Locked, Stock Material

"What? Are you mad? I'm not trying to peep on Chris, I like being alive dammit!" Jake shouted back. "How am I supposed to know which window is what? And when is climbing a tree eating a candy bar me being a peeping tom? I'm insulted you'd insinuate that and DAMMIT ARIES STOP PESTERING ME RIGHT NOW!" he shouted to the sky. He rubbed his forehead and started walking away. "Fuck this, I'm going home."

He turned and headed for the sidewalk.

Aries? I thought to myself. Before that could get too far though.....Chris came up the stairs, and found me in her room. "James, where do you think you are?" Oh.....shit. Turning around slowly, I stared down Chris the same way I'd probably stare down a firing squad. "Hey....so uh, funny thing..."

And...Jake heard them through the open window.
"Fucker is gonna owe me." Walking back, he sighed and shouted. "He caught me outside your window Chris. He's innocent of all but catching me eating candy in a tree. Please don't eviscerate him."

Chris walked past me to the window and looked down at Jake, shouting "He's still in my room Jake. But he just got out of the hospital, so I'm giving him a free pass. You on the other hand......start running!"

"Just ensuring he lives milady." Jake bowed. "At your leave."

And so he began to fucking book it.

"Keep running, we attend the same school!" Chris shouted after Jake as he ran away. She turned back to face me, but she wasn't angry. She actually looked.....like had swallowed a few gallons worth of laughter. "So....what to do about you," she said, and I got a bit nervous.

A minute later, I was downstairs playing the FPS with her......and losing. Badly. And on purpose. So was my punishment for violating the sanctity, that was Chris' room.

Jake had stopped running once he got half a house away. He doubted Chris would really chase him; besides, she'd go to him at school.

Doubling back, he hopped a few fences and hid in a way bushier tree near the center top, waiting for the lights to go out.
"Fuck you Aries. That girl will kill me."
"Then use PERSEUS."
"...that's not enough to stop her..."

A few minutes later, Chris yawned and said she was going to take a nap. She thumped up the stairs and I heard her door close, and I took that as a sign.......that I had time and privacy to really test out what these nanites could do. Going up to my own room, I closed the door, and thought to Gestalt Okay.....Gestalt, I want to test out what you can do. Is that doable?

Of course our--apologies, of course James. However, you will need to remove your prosthetics.

That was rather surprising, and I was a bit hesitant o do that. But I wasn't one to argue, especially since so far, the AI had yet to do me harm, save for our introduction. Sitting on the bed, I felt around the area where my artificial leg connected to my......stump. There was a button located there, that allowed me to remove the limb when pressed. So I pressed the button when I found it, and the limb loosened and popped off. I did the same for my arm, and sat there, suddenly reminded of how incomplete I was. So.....now what? In answer, there was a sudden itching sensation all over my body. It felt like my skin was crawling, and I saw in near shock, as I looked at my left hand, this gray.....ooze, seeping out of my skin. It came up out of me in what amounted to a flood, crawling all over. And it wasn't coming from my arm alone: my leg, my neck and face. Hell my clothes crawled because the stuff was moving beneath it on my skin before it also came through my clothes. Then it coated my eyes, and I was blind.

Or so I thought. On reflex, I had closed my eyes, but when I opened them I realized I could still see perfectly, like the ooze wasn't there. There was a weight on my right, and I looked to see.....my arm. It was there, metallic and gray colored, didn't look at all like it was alive. But by thunder it felt. I could feel. It made me stand up, and I realized I could also feel my leg, the weight placed on it. So I looked down, and sure enough there was my leg. Looking up, I looked into the mirror in my room, a life-size mirror hung on my door. And I saw myself.

The ooze......the nanomachines, had formed some kind of layer, or suit around my entire body, even my clothes. After a few seconds, the smooth, featureless surface changed, and was replaced by what looked like a very good impersonation of the human muscular system, but instead of the typical red I saw in school books, this was still the same color of the machines: gun metal gray.

Construction of nano-cell epidermis complete. One moment, adjusting facial features.

Oh right. My head looked the same, more or less. My hair was gone, smoothed out and into a shell, but the features of my face were still there. Put it this way: it was basically a nano-machine reconstruction of my face. Try and smooth the features out. Maybe extend yourself over them and make it look, I don't know, like a faceplate or something.

So pretty much Libra's day went to hell. The Scales had let her off with the grey area, but those US Military jets were now really getting pissy. Gunfire and stuff.
So she did something stupid.

She pulled a Godzilla and started flying around New York's skyscrapers like a madman.

Jake...he was waiting for the house to sleep before commiting a crime.

Nick wrote:

"So, I don't have to pay you for anything then?" I said to the cabby, "No, you still have to pay." Oh, well, I have no money to pay, so this might be a problem. "I don't have any money to pay you with." We sat at a red light, the cabby turned in his seat and looked at me, "You're kidding, right?" I was honest with him, I had no money. So, he kicked me out of the cab. He was probably wishing I had told him earlier. As opposed to driving almost into the city of New York and then finding out I had no money to speak of. Lesson learned, I suppose, on his part. I sat down on the curb, of the not so busy street, and thought to myself. "What am I going to do now?" The answer to that is I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do now.

I'm not used to solving these kinds of problems. I'm not used to being alone on this level, I usually have someone to turn to for guidance. Now I just feel lost. These are problems that other people have, not me. I don't get evicted for not paying rent, I pay the rent, I deal with it. I don't have to find a homeless shelter for the night, that's someone else's problem. I'd sleep on the street tonight, probably. Unless I found a place to stay. I could find a church, they might be able to give me sanctuary for a while.

What was I going to do?

"As the night fell, and the moon began to peak through the clouds that so often came over new york, I sat on the curb. The 'burbs had been hit pretty hard by the war. Poverty, high prices, low wages. Crime was pretty rampant. People go missing here and half the time it never reaches the media. People always cling to the best version of things that they remember. Stuck in a memory. I sat on that curb for a long time. Too long, I guess."

These were the last thoughts and actions of Nicholas. The cat that had appeared in his house had long since wandered away, and as he sat on the curb, a loud pop could be heard, echoing in the streets, and a bullet tore through his skull and his brain. His brains were splattered over his suitcase, and the pavement. Beneath the moonlight his blood looked black. Dogs barked after the shot rang out, and the gunman ran out from his hiding place, and picked up the suitcase and the belongings of his late victim. As blood began to pool out from his dead body, the gunman hurried away, hood pulled up over his face. The body of Nicholas was found the next morning.

His body was examined and after forensics and the forensic techs came by and took their photos and marked evidence. His body was taken to a morgue at the, Jacobi Medical Center, on 1600 Pelham Parkway South. He was given the name "John Doe" as he had no ID on him. He was one of 8 that were found dead in the night in the Bronx area. The NYPD labelled it a murder, and did some initial questioning of the residence, all of whom had no information to give other than being awoken by some loud noise. No one saw the culprit, no one had any idea who it could have been. His file was made cold, and he would go under as an unsolved murder. An all too common occurrence now in the NYPD.

Nicholas' body was scheduled for an autopsy in a few days, because their were other bodies that needed autopsies, and they only had so many medical examiners qualified for performing an autopsy. His body was lain in a body bag, with a tag on it. The state of his body unknown. At this moment he was both dead and alive. Like Schrödinger's cat. Until the bag is opened, and his body seen, he remains in a state of both the living and the dead.

When he had been shot, his mind was sent flying into the moon. In the sense that the moon is the portal through which spirits flow into the afterlife. Stripped of his physical self through an act of selfishness by some stranger, he flew into the world known as the Meta, or Beyond, or for simple understanding, the spirit world. His metaphysical self flew to a place in the Meta where he passed Aphrodite and Eros paying home-age to Pisces, for saving their lives so long ago. He came to rest by Amphitrite the wife of Poseidon, and the goddess of the sea, and of his sign, pisces. She wore the same gown as always, adorned in the colors of the sea that of golden coral and blue ocean, her dark hair was pulled back, and her brown eyes always seemed to hold secrets.

She smiled, sadly, as Nicholas came to rest beside her. She said to him, "You sad boy, you've died again, you know?" He gave a slanted grin, and scratched the side of his head, "Yeah..." She looked him as a mother or grandmother looks to her son or grandson, and says, "I have to send you back. You're not done with this life yet." He looked up at her, a sadness in his eyes, but he nodded because he understood that his life was more than just misfortune and bad luck. He would ask Amphitrite, but she would give him no answer. He felt a soft warmth on his shoulder, and he looked up into the eyes of Amphitrite, and he fell into them. Falling back to the earthly realm, rejoining the world of the living.

He opened his eyes in some foreign place. In a room in an apartment, on bed that felt comfortable. He closed his eyes again, and decided that he would sleep. The apartment was in New York City, near one of the New York Panacea building. It was not an upscale apartment, but it was a place to live in. It had two rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. It was pretty clean too, almost as if someone had cleaned it recently. It used to be called Lawrence Gardens, Luxury Apartments, now it was just Hexic Apartments.

My face suddenly felt weird, like someone slapped gelatin on it and I saw in the mirror how the features on my face changed. Like putty shifting around, the features smoothed out until my face was nothing but a smooth mask. Cool, I thought to myself, but then a thought occurred to me. Wait, how can I see this? Aren't you covering my eyes?

Yes, but you see what we see James.

This was starting to become really, really cool. Moving to the window, I opened it up and did something I never thought I'd do: I jumped out of the window, and to the ground. My legs hit first, and the first thing I noted was the lack of pain. Standing up, I looked around to make sure no one was looking, or walking in the street.

Okay, time to find our testing grounds, I thought and the first thing that came to mind was the warehouse district. Breaking into a run, I moved down the street and realized I was going faster. Way faster. Whoa....how fast am I going?

Roughly 35 miles per hour, though the speed cannot be maintained indefinitely. Your body, even augmented by us, needs time between bursts. And each burst will be good for perhaps two minutes.

Damn. That effectively made me the fastest human alive. But that train of thought was cut short, as a car turned the corner onto the street, right into me. No time to think, I instinctively jumped.....and found myself leaping over the car. Not jumping on the hood and running over, or vaulting over the car but leaping right over the damn thing. I heard tires swerve as the driver panicked, but there was no sound of a crash, so I guessed they were okay. But that was too close, and it nearly caused an accident. I needed a route off the streets.

If we may James, while we searched your internet, we downloaded maps of the surrounding area. We anticipated that it would be of future use. If you would allow it, we can show you a path to take, that will reduce the odds of being seen or causing unwanted accidents.

Do it. Suddenly, a semi-solid strip of light appeared in front of me, trailing upwards to the rooftop of a two story building.I realized the line was part of the augmented reality Gestalt mentioned. On reflex, I jumped and was shocked at how high I jumped. It would have shamed an Olympic pole vaulter, and this was without a pole. I only got as high as the ledge, but it was enough for to grab a hold and pull myself up. On the roof, I felt myself in very familiar territory; on the roof, an obstacle course before me, and next to zero restrictions. Running once more, I vaulted over the vents, turbines, and every obstacle on the roof. As I neared the end, overlooking the street, I jumped once more. My speed allowed me to jump farther, and I was able to get to the next roof.

It wasn't that long of a run to the docks, and soon I stood atop the last building before reaching the warehouse district. This part of town was controlled by a variety of gangs, but the most dominant of them was Legion. They didn't even count as a gang really, more like an organized mob. This was just what I had heard on the streets, and even then it was limited, but they did just about everything; drugs, fencing of stolen goods, racketerring, and a host of others.

If you are worried about ballistic weaponry, there is nothing to fear. The nano-cell epidermis offers ample protection from all forms of physical or ballistic trauma.

Okay now that would be handy, if I encountered any trouble. Jumping down to the street, I continued to run towards the warehouse, finding some solidarity within a vacant building. The inside was scarce, not just of occupants but of any cargo. Some construction tools were around, hanging from the wall to my left, and there were several workbenches set up. Other than that and a few crates, there was nothing of value here. Perfect. Okay...so my speed is augmented. I can also jump higher, and clearly survive a two story fall. Bullet proof, self healing.....anything else?

Increased strength. Formation of basic melee weaponry. Cloaking.....

Hello girl's locker room......if Chris' creeper sense didn't sniff me out first. Moving to one of the crates, a large one nearly size and definitely looking heavy, I grabbed both sides and lifted it up with all the ease of picking up a plastic chair. Holy shit....this is awesome. Setting it back outside, I decided to try out the weaponry. Gestalt helped, by giving me the idea of what I could actually make, and I formed my right hand into a blade. It extended from the middle of my forearm and ended a few inches of where my fingers used to be. I took a swipe at the same crate, and cut through it like it was butter. Retracting the blade and turning my arm back into....well, an arm, I thought to Gestalt Activate the cloaking. Before my eyes, my arm vanished, except for a faint.....shimmer, I guess. The nanites were doing a mix of refraction, and photographing and displaying my surroundings on the epidermis in real-time, so to a truly careful observer they'd see a faint haze, like heat on the pavement in summer. Moving to the door, I stepped outside into the warehouse district.

Okay, first off: district, was probably not the right word. Zone may have been better. Mostly because while people worked here, no one was really selling anything here. Well, legally anyway. That was the first thing I learned as, while still in stealth mode, I turned the corner and saw a deal going down. At one of the wider spaces between warehouses, where there were those big giant crane things, dozens of large cargo and shipping containers. The cars, trucks, and people weren't really part of the place though. There were maybe twenty, that I could see anyway. Possibly there were a dozen more. Some of them were packing, not even bothering to conceal the sub-machine guns they held. In front of them stood another six guys weilding the same type of weapons, standing in front of two mid-sized moving trucks, and they had their loading doors opened and small crates were inside. One of them was open though I couldn't see the contents.

Far above in the clouds, Jake was hovering. The PERSEUS armor extended but the blade, Excalibur (or All Delete, as he joked to himself) and the Cannon, Durandal, were within the arms at the moment. He had tracked James all the way here, only to find...the usual drug deals and stuff.

Of course, what he DIDN'T expect was a host of jet fighters nearly killing him.

The sleek fighter craft were chasing a single one, and from what Jake saw, the single one was refusing to fire back. Which perplexed him enough to step in, literally.

Causing the fighters to break off, his suit began picking up signals.
"It's Paladin. Again."
"Dammit, why's he here?"
"Maybe he's working with the thief?"
"Could be a misunderstanding. Avoid aggravating him for now, focus on downing the stolen plane."

Jake frowned. So...stolen...
He could only step aside. Wasn't a fight for him.

So he dived down and landed far from James, the night his accomplice.

If you would allow it, we can allow you to listen in on the conversation of this deal.

That was assuming I wanted to stay. I mean, what reason was there for me to stay and watch? I didn't want to be a part of this, or even a witness to it. But curiosity got the better of me, and I stood rooted to the ground. Fine....what do I need to do?

Simply hold out your hand and aim in their direction, we shall do the rest.

Feeling silly, I did it anyway and was shocked to actually hear the conversation going on maybe a hundred feet away. You remember those old surveillance devices from a few decades ago, the tiny dishes that let you listen in on sounds from great distances? The nanites had formed something very similar on the surface of my fingertips.

In the course of the conversation, I was able to make out who was who. There was the buyer, and the seller. I know, not the greatest way to identify them but it wasn't like I actually knew who they were. "Okay boys and girls, you asked for the best, and I bring you the best," the seller said in a voice I'd expect from a stage performer. The arms-dealer, a man in his thirties and with a dark beard trimmed close to his face, walked over to a nearby crate. He bent down and picked up a weapon, and even from here I could tell it was an assault rifle. "What we have is a brand spanking new, Nexus made N4G2. Bullpup design, fires the standard NATO round of 6.32x50mm. This gun is very accurate, and best of all very user friendly. Kickback from the gun is next to zero, and has an ammo count of forty rounds per magazine." Most of the men in front of him nodded their heads, clearly impressed. The buyer though, stayed still as a statue. Then he unfolded his arms, and stepped forward, slowly. "And for $2.5 mil?" he asked. The dealer grinned. "Four crates, each packed with six rifles and ammunition." Clearly sold, the buyer nodded, and then spoke again. "Before we complete the transaction, I think it's only fair we get a demonstration." He snapped his fingers, and two of the men behind him grabbed a man standing between them. He was clearly not expecting it, struggling and shouting. "Whoa, Tony what the hell? What the fuck is going on here?" The buyer, or rather Tony, turned around and simply stared at the struggling man. "Drop the act Mikey," Tony said, his words practically dripping with contempt. "Or should I call you Officer Marlowe?" Marlowe stopped struggling, as if he suddenly realized how pointless it all was now. "Yeah, we knew. Figured we'd keep you around just for tonight. After all...." he turned back to the dealer. "What's the point of buying a weapon, without seeing just how effective it is?"

The dealers smile simply widened, and I felt myself feeling a little bit sick. God, the guy actually seemed to enjoy the idea of watching a man get shot to death. He held out the rifle, and Tony took it with a nod. Then he aimed it at Marlowe, his men quickly letting go and clearing a space. Marlowe just stood there, either too scared to try and run or just embracing the inevitable. Except that he didn't have to die tonight. I may have been willing to watch the deal go down, but I wasn't going to stand by and watch a man get gunned down. Gestalt, if I run will that cancel the cloak?

Not right away, but prolonged running and increased speed will increase the difficulty of maintaining it.

Alright, better than nothing. With that, I ran towards the execution in progress, hoping that I was not only doing the right thing.....but that I could pull it off.

Jake had put the armor away. He was better sneaking around when he wasn't twelve feet tall with a sword that was about half his size.
With a frown he heard the voices in the quiet, and managed to find himself watching the show from a skylight.
"Aries..."
"Should have just broken in."
"I might be a grease spot."
"You have armor."
"It's fucking Chris, I need to drop a fucking planet to stop her for the amount of time needed to make a new identity and transfer to another dimension, preferably with bikini clad Playboy models."
"..."
"....I'm a guy."
"I can tell." She sniffed. "Yes I know of Playboy." She said, reading his mind. "It is referenced a lot in male entertainment. Very interesting articles. Your kind must have more courage then ours in some ways."

Jake just shut the fuck up. Aries just...she was just weird.

At the speed I was going at, I was on them in seconds. One of the gang members I ran past seemed to sense me, maybe he heard the sound of running footsteps of maybe he felt the rush of air as I ran by. I could tell though that he had turned his head for some reason, though it didn't matter. By the time any of them registered that I was there, I had already gotten to Tony, and swung my arm downward. My active camo turned off as I swung, and suddenly I was visible again to the world as I swung what could only have been a wickedly sharp blade down at Tony's gun. It had to have been because not only was the rifle knocked from Tony's hands....it had been sliced in half. Everyone just stood there, jaws on the floor in shocked silence. Then I heard a whisper from my right-- it was Marlowe. "What are you?" I didn't look at him, my attention focused on Tony. "No time for introductions man, get down!" First of all, I was surprised at how different my voice sounded. It was almost like it had been distorted, though that wasn't that much of a bad thing. Second....one of the guys holding an SMG fired on me. When the bullets hit, I expected there to be white hot pain, blood even. Instead it felt more like someone was lightly rapping me on the chest with their fist as the bullets deformed upon impact and deflected off the nano-epidermis. With my voice clearly excited, I said out-loud "Sorry man, that's not going to work." And then the fighting started.

One of the guys standing behind me charged, a knife appearing in his hand. I knew that, because while I couldn't quite explain it, I saw him as clearly as if he was standing in front of me. I did not however pull some kind of fancy dodge that you'd see in the movies. I just turned around, and as he thrusted the knife at my stomach my hand sprang up and grabbed his arm, the knife an inch away from my skin. He was strong, but I was stronger and with a twist of my hips I quite literally popped his arm out of his shoulder, dislocating it. He screamed in pain, his other hand clutching his arm as the knife dropped to the ground. Someone shouted "GET THE FREAK!" and suddenly I was getting charged from all angles. One guy came at me swinging, and I ducked under the swing and came up with an uppercut to the chin. I think I saw a tooth fly out as he went down, while another guy grabbed a gun from his jacket pocket and fired. Rounds deflected off my skin as the nanites hardened in response. I was about to attack him, when he was knocked out from behind; Marlowe had hit the guy, and grabbed his gun. He looked at me, a look of awe still in his eyes....then he nodded at me. I got the message loud and clear: I don't know who or what the hell you are....but I'm with you.

That was of course when the missile struck Libra's plane. She lost half of it to fire, and aimed for what she prayed was am empty warehouse.
And so, as James and Marlowe looked at the remaining gang members and the arms dealer, a United State Air Force F-33 Apollo fighter pancaked through the doors and cut a swathe through the ground, heading right for the mass of people.

Jake cursed and dived down to the roof. "Well this just went to all and holy hell."
"Jake, there's a Valkyrie lifeform! It could be Libra!"
"No promises, I got...shit shit shit." He juked to the left as a burst of tracer fire threatened to strike him. "Why are they shooting me!"
"They think you're trying to get the pilot."
"Fuck them and being right!" He spun and opened the wolf jaws, releasing Durandal. "FIRING THE WAVE MOTION CANNON!"
"What?"
Durandal barked thrice, warning shots slicing past the jets so they'd break off. "I always wanted to say that while firing my cannon."
"...humans..."
"...aliens..."
"...damn you Jake."

With a smirk, he flipped around and dived for the roof.

Okay, I certainly was not prepared for a freaking plane to come crashing down into one of the warehouses, far away enough that it wasn't that big a threat but close enough that no one could ignore it. The distraction lasted for all of a minute because come on--who the hell expects that? But I was distracted, when someone shouted "Hey Hero!" I turned, and saw that Tony was standing with one of the new rifles, aimed right at me. The dealer was gone, probably trying to get the truck working so he could flee. But that didn't matter the moment Tony pulled the trigger, and the rifle fired. It wasn't like the handgun the last guy used, a single shot with each pull of the trigger. This was full auto, and with heavier rounds. The nanites still hardened in response, and managed to deflect some of the rounds but wow did I feel it. They couldn't negate all of the kinetic energy from the impacts, and it felt like I was being punched repeatedly in the chest, so I instinctively raised my arms in front of me, trying to block. That was when the nanites showed me another trick, as the nanites spread out between and around my arms. The machines were replicating, spreading out into rough kite shape an inch thick but weighed nothing. The shield, for that's what it was, shielded me from my head to stomach. Whoa, did I do that?

In a way. Your instinct to raise your arms in defense served as a framework for us to build around. You gave us the idea and we made it reality, and no that does not mean we can make anything you think of.

Still, this was cool. The impact of the bullets was cut down to almost nothing, and I was so invigorated by this that I charged forward. The shield was lightweight despite being strong enough to stop the bullets, and there was no problems in balance as I ran forward, charging Tony. Maybe he didn't realize how screwed he was, but the bullets never stopped coming until I rammed into him. The force of the impact was felt through the shield, and there was a loud clanging sound. As the shield dissolved, the nanites retreating back into my arm, I saw what had happened: Tony had gone flying from the impact, and landed in a daze on the ground ten feet away, his rifle between us. I let out a shout of victory.....and then the police had arrived. Like I said, it was a sting and that meant the police had to have been close by, plus that plane crashing was probably another reason for them being here. There was the thumping sound of helicopter blades, and I looked up. Sure enough, there was one of the new police gunships hovering overhead. Well, gunship wasn't the right term; it was based off the military model, which was a gunship. This was the police variant. It had two spinning rotary blades on the side, each held up by a pair of arms that would swivel allowing it to turn. There were some engines on the rear that gave it some extra thrust when needed, but for the most part they served to aid the blades in keeping the craft airborne. Basically it was a smaller version of the old Osprey aircraft that the military used a few decades ago.

From the sides of the gunship, officers wearing tactical armor and sporting some powerful weaponry, rappelled down from the gunship. There were sirens, and I looked back down to earth to see cars coming in, lights flashing. The SWAT team landed, and they were shouting orders at the gang members who were still standing....and at me. "You, in the armor! Get down on the ground now or we will use deadly force!" one of them shouted at me. Uh oh....trouble with the law was not what I needed. So instead of saying anything, like 'I'm not the bad guy here,' I turned and ran. And then they fired.

Libra managed to get out of the flaming plane, but nearly fell. She felt her side.
Blood.

She began to run, her body already starting to hate her for stealing the plane, even if it would have been returned.


As the bullets ripped up and got closer to James, Paladin dropped between him and the gunship.
"Initiate AVALON system!" He told the armored suit.
The shoulder which bore the mighty sword extended and began to extend into a shield form. The bullets pounded the armor.
"Get your ass moving!" He shouted to James, hoping he wasn't sticking around to see why the bullets were stopped.

Through the nanites, I was aware of.....well, what could only be described as an armored knight, dropping down between me and the gunfire from the police gunship. I would have stopped and asked who the hell they were, but hey I was fleeing from the cops and this guy generously threw themselves into harms way for me. Why waste a noble sacrifice like that? So I kept running, leaping up to grab onto a ladder on the side of a warehouse, and then using my enhanced strength to fling myself to the edge of the roof. Then I kept running.

Now, running from the cops is never a good idea. Not just because it makes you look guilty, but because now....well, I won't bore you with a history lesson, but cops were allowed to use a little bit more force when it came to catching and subduing a fleeing suspect. For example: the taser net. Picture this if you will; four three foot poles, each one serving as an anchor to a carbon-fiber net, with metallic nubs placed evenly along the net's fiber. Each pole had a battery installed and combined they carried enough electric charge to knock out a fully grown man. The net was fired from the gunship above, and I gotta tell ya, it tends to be pretty damn accurate. When the target isn't a parkour trained teen wearing naomachines that is. I was able to dodge the net, Gestalt giving me enough warning that I was able to jump and roll to my right in time to avoid the net. The poles were fired with enough force that they could dig an inch into the roof, and I took a moment to watch as the net discharged the electricity. To be honest, there wasn't much to see, since no one was pinned under the net. As I kept running, I figured that sticking to the clear open roof that was a warehouse was going to be more trouble, since I had no cover. It did however give me enough open space that I could pick up speed, and I planned on using that speed to help me jump to the next building.. Unfortunately, there was more than one gunship. One stayed behind to cover the weapons deal, while the other apparently was sent after me.

With him gone, Paladin let loose a few blasts from Durandal as Avalon retracted. He took flight and used the clouds to hide and finally escape.

Libra had managed to get out of the warehouse district by swimming. It hurt like hell as she dragged herself into the suburbs. Her energy was too low to try and regulate the bleeding, she used it all to speed herself away. And now...she hated herself.

James, we request the use of your cellphone

My cellphone? What for?

We can modify it to monitor the signals those aircraft and law-enforcement are using. We can hack them.

Oh. Then by all means.

As I neared the lip of the roof, I jumped into the air and soared over the street before catching the edge of the next roof, hauling myself up and over as the gunship still followed me. That was when I could hear them, their transmissions I mean, courtesy of Gestalt and his modifications. "All units, be advised. We have a new player in the area, though it doesn't look like they're a member of the Legion gang. Orders are to bring them in for questioning, as they were at the scene." Great, now I was a wanted man.....of all the things that wanted me, why did it have to be the police? Why couldn't it be Estel or Ella from school. (Sorry, they're two classmates of mine that are incredibly hot and yes I am sorta shallow but at least I admit it) "Hawkeye try and restrict him to a rooftop, our units will move up from below."

An interesting tactic, but it relied on me being stuck on a rooftop, and there was just the one chopper. No way they were going to pin me down. But still, I couldn't let them follow me, not all the way back home. So I had to lose them, and fast. Jumping down to the street and out of the warehouse zone, I ran for the alley across from me. The second I entered the alley and the light from the chopper lost me, I went stealth. Then I jumped onto the nearest pipe, and climbed up to the roof. The chopper's light traced over the roof, but it never found me. Yeah, it passed over me a few times, but they never really saw me.

"Orion."

"For the sake of all... What?"

Orion sat up in his lovely grassy spot, holding his phone up and sighing, recognising the voice and knowing almost exactly where this was going. Every time he got a break some shitbag criminal had to threaten a government or an agent or something stupid, and always he was the one dealing with it.

"There's been something big happen in downtown. An explosion near a... rather important location. Suffice to say you need to get down there right now and find out what's going on - it looks like a PMC issue."

Orion hung up almost instantly. It was close, which meant he could deal with it easily and quickly and then get back to his off time. He decided that he'd not need a driver for this, and taking the lovely Mercedes, Orion made his way to the coordinates that he'd been forwarded.

Already his hand was coated in metal, as he prepared himself. Explosions were a bad sign, and it meant getting close was going to be his biggest challenge. But, once he was there...

"This shouldn't be a problem."

Resuming my run, I leaped off my current roof......but sadly I didn't put enough power behind my legs, and I ended up falling short of where I needed to land. Instead, I landed in the middle of the freaking street, in traffic. Amazingly, the nanites and the muscle they created absorbed the impact so I hardly felt it.....but the downside was that my cloak was disabled, the nanites ability disrupted by the impact. Since I was visible, that actually helped since a passing car that was coming at me saw I was there, their horn blaring as it veered away from me and crashed into another car that was parked along the sidewalk. Oh shit! I didn't see the door open, so I rushed for it to check on the driver.

The screeching noise through the street was only paralleled by the screams and crashing that surrounded it. Orion stopped, looking forward as he saw a man, or at least he assumed it was a man, out of thin air. Judging by his location, Orion had to assume a fair few things, but it was enough for him to feel his actions were warranted.

"This is Orion, I've run into what is very likely a disturbance to the peace. I'm going to be dealing with this - you'll need to send another man to the explosion."

He didn't wait for a rebuttal as he chucked his phone back and stood up out of the car, clenching his fist tight, quickly removing the thin armour that had surrounded it. He began to weave through the traffic, as he made a bee line for the bizarre suited figure.

"If I were you I wouldn't bother trying to run."

The driver looked knocked out, so I tore the door off its hinges. It was kinda surprising, forcing my fingers through the tiny gap between the door and its frame, warping the metal as it was shoved aside. Securing my grip, I ripped the door off and set it down, checking on the driver by placing two fingers to their neck.

Pulse is steady. Mild concussion but no foreseeable damage. Recommend we leave now.

Taking the advice, I turned from the car......and saw an odd sight. Someone was walking towards me, through the traffic. "Uh, sorry no autographs tonight," I said, my voice still distorted thanks to the nanos.

"Let's see... a large explosion goes off overhead... and then a second one goes off in a section of the city. I head there to investigate, and on my way I see someone appear through thin air. He is quite clearly extremely strong, capable of warping and busting metal. He seems to be trying to escape."

Orion slowly let his power take over, a thin frame of silicon carbide. A lovely thing he'd been taught by Homeland, one of the few things he took with grace and thanks. As his body was coated in metal, he let his face remain open.

"I'm not here for an autograph, bud. I'm here for something a little more lasting and a lot more exclusive."

The metal coated his face finally, as he spread his arms and prepared himself, closing the distance.

"Do I look like a hooker to you buddy?" I asked, though my quip was barely able to cover my shock. Now the guy looked a lot like me, but Gestalt's voice spoke up.

Negative, this individual does not share the same capabilities. Unknown source, but silicon carbide has coated his body.

Interesting. Useless, but interesting. Still, now wasn't the time for a fight with the cops on my tail, so I made ready to run for it.

"Don't you fucking dare!"

Orion broke into a sprint, charging towards the man before him, easily seeing as he prepared to make his escape. On his watch he wasn't having such an easy target make such a rapid escape. The sound of police sirens only drove him on more, as, he presumed, they headed to the explosion site.

Oh crap, I thought, surprising both myself and surely this silicon guy, when I myself charged forward in a sprint and made a short jump. I wasn't going to jump over them though. "Springboard!" I shouted, aiming both my feet for the guys shoulders, landing briefly before pushing off and using him to launch myself back at the building behind me, aiming for the roof.

Paladin was sitting on a taller building, arms crossed and weapons within. He was watching the fight, wondering if he should engage or not. After all, he saved him once.
He wondered if he should do so again.

Libra found a bush in a backyard...and passed out.

Orion watched in, what he'd deny was awe, as the perp essentially flew up onto one of the buildings with some degree of ease.
Certainly it was not what he'd expected.

"Hm... That's a new one."

Orion looked around at the crowd and sighed as he began to make his own way up the building - with the stairs. He barged in, pushed people aside and began his long climb, pushing himself to get to the top as fast as he could manage. He needed to see where this guy went, above all else.

Damn, but I couldn't get high enough for the edge of the roof. Instead I managed to grab onto this ledge, small and not even a foot away from the wall of the apartment building, kinda jutting out. Pulling myself up, I jumped to the next ledge and repeated the process, arriving on the roof. Hopefully I'll be able to outrun him, I thought to myself, sprinting for the edge of the roof and making ready to jump.

Nicholas sat in bed until there was a knock at the door. He could ignore it, but something told him not to. He rolled out of bed. He was physically tired, and he was hungry. He walked out of the bedroom and into the the living room, to answer the door. The landlord of the building was standing there, looking half-disheveled and half-asleep. He wasn't expecting to see Nicholas in the apartment. "You're not," He stopped midway in that sentence with a confused look on his face, "did you just move in?" Nicholas nodded in response. "Oh, ok." He must be really tired to be so informal, and so un-landlordy. That's a word now: "un-landlordy". Nicholas closed the door in the landlords face, and walked into the kitchen area of the living room. There was a note on the fridge, it said "1950 a month for rent."

He opened the fridge, and it was empty, save for a brown wallet that looked all too familiar. He picked it up and opened it; it was his old wallet, complete with his Arizona ID. He reminded himself to thank Amphitrite later, or inquire if she was responsible for returning the wallet to him. It was devoid of everything else, but at least he had an ID now. He sat on the cough and whipped out a laptop, or he would have, if he had one. So much for searching the internet for a job. He sat on the couch and stared at the black screen of the television. After a few minutes, he got up, checked his pants for a key to the apartment, and matched the key to the door, as well as committing to memory the number of his apartment: 33.

He left the apartment with a mind to get lost and find something new. Which meant that in an hour he was in sight of the Panacea buildings. Thinking that'd be a pretty cool place to start, he went to the building.

A door blasted open, splintered and broken as Orion emerged on the roof finally, panting a little, checking around him. He scanned the roof before spotting his hunt again, running off and after him.

"If you don't slow down this is going to end far worse than you expect!"

Orion leapt up onto one of the ventilation boxes, watching his enemy close. He readied himself - if this guy jumped, so would he, and someone would be going down. He didn't know how good this guys suit was, but he knew how good his own was, and that was what mattered.

"You really wanna piss off a federal agent?"

I stopped as soon as the guy emerged, and it just so happened he was between me and my point of egress. "Look pal, I've got no problems with you," I said. "Just let me go....or this will get messy."

"Oh, I expect it to get messy."

Orion cracked his knuckles, as he reinforced his body, coating it in a second extremely thin layer of steel, before stepping down off of the ventilation box. He could tell a few small, important things - this guy was strong, on a muscular level, able to leap up here with seemingly little issue. Orion didn't have superhuman strength, so to speak, so he'd need to rely on something else.

"If you just come with me, it'll save the paramedics and police days in trying to find those missing pieces of your body, okay?"

Orion wasn't totally happy with this, more often than not he was fighting guys with minimal advancements. Not... well, not superior forms of what he himself possessed.

He couldn't tell, but I was scowling beneath the mask. With some dramatic flair, I brought both my arms up before me in an 'x' shape, then stretched them back to my sides, and per my thoughts my right hand took on the blade form, while the left formed a shield, the nanites rapidly expanding. "Or maybe they'll find yours," I said, though it was a bluff. I wasn't going to kill the guy.....but he didn't know.

Orion raised his brow, a little... surprised, would be one way to put it. He couldn't deny, forming objects would be a neat little trick. He looked at his hands for a moment, then around the roof. He quickly ripped up a pipe, letting out a wave of steam as held it in both hands, nodding.

"This'll do."

Orion moved first. Never a good move, but it meant it'd provoke the enemy to respond next. He swung, and quite purposefully buggered it up, bashing off of the shield and rounding on his enemy, stopping and taking a more defensive stance.

My left arm came up, the shield blocking the blow that I had sorta been expecting. Look it's not like I was an awesomely skilled warrior that could read my opponent and know what they were going to do. But I was banking on his powers making him overconfident; no doubt he had won his fair share of fights because of those....whatever it was. So that had to mean he had some level of overconfidence in his abilities, even against me.

The pipe clanged against my shield, the blow unfelt by me as the Nanites absorbed it. Through them, I was aware he was behind me, so I did something I thought was creative: taking the extra nanites that formed the blade and shield, I redirected my arms in front of me at a downward angle, and gave Gestalt the order.....to shoot the extra mass out like piston, right as I pulled my feet up from under me. The result, was that from my arms shot two streams of nanites, hitting the roof and pushing my momentarily floating body back towards the agent. The makeshift piston retracted, right as my feet landed on his chest with some amount of force.

Orion ducked.

Well, at least the guy had fast reflexes. I went over the guy, like leapfrog in reverse, and landed on my feet behind him. But the fight still wasn't something I wanted, so I played my trump card. I held still.....and vanished.

Orion spun, and for a moment, wondered if perhaps the guy had gone over the edge. He ran to the edge of the building, looking down, and noticing... nothing. He spun around again, holding his pipe up ready, wondering what's happened. He watched the place, silent...

"Come out, come out, wherever you are... Come on, you weren't doing that bad. You could still take me on."

I didn't respond to the guy, already slowly moving towards the edge of the building. I could make the jump with Gestalt's help, no problem, so long as I wasn't spotted. However......help came in a surprising form, when one of the police gunships came by, spotlight sweeping the area. It passed over our mystery friend, and focused on him , speaker blaring out "HALT, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" I guess it mistook his armor for mine.

Jake watched with amusement. The guy with the party tricks vanished. If it was James, he had some really awesome powers. The gunship swinging around, Jake brought his armor in and was soon back to looking human. He kept watch using the shadows, waiting and observing his foes.

Using the distraction, I made a break for it and jumped to the next roof. My cloak flickered a little, more when I landed but by then I already rolled into the landing and continued running, getting further and further away. When i got close enough to walk, I left the rooftops and dropped down into an alley and shifted back into my normal form......and that surprisingly included my robotic limbs. Whoa.......is that you Gestalt?

Of course. It will make mobility in your.....everyday appearance, easier.

Cool, I thought. Leaving the alley and joining the people on the sidewalk, I started walking back towards Chris' house.

So Nicholas walked around the Panacea buildings, looking around. He entered one of the buildings and asked about the buildings, despite seeing the name "Panacea" on one of them, he didn't really know anything about them. He hadn't been in this plane for 18 years after all, a lot of companies existed now that didn't before. Not to mention the change in technology. He was told that Panacea was a Biological Technology company, which sounded pretty cool to him. Biotechnology, reminded him of when he wanted to go into Biological Engineering. Something to make a real difference, to do something that made him want to work. He asked the lady at the reception desk about what sort of projects they were doing right now, while complimenting her shirt. He was being suave. Naive, but suave. She told him of a few of their public projects, that she made up to be not so public.

She picked up on the fact that he wasn't really from around here, and that he didn't listen to the news. Since Panacea had made some serious breakthroughs in medical technology and the City of New York was publicly thanking them. He smiled a lot during their conversation, not knowing that he was, himself, being played. But then he surprised the receptionist, and asked if they were hiring. She had thought he was hitting on her, chatting her up, but he wasn't. He was naive, after all, and he was looking for a job. She told him to wait a minute as she phoned someone higher up on the corporate chain of command, and made the inquiry.

Nick let his eyes wander, looking about the interior of the reception room. While the receptionist spoke on the phone, he analyzed his surroundings. Noting the smell of sanitizer, cleanliness, perfume, and not much else. Not many people came in here. Which wasn't surprising, after he had learned what Panacea was, and saw the state of affairs of New York as he walked to the buildings. People were struggling to get by, and a lot of people just weren't getting by. America was in a crises, possibly a depression, and inflating prices, economically not so well. New York itself had a myriad of issues, some of which were only beginning to come up, and many more yet to shine. Yet here was Nick, a not so average guy asking for a job from a receptionist in one of the worlds leading biotech company.

After a quarter of an hour, the receptionist hung up the phone. She had good news: they were hiring. It was a janitorial position she offered. He laughed, "I have degrees in both Biology and Physics, and you're offering me a janitorial position?" He hadn't mentioned his credentials before, and based on appearances he probably didn't look a science guy. But he seemed diligent, and there definitely something different, odd even, about him. She nodded, and asked for his information, and handed him a sort of basic job application form, and told him that if he was serious about getting a job here that he should submit a résumé. He shook his head, "I don't have access to a computer." He wasn't crestfallen, but the gears in his head were definitely turning. "Is the big man here? Could I talk to him now?" He walked in, looking lost, but now, the receptionist realized that he wasn't going to waste time. She called her boss.

It's not everyday that someone walks into your store or corporation or lab and asks for a job and asks to see the boss without ever having heard of the company before. Or been unemployed for 18 years. The conversation took a lot longer than the receptionist thought, he stayed and spoke with her boss for hours. He left with a smile on his face followed about the woman who was her boss. She looked at the receptionist and said, "He's a bit out there, but he knows his stuff." She looked out the door after Nicholas had left, "He just walked in off the street?" It was an odd day for Panacea. A stranger had come in and asked for a job, and in that same day a job was given to him. Not the Janitorial position, but a low-level tech position, so that he could get back into the swing of things.

That same day a familiar face returned to the world. He called himself the Meta Mage. Little did Nicholas know that he was watching him using his strange magics, waiting for an opportunity. The only thing Nicholas felt, was like he was being watched, and indeed he was, by many creatures of the Aether, the spirit world, and from other planes of existence. He was going to be a focal point of change whether he wanted to be or not.

By the time Nick got to his apartment it was night, and he had nothing but water to drink. Again, he slept in hunger. Water didn't do much for appetite.

It didn't take me too long to get back to her house, but then I realized something: I left by jumping out the top window.....when the front door was locked. Now how was I supposed to explain that one?

We can unlock the door for you James. Simply get to the keyhole, and we shall do the rest.

That sounded like a plan, so I walked up to the door and waited for something to happen.....which surprisingly didn't happen.

Oh, apologies. Raise your hand and place it over the keyhole.

Ah, that makes sense. Doing what Gestalt said, I put my right hand over the knob was aware as more nanites emerged from my palm, and seeped into the hole, forming a key shape. Twisting my hand, the door unlocked and I stepped inside. No one was waiting for me, which was good; meant I wasn't exposed as slipping out. Closing the door behind me, I started to make for the stairs.....when I saw something odd. Down the hall past the stairs, there was a window to the backyard. I saw some bushes stir outside, and wondered what hell it was. See.....I know for a fact, that short of cats and rats, there aren't any wild animals in the neighborhood.

Nicholas had a dreamless sleep. Or he did until the early morning. He dreamed of a pale skinned girl with bright red hair, dyed, it looked like. She wasn't wearing much, but in dreams that meant little, you saw the natural self. She was wet, and in a white room. Everything seemed sterile. He knew intuitively that there were men nearby preparing something. Some sort of liquid, a drug probably. Then he moved through the ceiling up through labs and offices and by people. Lab coats and suits surrounded him, and then he broke free and was in the sky. Along side him flew an Owl, and together they soared through the sky. Open and blue, the landscape beneath them changed, becoming a familiar desert. The desert was like home. Though empty and barren to those in ignorance, it was full of life and fertile to those who were not. Snakes slithered through sand and dirt, through bushes and on rock. Basking in the hot sun. Eventually Nick and the Owl came to a rest on the Red Sands. He recognized this place, all this red rock, they were in a vortex, and place where mystical forces were strongest and more easily felt. Among other things. This place was also where many rites were performed by the native americans. This place held power. The Owl hooted, and the vortex opened, and Nick fell into the darkness that was it.

He awoke with a sense of confusion. He shook his head, and got up, getting himself dressed and cleaned, as cleaned as one can without soap. He pulled his hair into a neat ponytail and attempted to comb out his beard. Though it resisted like a thorny bush protesting its uprooting. He won in the end, but he paid the price, a price of pain on his chin. He dressed in the same clothes he wore the previous day, since that's all he had, and left for work. It was four in the morning. He arrived at a little after five, when people were just waking up and probably on their way to work. He was there, by the office he was told to go to so that he could be trained as a tech, and told what he would be doing there, at Panacea.

When he arrived though, there was a medical doctor speaking with another lab tech, when he arrived they both stopped talking and the lab tech asked, "Are you Nicholas?" He nodded and said nothing. They led him to a room with a bunch of medical equipment, all of which he whispered the names of. Only the Tech heard him, and she asked him if he'd studied medicine before, he chuckled and said "sort of." They ran a bunch of medical tests, x-rayed his body, took brain scans, creating a medical profile. Apart from a few anomalies in his brain and the fact that he hadn't eaten in a few days, he was healthy. At the end of all these tests, blood-work, urine, MRI, CAT, and more, the doctor looked at him and said "Alright, we'll send this to the other techs and your assessment will be given to the Lady Up Top in a few days." Nick nodded, having nothing to say, and the Lab Tech showed him to the Head Lab Technicians office, where his new boss would show him the works.

About half an hour later, 7 in the morning now, the Head Lab Tech shows up, and is taken aback by Nicholas' appearance. He looks at the long haired, bearded man in front of him, and says cautiously, "You're Nicholas?" Nick nods, silently, as the Head Lab Tech introduces himself as Henry. Henry takes Nick around the lab, showing him all the things he'll be responsible for and expected to do. At this point, most, if not all, of the scientists in the building have arrived, and were now setting up or getting ready to continue their work, research, and experiments. It was all very refreshing, to be in this environment again. The tour of the building, took a while, and Nick was given a passkey that would let him enter most facilities and labs as needed and get into the building earlier if he was required to. "Oh, and your paycheck is on a weekly basis, the paycheck for this week comes out tomorrow, so you'll get a small amount of money for the time you spend here today." Said Henry. After the tour was finished, he got straight to work, shadowing Henry and helping out with tasks.

When he got home he felt accomplished. His stomach growled, and he drank some more water. Tomorrow, he'd have money to feed himself. Even if it was only a little bit.

Libra heard something in her delirious state. A key, footsteps...she groaned and crawled out of the bush, at least halfway, before collapsing. She coughed, but luckily no blood came up. Her side was just killing her...still sticky with blood....how fun..

Jake had made a hasty retreat, and within minutes was driving down the road, heading for his apartment.

I sighed and locked the door behind me, letting the computer run and catch up to my massive amount of computations and algorithms. If this was a computer from my own planet, it would've used my natural chemistry to speed up the process, but humans were so primitive compared to what I am used to, making it feel as if I am living in history books. Regardless, I stuck the key into it's hiding spot above the door lamp, and started for the stairs, taking a couple steps before simply vaulting the railing and heading for the streets. Most people around where I and my roommate lived were used to our odd behaviors, even if it had taken quite a long time. I started jogging, picking up speed before opening a portal and diving into it, angling an out portal up into the air so I could get some angular velocity, and then repeating as I came more vertical to the floor. Using gravity and momentum, I was able to cruise fairly well, even if I had to be careful to not go too fast. Soon enough, however, I was flying along in a sequence of pink-white hoops to a nearby lake, where my roommate was going to be taking a nap. Only reason I know this is because he left a note, on the computer no less, telling me where he was going to be.

I sighed as I slowed myself down with some shorter hops and a short slide along the sandy beach until I stood with my bare feet slightly buried under hot and slightly sharp sediment. "Zeru!" I called out, looking around, my voice easily carrying across to the other side of the lake. "Where are you!" I stood looking for a moment before realizing what he meant. Of course you're there. I thought to myself, jumping into another portal to don my outfit and diving into the water. My radiation suit switched to pumping internal air automatically, and I started swimming around, calling out into the water Zeru's name, trying to find him, knowing he would be somewhere near the bottom.