooked turkey after the other.
"Mrs. Moxxi, your cooking is phenomenal," Megan smiled brightly. "However do you get your turkeys cooked so-perfectly?" she asked as she cut into crispy skin, and moist flesh.
"Oh… Secret family recipe~" the matriarch grinned.
"Fresh bird, coming in!" Athena announced as she came into the bar carrying another large bird on a platter.
"Um… Sis?"
"Yes, Artemis?"
"Why is there an arrow stuck in this one?"
"And why is it on its back?" Megan blinked since the thing looked like it'd been shot in the heart, fallen on its back, and cooked as-was.
"Really? That's what you hone in on?" Artemis blinked flatly.
"Oh, this is one of the wild birds Virgil shot himself," the girl genius answered as she set the turkey down in a formerly-vacant space on the counter. "I didn't cook the turkey like this, I just stabbed the arrow in there like a garnish."
"Oh, like those little chef hats that go on their feet?" Megan blinked.
"Pretty much, yeah," she shrugged.
"Wait, you went out and shot wild turkeys?" Zatanna blinked. "That's so cool!"
"Hey, Slab! Tell them about the thing with the mountain-"
"NOTHING! Nothing! Happened!" Virgil cut in drawing an imaginary knife across his throat.
"Oh? You have something to hide~?" Artemis purred.
"Yes! Very much so!"
"Oh, just, gonna come straight out and admit it, huh…?"
"Pretty much, yeah," he said wrenching out the arrow . "End. Of. Discussion," he said waving the delicious-smelling arrowhead in her general direction.
"Yessir…" she squeaked, knowing how-much damage one of those could cause.
*GIVING THANKS*
With certain awkwardness aside and many precision-cooked turkeys later, the feast had come to an end. Amazingly enough, there were still leftovers to be made into sandwiches the next day, and while the grownups hobbled away to sleep off their respective food comas, Virgil, Athena, Gaige, Sunny, Zatanna, Megan, and Artemis all crashed on the sofa, mindlessly channel surfing as their energy continued to flag from all the food they'd eaten.
"Geez…" Virgil yawned. "Hundreds of channels and still nothing on…"
"Well, I doubt we'll be awake… long-enough for that to… be an issue," Artemis yawned loudly.
"Virgil… Let's pass out together~" Gaige sighed wistfully.
'Is there something wrong with that girl?' Megan asked Zatanna telepathically.
'There's nothing wrong with her; she's just horny,' Zatanna returned.
'Horny…? OH! Like that feeling you get where you look at boys as if they were made of bacon, like you've never eaten it in your life, and all you want to eat is bacon!'
'Yeah… That's… one way of looking at it…' the magical girl deadpanned, wondering who the hell gave her that explanation of Earth puberty.
"Hey, that news story looks interesting," Athena said as the news came on, showing a still of a red-and-black leather-clad ninja fighting what looked like a giant turkey on steroids with a katana in one hand and an SMG in the other.
The ninja. Not the turkey.
And yes, people are that stupid…
"Holy crap… It's the Return of the Überfarm:… With a Vengeance…" Gaige narrated ominously.
"Über-what now…?" Artemis blinked.
"Nothing! She said nothing!" Virgil said flatly as he quickly changed the channel. "Oh look; Joker fell down some stairs."
"Who trips on a bottle of hand sanitizer?" Zatanna blinked as the subtitles rolled.
"At least he didn't get away," Megann hummed.
"Next!" Artemis cut in, Virgil flipping through the channels.
"Oh! It's the guy who made that new Syn-Sugar stuff!" Zatanna blinked as a news story from Central City about a new rich CEO donating a ludicrous amount of money to a charity was showed.
"What, you mean that zero-calorie sugar substitute that actually tastes like real sugar?" Artemis asked. "I thought that was just more corporate buzzwords."
"Yeah, I heard about it from my dad," the magical girl nodded. "Apparently his 'synthetic sugar' interfered with yeast cells and he got fired by a younger man who worked half as hard for twice as much money at this big pastry company, and before he could go on a rampage as 'Sugarman' with his 'Sugar Gun', the Flash talked him down."
"And now the guy's filthy rich after starting his own company," Gaige hummed as she read into it. "Bet the guy who fired him got fired, huh? Huh?"
"It's not really my concern, but at least someone on the Justice League is trying to de-escalate this 'Heroes v Villains' nonsense," Virgil chuffed.
"I know, right?!" Artemis piped in. "I mean, remember the story of the grief-stricken police sniper that Batman beat the ever-loving shit out of so he couldn't put one between the Joker's eyes because he killed the guy's wife?"
"I'm sure Gordon tried to suppress that story," Virgil huffed irately.
"Oh, he did, but Jameson dragged it kicking-and-screaming into the light of day," Artemis nodded.
"Well, nice to know there's more than one critic for superheroes in the room," Virgil smiled while Zatanna and Megan shrank in their seats.
"Why don't we… change the channel," Athena said noticing the twos' distress, grabbing the remote from Virgil's hand and going back to flipping.
"Oh look, it's the Hulk," Virgil hummed as shaky footage of a hulking green mountain of gamma-irradiated muscle rescued people from a collapsing bridge, a gaping hole blown in the middle of it.
"Wait, the Hulk is real?" Artemis blinked.
"You live in the same city as 'Flying Nocturnal Rodent Man', and that's what you don't believe in?" Virgil asked incredulously.
"Yeah, well, Batman I can understand. A super-soldier with a rich sponsor wearing black-and-gray attire for urban camouflage with a bat theme to play on vampire superstitions; realistic. A nerd surviving a nuclear explosion and turning into something stronger than Superman… That, is a little harder to swallow…"
"It wasn't nuclear radiation that did that to him. It was gamma radiation," Gaige countered.
"What's the difference?"
"An indictment of the American education system, apparently," the girl genius said flatly causing the blond archer to bristle.
"Shh. I'm listening," Virgil shushed as he honed in on the screen.
He'd have leaned forward, but Athena and Gaige using his shoulders as a pillow.
As for why Virgil stayed on this news story but passed over giant turkeys, the Joker falling down some stairs, and a feel-good story about a guy the Flash stopped from going full-on Villain… The reason was because, having aided and abetted the Hulk's escape from Thadeus Ross on one of his missions, he had a vested interest on whether or not the time and effort he'd invested was returning dividends. Especially since if anyone found out he could be accused of treason.
That the Hulk genuinely was saving people from other people's fuck-ups meant he'd made the right choice by not standing by and letting Banner get caught. Hell, if he'd gotten that line of sonic weaponry discontinued because they "failed explosively", all the better.
As for the story itself…
Apparently, a rogue paramilitary organization, as the news channel spun it, were bringing in a hyper-illegal type of bomb into Canada under the guise of construction-grade explosives to hunt down a rogue Metahuman, Dr. Bruce Banner aka "The Hulk". As for what set the "Metal Dust Bombs" off, while that in of itself was still being investigated, the commentators cited the likely cause as being the result of cheap electronic detonators, static electricity contracting with the metallic dust particles causing a short, or a hard impact on the road causing a premature detonation; if not all of the above. Almost the entirety of the bridge's center had been blown clean out, the entire thing on the verge of collapsing, when the very same rogue Meta that was being hunted came to countless peoples' rescues, leaping to safety with literal car-fulls of people on each shoulder in each trip. Before Alpha Flight, Canada's premier superhero taskforce could arrive to help, the Hulk had already rescued the majority of the people before vanishing into the wilderness, his gamma-green hide acting as a near-perfect camouflage while Alpha Flight was sufficiently preoccupied with any stragglers.
Because this occurred over the Canadian border, though aid had been offered by certain branches of the American armed forces, the Canadian government was quick to refute the aid since "something smelled rotten in the city of Denmark" as it were.
At face value, the "rogue paramilitary organization" hunting down the Hulk would've been written off as just-that; a rogue paramilitary organization, aiming for the substantial bounty on the monstrous gamma scientist's head, since allegedly, Banner had gone on the run with state secrets in his head. Virgil however knew enough about the world to suspect that this was just Ross throwing some of his more-devoted zealots under the bus, trying to make up for the long line of failures despite the fact that the Justice League had been kept off his back for so long.
Of course it also helped that the men in that truck were all dead and there wasn't enough left of them fit in a thimble, let alone identify.
Virgil would later learn what "Metal Dust Bombs" actually were, which only further cemented the sentiment that he was rooting for the right side in that back-alley cockfight.
"MDBs" were essentially a type of explosive that on-detonation would release clouds of metallic dust particles into the air. When inhaled, these particles would cause massive intrabronchial trauma, infinitely worse than poison if not most nerve agents, and barring a double-lung-transplant were always fatal if not outright crippling. As a result, these weapons were banned in many countries by the Geneva Convention, and further conformation by his own sources within FoxHound confirmed that MDBs were only made in certain parts of Asia and wildly illegal for import; but somehow not for export. With how-imprecise they were and how many noncombatant casualties they could cause as the metallic dust was carried off for miles and miles, on top of them being as-sensitive as jars of Nitroglycerin, and he could understand why no-one sane, or legally sanctioned, would use such a thing.
With these debilitating qualities in mind, it was no wonder Ross in all his "infinite wisdom" would attempt to bring such a thing to bear against his nemesis. The Hulk might've been "the strongest one there is", but even his gamma-irradiated muscles needed oxygen to function, and the best way to mess with that was to destroy the lungs.
That the man had been stupid-enough to try and pull something over Canada, hurtful stereotypes aside, and Virgil wondered how many more Sabotage Missions he'd have to actually undertake, given the man could likely defeat himself if left to his own devices.
Of course that, was a story for another day.
"Well, nice to know the world keeps on turning…" Virgil hummed tiredly before letting out a jaw-creaking yawn, the remote falling out of his hands as his eyelids grew heavy. "G'night… Don't let the bedbugs bite…"
A moment later he conked out like a dead lightbulb.
*GIVING THANKS*
AN:
The day after this chapter releases, I'll be changing my PenName from NeoNazo356 to NewMystery356 (its full English translation), since for some reason, despite the big honking "O" after the "Naz" in my PenName, people still link that with "Neo Nazi".
Honestly, you'd think people weren't that stupid, but my time on XBOX Live has taught me that yes, people are in fact, "that stupid". So from now on, whenever you see that "NewMystery356" has updated, it's still me, just with a pinch of re-branding. While I'd like to think that the "NeoNazo" didn't chase people off in the past, but... well...
"yes, people are in fact, 'that stupid'."
- NewMystery356
Anyway, hope you'll keep reading this and other works of mine; especially my first explicit Self-Insert story, Another Hero Academia: Out of Time.
Until next time, SEE YOU SOON!