Post by The B-Witch on Sept 4, 2010 23:44:04 GMT -5
Mark, Zoey(Shadowcaster), Brandy, Squall, Jane, Laure, Mary300, Zoey(Lark), Barb, Mal, "Emma" (And eventually Prodigy)
--
*the golden wings of dawn unfolded over the city on a crisp late summer morning. Outside commuters hustled toward the subway on their way to their respective jobs....while inside the confines of the partly rebuilt Philmont industries....the master mutant menace himself...the Schemer set up his first floor office in a fashion resembling a school class room.
In attendance were members of his clique. the flying speed demon, Rocket. His super strong lover, Hard Core. His supposedly close friend....the loyal Bruno. The phasing Cameo. Also in attendance were his former arch foe, Alyssa Guither....who he invited out of respect for the fact she was carrying his grandchild in her womb. And finally...members of the new gods. All former clique agents who left the main group to form their own organization under the leadership of the powerful yet delusional would be goddess, Spectrum. Their number included Roderick Spicer, the animal controlling creature King.....the super strong size changer, Brawn and the darkforce manipulating, Shadowcaster.
Once within the room...the Schemer closed the door behind them...and gestured for them all to be seated.*
Welcome all of you. I come today to state flatly the war with humanity is coming to an end. I have devised a way to make ever lasting peace with our human foes.....and unify the world as one great species.....namely....homosuperior. Mutants.
How you might ask will this happen??? *He pulled out chalk board with a representation of DNA on it. Seeing this Creature turned to Spectrum and whispered.*
Here we go....this is going to be a flippin' long explanation.
*The Schemer ignored him and continued.* Behold..humanoid..DNA. The greatest blueprint design ever created. Now obviously some blue prints are better than others. Mutants are better than humans. Most present her among the females are quite lovely. They have wondrous design codes for physical attributes. Lean bodies. lustrous hair. Fine bone structure. While some us are blessed with codes that grant greater intelligence.....like say....myself.
*He paused....as if for dramatic effect before continuing.* Tell me...who knows what an entron is??
Too save time I'll answer that. It's the extra genetic material that does not seem to code for anything. Most people of science think they coded for things we no longer possess.....like gills. But they are wrong!!! Entrons are the codes for things we shall eventually possess!!! And after years of research.....I've developed a entron activator that will turn humans into mutants...and end the useless conflict between or species!!! Today....I bring peace on earth!!!
I have unleashed my entron activator gas into the subway...where the rush hour humans will be exposed....and they will gain mutant powers!!!! They will be or brothers and sisters!!! And in graditude....they will make us their rulers!!!!
*He shoved the chalkboard away.....and started out of the room.*
Come...all of you...into the dawn...and behold....as humans cast off their flatscan natures....and emerge from the subway....becoming our brothers and sisters!!
*He stepped out and through the main lobby of the building...and into the street to better observe his wondrous work.*
--
Shadowcaster stifles a yawn. This is going to be another of the Schemer's long winded sessions of explaining things to all us less minds. She settles in bracing herself for flood of know it all rhetoric. Maybe she does not have his level of gray matter, unless you are counting her grayish skin color but at least she does not bore the world daily with stupid schemes. Why the Schemer can not spit out his master plans without all the lengthy babble is beyond her.
The real mystery is how he talked Spectrum into being part of this. It is not like his track record of success merits support for his sick schemes. But Spectrum rules the new gods and Shadowcaster is not going to question her. But that does not mean the queen of shadows is not going to say something. She is not going to let the Schemer rattle on and talk down to her without her expressing the contempt she has for him. It is these stupid schemes that are why she left the clique and joining with Spectrum and her new gods. Spectrum might be crazy but she does not bore people to tears like the fedora fiend.
"Can we skip the question and answer section of this quiz, teach? I don't know what entrons are, Schemey. I don't care what entrons are either. Lets just get to the stage of the scheme where everything blows up in your face. I never get tired of seeing that. It is much more interesting than those self gratifying pompous speeches you put us through. Really darling haven't u realized that wind bag routine of yours is completely passe'."
He explains what he is up and she just face-palms.
"Did not magneto try this a few years back? Now you are not even being original."
--
Adrianna had read the information he had left sitting on his computer in the lab...so she had known his plan. He was only attempting to turn people into mutants because of her own brief speech about him needing to bring peace between the species before destroying both. It never hurt to do your homework afterall...that's what she used to convince her students of back at NYU.
"At least you are using a gas in a controlled area as opposed to Magneto's little irradiating the populace notion."
She eases out of her chair and starts toward the doors to follow her darling outside, wondering if the notion would actually worked as it did seem sound enough of a concept, but she saw no actual test subjects to compare results to.
--
"Of all of the pompous things!" Bruno thought with maliciousness threatening to seep from every pore in his body. Did the Schemer really think that everyone's time was this useless to have to keep his ego overly inflated. If it wouldn't mean his demise, Bruno would have had the dread choke the life out of the clueless white boy. Nevertheless even the fool with poor taste in hat wear had his uses. With a slight chuckle, Bruno tucked a dread behind his shoulder, which was actually more of a pat to dissuade the symbiote making up his "hair" from tearing into the Schemer and making a meal out of him. So Bruno sat with his feet upon the table, wafts of smoke trailing from his stogie as he took a cursive glance at the board, letting the equations fill his mind before glancing to his boss*
Ju forgot ta carry da one good boss mon. Dat two way ANOVA can get tricky no?
*Oh the humility of having to correct Hat Boy's math! Nevertheless Bruno sat back in relative comfort, plotting more important things like shrinking Prodigy's fat head and winning Rocket's amorous favor**
--
She lounges with one arm over Roddy's knee, smirking toward him when he complains about the long-winded Schemer. When he gives his idea she rolls her eyes, remembering where she could be, having her nails and hair done perfectly, and getting her dress fitted. Someone named Raoul was painting her toenails and singing her something about Paris in the Springtime and she was looking out the window and eying the Eiffel tower, wondering what it would take to get Manhattan back....that is, Under her control.
"He does try. But I wish Hard Core would keep him on a shorter leash. He is always upsetting my own plans. Come."
She issues him a one word order like she does her lackeys and makes her way to the elevator, then just flies herself to the street, not taking the time to use that human navigation.
"Yes, let's watch you once more create something that can kick your ass," she says dryly.
--
She would have been one of those troublemakers at the back of the classroom, making comments and throwing things at the teacher, but she had been too smart and when her grades had started to show that she was not welcomed at the back of the class anymore, but here she sat in the back as Schemer, went on about his latest cockamamie scheme to turn all humans to mutants.
But before she could comment on the fact that this scheme like all the others would fail someone beat her to it. She turned and looked at Shadowcaster, a smile breaking over her face, though it turns to a frown at the sight of Creature King, as he was covered by a lounging Spectrum.
She arches a delicate brow as Schemer has them all follow him outside, She had kept her mouth shut for the moment, but the wrong words out of his mouth could cause her to comment and complain. She stands, crossing her arms over her chest and follows the rest of the crowd out to watch the latest scheme blow up in Schemer's face.
--
Rocket listened to the lecture with her arms folded in thought. She didn't' like this one. The humans had not been kind to her and she had learned to embrace her powers. She had learned to enjoy being special. And now the Schemer was going to make the rest of the world just like them? This was unbelievable. She glared a little and turned around quickly feeling herself simmering inside. Why did he have to ruin everything? Just when she was on top of it all. Just when it was time to get some pay back from the human world who had shunned her and had made her feel like dirt in her grown up years. Rocket walked out side with the other, not saying a word. She glanced at Spectrum when she suggested that the Schemer was going to get his ass kicked y et again. With interest Rocket wondered what exactly that meant. All of the schemes she had been a part of so far had worked. But here was the opposition implying that the Schemer had failures in the past. She wondered as she stood outside to said to see what all was going to happen on the subway.
--
The Schemer's evil knows no bounds! He has placed his face on the moon. Another time he turned all the children of Manhattan into little jerkface versions of himself. He even set loose dinosaurs and giant bugs on the city. But when his adopted daughter Jessica Philmont discovered what he had done just last week, she knows that his evil must be stopped. In his most evil and calculating plot to date the Schemer has canceled her credit cards. Now she is destitute, down to her last several hundred thousand dollars. She will find him and make him pay for this terrible sin he has committed. But first she has to report to work.
Work is such a horrible thing. How people can it stand she will never know. In the endless amount of time she has been forced to resort to the common way of making money she has broken three nails, lost an eyelash and a contact lens. Slavery, that is what it is, slavery! She wonders how she can cope with this second day on the job.
If only her singing career would take off she will be free of her occupational bonds. But the second most evil man on earth, Simon Cowell kicked her off idol last year. Now she is doomed in the industry. A Bo Bice in a hotbabes body.
She is now flying to work pouting about the drudgery to come. But Skylark does try not to let it show and sings her larky song while she soars.
"Soaring though the sky. Loved by all the guys it's Skylark!"
People below look up and point as she zooms overhead. They will hear her song and tell others. Word of mouth will make her popular then she can make the kind of money that will make her arch foe, Diana DeGarmo jealous.
For now her dreams must end. She lands in a back alley and makes the amazing change from the ultra sexy, oh so trendy superchick Skylark into ordinary day-spa worker, Jessica Philmont.
She brushes out her hair and uses some moisturizer to make sure the wind has not dried out her oh so lovely skin on the flight to work. Mascara, a roll on Fragrance, waterproof eyeliner, primer, powder, Blusher all follow. 15 minutes later the instantaneous change from Skylark to Jessica is complete. Almost. She slips on some designer gucci glasses. Now nobody will notice that she is the really the sexy sonic screamer of soho, Skylark.
She enters the spa through the employee entrance and checks her schedule for the day. Four makeovers this morning and three this afternoon. The schemer will pay for this!
--
Alyssa had been keeping tabs on the Clique for a while now. Did she feel she was betraying her boyfriend, at times yes, but in a way she also wanted to watch over him. She had not seen him for a while. She was trying to spend her time hiding her pregnancy from her co-workers as well as not let them find out about her current ties to the Clique. Rory would surely boot her from Code Blue or at least give her a stern lecture...if it was a choice between a lecture or getting canned, she'd rather be canned. Not to mention Emma was being more of a pregnant dog than her and with Alyssa's hormones out of whack it took all her will power to not punch her in the face.
Sadly, her time with Winston Jr had been very little lately, she only realized too late she had missed his birthday so she made it a point to say so in person but he had not been home. She had felt horrible about that but now that she knew the date she wouldn't forget it. She was not aware of his doings but she trusted the man oddly enough, even with his ties to the man she hated. How could she lose trust in the man she loved and the man she was carrying a child for? The man that had asked him to marry her.
Shaking aside thoughts of Winston Jr, she focused at the problem at hand. She had learned of the latest of Schemer's scheme. She needed to verify this and stop him. She was sworn to keep humanity safe. Schemer needed a hobby, maybe crocheting...or golf? What did old men do? Clip coupons for denture cream? Count the remaining hair on their head? It explains why he wore a fedora at all time. She was surprised he hadn't made a sentient fedora yet.
Now, this brought her to her latest dilemma, she could not go into this alone. Sitting at her desk in HQ she looked across to Naomi. God, she knew she could trust the woman, but the attitude was a pain in the ass. Then she looked at Rory. If she told him about this news he may be curious about how she knew. It was time for a lie, they needed to get in and stop this, so she called both to her desk and told them that a 'spy' had provided her with the information.
--
Llyron stood in readiness. Nine different assaults were on the ready ... each waiting for a trigger. He sipped his tea.
'What' trigger? Yes, you might ask that question. Why a wild schemer plan filling the airways.
His first counter assault on the Americans involved the Dreadknight, a mercenary sometimes in his employee. And android death machine who'd once deflected an energy blast as the schemer himself.
Patience was a virtue. Hadn't he waited patiently in those caves for decades, waiting for a chance to redeem his name?
~That was that idiot Vyrra, dear~
~Quiet mother, I KNOW that. I was speaking engramically.~
~Sure ....~
--
The last stunt...getting shot at after a massive narcotics bust was one thing. Getting her face on the news because of the shooting of a passing by mutant at the crime scene made things harder. The fact Junior hadn't had any ID on him made things difficult, as she had to explain why he talked to her afterward.
...and on top of that, when she got back to her apartment, she'd found her car had been repo'd for lack of payment. Emma'd had to take taxi's and regrettably the subway to get between here and there. It was loud, it was noisy...and druggies didn't seem to like her face. "d**n publicity..." She shakes her head as the train stops and she eases out as two larger guys started making their way toward her.
Then she hears the hissing...but it wasn't like the hydraulic brakes of the train hissing, something else. Like the hiss of an angry snake, but coming from the ventilation units. "What the..." She moves toward the vent, then backs away.
"Gas leak..." It was kind of a lie, it wasn't gas, but people wouldn't know right off, "Everyone out, now..." She moves toward one of the attendants and flashes her badge, "Get on the intercom right now and order an evacuation. And call the police and ... screw it."
She pulls out her cell phone and glances at it, mumbling about it only having two bars, but she calls out none the less to the station to alert them of the situation.
--
*The Schemer overhears comments coming from the disbelievers in the group both verbally and telepathically...and merely shakes his head to display his disappointment.*
Oh ye of brains. *He stated quickly.* You will all see!!!
*He glanced at Bruno and winked....displaying to his most loyal friend that any concerns he had were misplaced.
Outside he watched as up through the subway exits his newly created mutants were making their way to the surface.*
Behold! My children emerge! *And so they did....hunched forms with grayskin...and as one looked closer....bloodshot eyes....yellowed in the center. Brawn was the first to comment about them.*
what the f*** are those??
*Creature king spoken up next.* Bloody mutants, eh?? they all look the flippin' same. Like ruddy zombies!!
Fools!! *The Schemer yelled back.* There's no such thing as a zombie. the skin color change is a visible sign they are being altered...becoming like us. Wait a moment....you'll see.
*A moment passed....but there was no change...and then...and electrical burst surrounded one. Another was seen walking through a wall unharmed. More came up from the subway....each seemingly displaying a different mutant power.*
Behold!!! Success!!! I've done!!! *He looked to Rocket, Cameo, his beloved Adrianna and the others.* I've done it!!! I will bring peace to the planet!!! I've created a new race of mutants. Observe...or brothers and sisters!!
*Creature King shrugged.* But they still look like flippin' zombies.
Yeah. *Brawn chuckled.* They gonna start eating brains or something.
*Creature King chuckled....and held Spectrum close to him...when suddenly....some of the altered rush hour mutants having overheard the conversation repeated what they heard.*
Zombies.....brains.
Great. *Brawn chuckled.* you made mutant retards.
Brains!! *The altered beings said louder and looked toward the Schemer's group. Then.....again...now moving toward the clique and new gods they said again....*
Brains!!!
Holy shinola!! *Brawn croaked.* It's a zombie Jamboree!!
*Creature King looked to shadowcaster and Spectrum.* We're outnumbered....We better get us outta here!!!
*the Schemer roared in response.* Fools!!! they are merely confused by your prattle. I'll speak to them telepathically. *But to his surprise...their minds were closed to his mental powers.*
Interesting....some of our children seem to be Psi-blockers. They are preventing my telepathic powers from reaching the others.
No matter....I'll talk to them. *He stepped forward.* My children!!! Hear me!!!
*But before he could speak....raised voices called out.* BRAINS!!! *And they started running at the Schemer's group.*
We gotta run!! *Creature king bellowed.*
Cretin!! The Schemer never runs from danger!!! I'll stop them with my omniblaster!!!
*He pressed for a laser blast....hoping to drive the altered things back....but his omniblaster was not working.*
They must have a technopath among them. My cane is useless!!!
Ye wanna run now Schemer?? *Creature King said again.*
I told you...the Schemer never runs from danger. He merely walks very fast.
*And with that the schemer turned and fled...pushing the pregnant Adrianna aside in the process.*
One-side cretin....those crazy zombies bastards want Brains....and I've got more than all the rest of you combined!!! Everyone....run!!
--
Shadowcaster says nothing. She knows this situation is going to turn sour. She just knows it. Based on the look Cameo gave her she knows it too. She smiles back at the clique girl and outside she waits.
The freak-show mutants he created show themselves. She laughs at Creature King and Brawn picking on them until they start acting nuts and start running toward her and the others.
She just watches the Schemer in disgust as he tries to save himself.
"There goes our fearless leader. Don not worry. My darkforce powers will stop those freaks."
She creates a wall darkforce energy between her group and the superzombies. But some can walk through walls like Cameo. They extend that power to others and phase through her dark energy wall.
"Zoinks." She turns to Spectrum. "Queen Niahm. Would you please fly us to safety. Pretty please?"
--
She shakes her head.
"Test gases before you use them on the populace... will remind my children to test things first." She simply moves toward her darling and grabs hold of him and moves skyward, hopefully out of reach of the new mutant zombies.
"Darling...why didn't you...you know, test the chemical first?" She furrows her brow, taking him up to a ledge of the building behind them, before rubbing her stomach again. "d**n they're kicking..."
--
The White House was shielded from attack. Devices jammed (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) attempts to teleport in or assault the president. Llyron had not heard back from the Americans, even after his UN announcement.
Finally, reports coming in regarding another mad schemer attack. A gas attack on a subway train? Nerve gas? Terrigan mist? So much for not targeting civilians.
It didn't really matter. His personal plan also involved gas of a different sort. The White House's protection was quite impressive versus teleportational effects. But it was minimal vs dimensional attack. Non-gateway dimensional transferences were incredibly expensive, energy consumptive, and limited to a two pound payload. But that was ample to port a sphere of techno-organic ooze into the room. It burst open, and the payload within exploded, gas filling the room while a simultaneous EMP burst hit the chamber, damaging the teleportational blocking field from the inside by affecting the emitters.
The very moment the field dropped, another dimensional sphere popped in ... this one equipped with teleport tags. Dreadknight teleported into the oval office, accompanied by three sentinel units. They were damaged units recovered from NYC, repaired and reprogrammed. Immediately, they began blasting their way out, bursting onto the white house lawn through the windows/wall. The prohibition about harming humans if possible was still active, but it said nothing against subdual of them. Sonics began blasting through the area, shattering windows, and stunning guards.
Dreadknight laughed.
"Cry Havok, and let loose the hounds of hell. Just returning your property to you, yanks."
As attention centered on the huge androids, Dreadknight knelt beside the unconscious president. Time for an engram copy and then hit the trail ....
Back home, LLyron lay in his command chair, headpiece on, eyes closed. Reports were coming in ... received by the Dreadknight and Llyron.
"Lord, a zombie attack."
And the fool had given them mutant powers ... amazing. But ... none of his business. Though schemer had harmed civilians, no press were involved just yet, and ... petulantly ... NYC would have to ASK for his help this time - not a likely thing.
"Dreadknight, mission accomplished. Return to base, via discreet means."
"Understood."
--
*Dreadlocks waver about with concern at the arrival of the freaky Schemer children. Bruno would just glance around at those present and notice the looks ranging from pure disgust to embarrassment for the Schemer's latest plan de jour. It would take much effort to soothe the symbiote, the dreads falling back into place before anyone can become the wiser. It would be most unwise to reveal the trump card so early in the game after all. Mama didn't raise a fool, maybe the occasional zombie after all. That's why Bruno wasn't fazed at all by the constant proclamations for grey matter. In fact the longer Bruno sat puffing away on his cigar he watched a zombie shuffle after Creature King, a slight smirk, filling his lips before peering at the zombie once more.*
Sweet Babylon, be dat you Uncle Willie?
*Sure enough Bruno was able to pick out the rather enlarged dreads and Uncle Willie's slack jawed grin. Bruno would just glance around warily. Bruno would duck underneath the table peering out from the table and the symbiote covering his face. Whatever goofy formula the Schemer had in mind, Bruno was fairly certain that the future of mutantkind didn't involve becoming an extra in a Romero flick.*
Dat crazy crackah got 'is math wrong...again! I know I should have stayed mi ass at da Isle, coulda been sippin' on da drink, ogling Rocket, and soakin' up da sun. Oh no, I gotta save mi brainpan from bein' a snack!
*Bruno's dreads would grab at the nearest zombie hoping to snack on pure Calypso baked brainmeats, tossing the zombie aside, while slapping at another one as Bruno would duck and dart out of the grabby hands.*
--
Nina leans into Creature King, watching the show, waiting for something to happen. The wisecracks are tiresome and she can count easily those she wants to continue to recruit for the New gods. So far , so good, and she can no longer count on one hand those that have turned away from the green-fedora'd scourge. Again, they stand here like some kind of mannequins while he orders them about and tries to turn it all into fame for himself. Boring, waste of time, and she starts to whisper something to Roddy about heading home when she stops short, watching the crowd of a few, then more, and more zombies heading toward them, and she moves into action, stemming the tide, picking off a few easily, holding others back with a huge force field net, but there are too many. Will she toss a lasso around the city of Manhattan?? "Idiot...." she hisses
"Action people, don't just stand there!" But she knows it is no use, even with their powers and the brain dead violent zombies, they can not fight them all. In time she will have to do what Shadowcaster said and just hoist all of the new gods, and her new companion Winston, Jr off to her own headquarters, and figure out what to do.
She holds back a new crowd exiting from below the sidewalk and turns her head to Shadowcaster, beaming at her, golden eyes twinkling. She knows how to show homage and gratefulness.The goddess is pleased.
--
She sighs, and as the urge to whine but then she would sound too much like Lark and that would not be good for her rep. She watched, the the now gray zombie like mutants came out of the subway and were now headed toward them.
"Skata, Schemer really..d**n I need to find a new work environment." She phases as Shadowcaster tries to block the zombies but fails, she also sees Schemer take off and try and save his own hide, only to be picked up by Hard Core. She takes off on her own, there was no way she would be left to deal with these things from another failed Schemer scheme..
--
As the mutant people came out of the subway she was shocked to see they were deformed. This pleased her and she started to relax thinking that maybe this was a good idea after all. But then suddenly it became apparent that they were not only ugly but they were stupid and then they were wanting to eat their brains. Apparently they were subject to easy verbal influence because they hear Creature King make a remark about brains. Now all of a sudden they were all starting to become surrounded by zombie like creatures who wanted to eat their brains. In angry disgust, Rocket took a deep breath and with her arms spread wide and then her hand slapping together, she sent an air-quake at them, sending many of them flying.
"Go to hell where you all belong!" She yelled as she shot up in the air about 10 feet high and hovered there to watch.
--
In the spa Skylark in her super secret identity of Jessica Philmont takes her station and awaits her first client. The place is busy this morning. Dozens of people have come in off the street and seem to be wandering around. A few look grey. Really grey! Like grey grey.
"Stupid glasses. I thought these were nonprescription."
One of grey people, a woman in a tacky blue dress shambles over to her station where Jessica greets her.
"Good morning. Here for a makeover? Can I have your name?"
The lady groans at Jessica who checks her appointment list.
"I'm sorry. I do not have a Mrs Ugh on my list. You need to go to the appointment desk. They will schedule u Mrs Ugh."
Another groan comes from the woman. Jessica takes off her glasses to get a better look at who she is dealing with. She is about to repeat what she just told the lady when she gets a good look at who she is talking too.
Mrs Ugh really is grey! Her skin is dry and craggy. Her eyes are bloodshot! The pupils are glowing yellow! One look leaves Jessica terrified.
"Ooooooooooooh mmmmmmmmmmmy God! It can't be! It is impossible! You. You need a makeover more than anyone I have ever seen! Appointment or not I am helping you, sweety.
A facial for sure. That will improve the look of the skin!"
Jessica reaches across the counter for the moisturizing cream. Once she grabs it she will lead Mrs Ugh into the back room for that makeup the lady desperately needs. But as Jessica gets ahold of the bottle of cream Mrs Ugh grabs her hand and sinks her teeth into the flesh of Jessica's arm.
A scream of pain and Jessica slaps Mrs ugh's head.
"Are u crazy! If you did not like that brand of moisturizer we could have used something else! I am sorry. I afraid I am going to have to ask u to leave the store Mrs ugh. Your makeup is canceled."
Jessica plans to call security but first checks her arm where she has been bitten. Mrs Ugh broke the skin. Weird as it sounds the wound is turning grey. The strange color starts to spider out up her arm as well as down. Soon most of upper body is turning the color of the woman that bit her.
Fearful Jessica runs to the nearest mirror. Her eyes are getting bloodshot and turning yellow.
"Oh no!" She starts to reach for her cosmetic case in her purse when outside she hears people talking. A voice she has heard somewhere before mentions zombies.
"Oh no! Mrs Ugh is a zombie! And she bit me! Now I am going to be a zombie!"
Observing her transformation in the mirror she wonders what it is exactly that a zombies does. They will not keep her working for the spa looking like this. And a repeat shot at idol is definitely out. So what does a zombie do with its time?
Outside another voice talks about brain eating zombies.
"Brains?" Jessica asks aloud. Mrs ugh hears and repeats what she hears.
"yes brains!"
Others like them that came into the spa hear and repeat.
"Brains!"
Jessica nods and joins the chorus. "Brains!"
Soon spa workers and clients not zombies start are being attacked by those that are infected. Jessica leaves them to her friends and heads outside hoping to find brains of her own. Outside she hears the voice she hates the most and looks up in the air. It is her father with his flying superbiatch sweety. She uses her sonic powers to take flight and pursue. Singing her latest larky hit in the process.
"Soaring through the air. Because there's brains up there it's Skylark!"
--
The information Alyssa provided was too late. While they drove to the rendezvous sight, the call came over the radio. An officer in a subway was sending in information on a gas leak in the subway. This was not the kind gas humans should be around. Alyssa knew this. "Rory, tell all humans to get away from the gas. Don't send any non-mutant units in." This was not going to be good, she only hoped her hunch was right and the gas did not effect mutants.
As the car roared down the streets, siren's blaring, the sound echoing off tall buildings, she saw them. A swarm of them. A swarm of gray skinned mindless people. "Oh dear GOD!" This was not good. She placed her hand over her stomach for a moment before closing her eyes and trying to stretch out her mind. There was still a minuscule link from the time Schemer was imprisoned in her mind. She blocked that part of her mind normally but now she opened it for information. Then she gasped out, "Zombies...sh*t."
Rory stomped on the breaks and the car skidded and fish tailed to a stop. Her commander looking at her wide eyed as Naomi sat in the back seat. Her strong psychic abilities now stretching out among the gray skinned crowd. In a strange empty sort of unison, all she heard was 'Brains' shouting clearly into her mind. "The girl's right. They are focused on brains." She looked around the car as she realized they were now noticed and a wave was rushing them.
"Floor it!" Alyssa cried out but Naomi yelled, "You can't run them over, they're human still."
Alyssa turned to look at her, blinking. "Are you looking at the same thing I'm looking at?"
Naomi's lips formed a thin line before looking over Alyssa, she knew everything about Alyssa and knew she was a good person deep down. "If there is a way to reverse this, if Schemer can make an antidote or one of our scientists, then we'd be responsible for murdering a possibly innocent human. Do you want that on your hands?"
Alyssa sighed, indecisive. Then Naomi leaned forward and whispered, "What if it was your child?" Another gasp fled Alyssa's lips. She should have known Naomi would know the truth. Now she wondered if the psychic knew who the father was.
Licking her dry lips she looked to the sun roof. "Okay, I'm the only one fast enough to do this. I...I think I can make it. I'm going to slip out the sun roof and lead them away. I'll try to bring them to an empty building but you have to get out of here and get the streets cordoned off." Rory was about to object when she held up her hand, "I'm the only one qualified for this, just have your car ready to go and make sure none follow you. If we're lucky they're not getting into the rest of the city..." but if the gas was coming from all the subway systems, they were screwed.
Naomi wanted to stop Alyssa, knowing she was with child, but the woman was far too stubborn for her own good. "Just keep safe, who knows what these things will do to you if you're caught."
Alyssa turned to her with a sh*t eating grin, "Oh, I do, they're talking about it now." Outside their car windows they could hear the crowd talking about brains and starting to shake the cars. "We're like canned brain meats for them, we better get this party started." She opens the sun roof and hops on top. "Come and get me..." she whispers to herself, finding a break in the crowd she starts running.
--
Emma shakes her head as she watches the transformations happening around her. These were civilians...and shooting civilians with firearms was never a good thing. Luckily, she had her static gun charged and ready...thank goodness for kinetic charging units.
For the most part, the zombies seemed to ignore her, maybe because she was down in the gas with them, she couldn't tell. Though, if any got close, she'd simply jolt away out of reach, then stun them with a quick shot. Then she grumbles, seeing them making their way up to the surface. "Not good..." She moves to the gates blocking the tunnel access from below and rushes through, pulling it sharply closed in hopes of keeping some contained within...until she saw one simply walk through the fencing. "Crap...seriously?"
She thinks about it, then lets her static pistol discharge against the fence, hopefully stunning those touching it before she bolts toward the surface, knocking back the zombies that stood in her way to try to knock them back down the stairs toward the others...she seriously needed some fresh air.
--
He looked at Blue Goblin with a smile at the mansion. "So buddy Blue...what have you been up to?" Ruffling his hair. Blue Goblin looked up to Prodigy, he was like a big brother to him. "Oh, I've been playing with this interesting device Mr. Philmont is working on that alters N-tron cells to evolve them so that people without powers become mutants, and those who are mutants become even more powerful."
Winston grinned as he looked at him. "Oh really...think you could make a special chip on it that would reverse the conversion of evolution to normal, and then turn the switch in reverse to do the opposite, making those with mutant powers powerless?" He blinked and his eyes went wide. "Well ya Prodigy, that would be easy!" He smiled at him and whispered. "Make a remote for that, and add the chip to it, so when lets say, he hits the remote button on the other remote it does the opposite of what it does...make a suit that would reflect the abilities for Schemer, his birthday is coming up and I wanna give him a gift as special as the gift he gave me."
Blue Goblin giggled. "He's going to love me!" He rose a brow looking at the Blue Goblin..."Yeah, kid...he's gonna love you..." he clearing his throat. "OH, I mean YEAH kid he's gonna LOVE YOU...but you gotta keep it a secret...when you complete the suit lemme know...I wanna try it out to make sure it works." Blue Goblin giggled and went to work happily on the small hidden modification, a day later returned the suit to Prodigy. "Here is the suit, I tried it out, and the button, here it is..." He handing the remote to Prodigy. "Good, I'll hide these and on his birthday I'll give them to him as a birthday present from the both of us..." He ruffled the Blue Goblins hair and smiled walking out.
He headed back to his place, storing the devices into his car, he'd received a message from his father via Lotus that stated the plan of where he needed to be, tapping into the bug listening to the audio feed from the classroom his father was in giving the lecture a grin on his face. He walked to the back of his car, pulling the suit out of the trunk, sliding the foil layered silver suit on, pulling the oxygen pack on and slid the helmet on over the top, it hissing and locking...then he pulled the remote out holding it and walked to the car shutting the door. "Lotus...it's imperative that we head to the scene of the crime, father...is going to need my help." He said with a blank expression, Lotus coming on the over head display looking at Prodigy. "Of coarse Winston...lets go..." The car zipping off...
He reached down as the car pulled up to a stop, just outside the entrance to the subway...the car morphing color and shape into a normal looking car with tented windows...Prodigy reaching down, pulling an AK-47 up...reaching down and sliding four clips of bullets into the slots on his belt. He looked at himself in the rear view mirror through the visor, something had changed in Winston...he looked darker, more perplexed than he had a few months prior...violence and rage festering inside of his soul, he was angry most of the time. Alyssa seemed to have disappeared, he helped poor people, all he did was help, all people wanted was for him to serve them...he was tired of serving them. He was tired of people never being there...he was tired of the people that he had to call family by blood.
His father was never around, his sisters were never around, his lover was never around, no one came around except the occasional hello from Cameo, but he didn't have to hurt her, she was like a sister to him. At the homeless shelter so many of the people were grateful, working hard to become something more than they were...he realized insanity was doing the same thing each day and expecting different results...the cops wanted a hero...the villains wanted absolute control...he knew that vigilantes were looked down upon, but if he followed through with this plan...he could end the need for both, end the turmoil his soul was always encumbered with. Spectrum was right, that he wasn't a forefront pawn of war, but someone that worked in the shadows, and today the shadows slowly began to consume him.
Focus came to his mind as he stepped from the car...slipping out of it and down the stairs, sliding into the maintenance closet, turning the stealth mode of his suit on...it balancing any scanners that might pick him up...snapping the clip in the gun...watching his father and the others walking in...reaching down with a grin as he waited for him to activate the device...he would watch the effects of it to see if it was a dud...when he saw the changes, he grinned...reaching down and pushing the button...watching the indicator on the remote slide in the opposite direction from evolution to normal, to de-evolution...watching the clique lose their powers...and all other mutants in the surrounding area...stepping from the closet with a face that had no emotion in the suit...pointing the AK-47 at the powerless group. "ON YOUR KNEES, NOW!! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS!!!" Pointing the fully automatic rifle at the group running toward him.
Pulses of energy came from the remote on his belt, he sticking the modulation chip his father forgot to get back on it, waving over any mutants and their abilities negating as they became normal in any position or situation they were in within a half mile radius, the radius expanding as the computer chip enhanced it's range...covering the entire midwest...the belt and suit both modifying..., the zombies reverting back to normal people...then collapsing as their hair began to grow longer...their foreheads protruding...one looking at another. "I'm a Geico sales man...I didn't buy life insurance through my employer...my family is screwed!" The other caveman looking person looking back at him. "Go sign up you idiot, even a caveman can do it..." They running off huffing and screaming like monkeys. Mayhem broke loose as the subways became an utter backstage WWE fighting event, the royal rumble of the century, hairy people hitting each other, one man grabbing a broom stick and clubbing a woman over the head, grabbing her by the ankles and dragging her off across the ground. "MINE! M..M...M...MINE!" He roared out in victory of his new possession.
Prodigy however paid the chaos no attention, just stared at the click with his eyes and the barrel of his assault rifle, tears welling in his eyes, his face covered in absolute insanity...
--
*The Schemer clung to Hard Core as she lifted him off the ground. He was nearly whimpering over his latest scheme failure.*
I don't understand. I tested the entron activator. It worked. It worked, Adrianna. I swear it did. the Scheme was flawless. But now all my mutants creations are zombies. they want my brains...my marvelous brains. And everyone will think this is my fault. And they'll all be mean to me.
*then and idea struck him.* Maybe we should make a break for the helicopter on the roof of Philmont towers.
Down the street....something was happening to some of the altered but it was too far away to see...and right now he was just interested in escape.*
Rocket.....get to the chopper!! We're getting out of here!!
*But then he spotted his moron daughter Lark appoarching....singing about eating brains.*
Oh dear lord...she's a zombie!! And she wants my brains!!! We can't let her!!! It goes against the natural order for her to have a brain in her head.
*Hard core...crash through the window. We'll take the elevator.*
--
--
*the golden wings of dawn unfolded over the city on a crisp late summer morning. Outside commuters hustled toward the subway on their way to their respective jobs....while inside the confines of the partly rebuilt Philmont industries....the master mutant menace himself...the Schemer set up his first floor office in a fashion resembling a school class room.
In attendance were members of his clique. the flying speed demon, Rocket. His super strong lover, Hard Core. His supposedly close friend....the loyal Bruno. The phasing Cameo. Also in attendance were his former arch foe, Alyssa Guither....who he invited out of respect for the fact she was carrying his grandchild in her womb. And finally...members of the new gods. All former clique agents who left the main group to form their own organization under the leadership of the powerful yet delusional would be goddess, Spectrum. Their number included Roderick Spicer, the animal controlling creature King.....the super strong size changer, Brawn and the darkforce manipulating, Shadowcaster.
Once within the room...the Schemer closed the door behind them...and gestured for them all to be seated.*
Welcome all of you. I come today to state flatly the war with humanity is coming to an end. I have devised a way to make ever lasting peace with our human foes.....and unify the world as one great species.....namely....homosuperior. Mutants.
How you might ask will this happen??? *He pulled out chalk board with a representation of DNA on it. Seeing this Creature turned to Spectrum and whispered.*
Here we go....this is going to be a flippin' long explanation.
*The Schemer ignored him and continued.* Behold..humanoid..DNA. The greatest blueprint design ever created. Now obviously some blue prints are better than others. Mutants are better than humans. Most present her among the females are quite lovely. They have wondrous design codes for physical attributes. Lean bodies. lustrous hair. Fine bone structure. While some us are blessed with codes that grant greater intelligence.....like say....myself.
*He paused....as if for dramatic effect before continuing.* Tell me...who knows what an entron is??
Too save time I'll answer that. It's the extra genetic material that does not seem to code for anything. Most people of science think they coded for things we no longer possess.....like gills. But they are wrong!!! Entrons are the codes for things we shall eventually possess!!! And after years of research.....I've developed a entron activator that will turn humans into mutants...and end the useless conflict between or species!!! Today....I bring peace on earth!!!
I have unleashed my entron activator gas into the subway...where the rush hour humans will be exposed....and they will gain mutant powers!!!! They will be or brothers and sisters!!! And in graditude....they will make us their rulers!!!!
*He shoved the chalkboard away.....and started out of the room.*
Come...all of you...into the dawn...and behold....as humans cast off their flatscan natures....and emerge from the subway....becoming our brothers and sisters!!
*He stepped out and through the main lobby of the building...and into the street to better observe his wondrous work.*
--
Shadowcaster stifles a yawn. This is going to be another of the Schemer's long winded sessions of explaining things to all us less minds. She settles in bracing herself for flood of know it all rhetoric. Maybe she does not have his level of gray matter, unless you are counting her grayish skin color but at least she does not bore the world daily with stupid schemes. Why the Schemer can not spit out his master plans without all the lengthy babble is beyond her.
The real mystery is how he talked Spectrum into being part of this. It is not like his track record of success merits support for his sick schemes. But Spectrum rules the new gods and Shadowcaster is not going to question her. But that does not mean the queen of shadows is not going to say something. She is not going to let the Schemer rattle on and talk down to her without her expressing the contempt she has for him. It is these stupid schemes that are why she left the clique and joining with Spectrum and her new gods. Spectrum might be crazy but she does not bore people to tears like the fedora fiend.
"Can we skip the question and answer section of this quiz, teach? I don't know what entrons are, Schemey. I don't care what entrons are either. Lets just get to the stage of the scheme where everything blows up in your face. I never get tired of seeing that. It is much more interesting than those self gratifying pompous speeches you put us through. Really darling haven't u realized that wind bag routine of yours is completely passe'."
He explains what he is up and she just face-palms.
"Did not magneto try this a few years back? Now you are not even being original."
--
Adrianna had read the information he had left sitting on his computer in the lab...so she had known his plan. He was only attempting to turn people into mutants because of her own brief speech about him needing to bring peace between the species before destroying both. It never hurt to do your homework afterall...that's what she used to convince her students of back at NYU.
"At least you are using a gas in a controlled area as opposed to Magneto's little irradiating the populace notion."
She eases out of her chair and starts toward the doors to follow her darling outside, wondering if the notion would actually worked as it did seem sound enough of a concept, but she saw no actual test subjects to compare results to.
--
"Of all of the pompous things!" Bruno thought with maliciousness threatening to seep from every pore in his body. Did the Schemer really think that everyone's time was this useless to have to keep his ego overly inflated. If it wouldn't mean his demise, Bruno would have had the dread choke the life out of the clueless white boy. Nevertheless even the fool with poor taste in hat wear had his uses. With a slight chuckle, Bruno tucked a dread behind his shoulder, which was actually more of a pat to dissuade the symbiote making up his "hair" from tearing into the Schemer and making a meal out of him. So Bruno sat with his feet upon the table, wafts of smoke trailing from his stogie as he took a cursive glance at the board, letting the equations fill his mind before glancing to his boss*
Ju forgot ta carry da one good boss mon. Dat two way ANOVA can get tricky no?
*Oh the humility of having to correct Hat Boy's math! Nevertheless Bruno sat back in relative comfort, plotting more important things like shrinking Prodigy's fat head and winning Rocket's amorous favor**
--
She lounges with one arm over Roddy's knee, smirking toward him when he complains about the long-winded Schemer. When he gives his idea she rolls her eyes, remembering where she could be, having her nails and hair done perfectly, and getting her dress fitted. Someone named Raoul was painting her toenails and singing her something about Paris in the Springtime and she was looking out the window and eying the Eiffel tower, wondering what it would take to get Manhattan back....that is, Under her control.
"He does try. But I wish Hard Core would keep him on a shorter leash. He is always upsetting my own plans. Come."
She issues him a one word order like she does her lackeys and makes her way to the elevator, then just flies herself to the street, not taking the time to use that human navigation.
"Yes, let's watch you once more create something that can kick your ass," she says dryly.
--
She would have been one of those troublemakers at the back of the classroom, making comments and throwing things at the teacher, but she had been too smart and when her grades had started to show that she was not welcomed at the back of the class anymore, but here she sat in the back as Schemer, went on about his latest cockamamie scheme to turn all humans to mutants.
But before she could comment on the fact that this scheme like all the others would fail someone beat her to it. She turned and looked at Shadowcaster, a smile breaking over her face, though it turns to a frown at the sight of Creature King, as he was covered by a lounging Spectrum.
She arches a delicate brow as Schemer has them all follow him outside, She had kept her mouth shut for the moment, but the wrong words out of his mouth could cause her to comment and complain. She stands, crossing her arms over her chest and follows the rest of the crowd out to watch the latest scheme blow up in Schemer's face.
--
Rocket listened to the lecture with her arms folded in thought. She didn't' like this one. The humans had not been kind to her and she had learned to embrace her powers. She had learned to enjoy being special. And now the Schemer was going to make the rest of the world just like them? This was unbelievable. She glared a little and turned around quickly feeling herself simmering inside. Why did he have to ruin everything? Just when she was on top of it all. Just when it was time to get some pay back from the human world who had shunned her and had made her feel like dirt in her grown up years. Rocket walked out side with the other, not saying a word. She glanced at Spectrum when she suggested that the Schemer was going to get his ass kicked y et again. With interest Rocket wondered what exactly that meant. All of the schemes she had been a part of so far had worked. But here was the opposition implying that the Schemer had failures in the past. She wondered as she stood outside to said to see what all was going to happen on the subway.
--
The Schemer's evil knows no bounds! He has placed his face on the moon. Another time he turned all the children of Manhattan into little jerkface versions of himself. He even set loose dinosaurs and giant bugs on the city. But when his adopted daughter Jessica Philmont discovered what he had done just last week, she knows that his evil must be stopped. In his most evil and calculating plot to date the Schemer has canceled her credit cards. Now she is destitute, down to her last several hundred thousand dollars. She will find him and make him pay for this terrible sin he has committed. But first she has to report to work.
Work is such a horrible thing. How people can it stand she will never know. In the endless amount of time she has been forced to resort to the common way of making money she has broken three nails, lost an eyelash and a contact lens. Slavery, that is what it is, slavery! She wonders how she can cope with this second day on the job.
If only her singing career would take off she will be free of her occupational bonds. But the second most evil man on earth, Simon Cowell kicked her off idol last year. Now she is doomed in the industry. A Bo Bice in a hotbabes body.
She is now flying to work pouting about the drudgery to come. But Skylark does try not to let it show and sings her larky song while she soars.
"Soaring though the sky. Loved by all the guys it's Skylark!"
People below look up and point as she zooms overhead. They will hear her song and tell others. Word of mouth will make her popular then she can make the kind of money that will make her arch foe, Diana DeGarmo jealous.
For now her dreams must end. She lands in a back alley and makes the amazing change from the ultra sexy, oh so trendy superchick Skylark into ordinary day-spa worker, Jessica Philmont.
She brushes out her hair and uses some moisturizer to make sure the wind has not dried out her oh so lovely skin on the flight to work. Mascara, a roll on Fragrance, waterproof eyeliner, primer, powder, Blusher all follow. 15 minutes later the instantaneous change from Skylark to Jessica is complete. Almost. She slips on some designer gucci glasses. Now nobody will notice that she is the really the sexy sonic screamer of soho, Skylark.
She enters the spa through the employee entrance and checks her schedule for the day. Four makeovers this morning and three this afternoon. The schemer will pay for this!
--
Alyssa had been keeping tabs on the Clique for a while now. Did she feel she was betraying her boyfriend, at times yes, but in a way she also wanted to watch over him. She had not seen him for a while. She was trying to spend her time hiding her pregnancy from her co-workers as well as not let them find out about her current ties to the Clique. Rory would surely boot her from Code Blue or at least give her a stern lecture...if it was a choice between a lecture or getting canned, she'd rather be canned. Not to mention Emma was being more of a pregnant dog than her and with Alyssa's hormones out of whack it took all her will power to not punch her in the face.
Sadly, her time with Winston Jr had been very little lately, she only realized too late she had missed his birthday so she made it a point to say so in person but he had not been home. She had felt horrible about that but now that she knew the date she wouldn't forget it. She was not aware of his doings but she trusted the man oddly enough, even with his ties to the man she hated. How could she lose trust in the man she loved and the man she was carrying a child for? The man that had asked him to marry her.
Shaking aside thoughts of Winston Jr, she focused at the problem at hand. She had learned of the latest of Schemer's scheme. She needed to verify this and stop him. She was sworn to keep humanity safe. Schemer needed a hobby, maybe crocheting...or golf? What did old men do? Clip coupons for denture cream? Count the remaining hair on their head? It explains why he wore a fedora at all time. She was surprised he hadn't made a sentient fedora yet.
Now, this brought her to her latest dilemma, she could not go into this alone. Sitting at her desk in HQ she looked across to Naomi. God, she knew she could trust the woman, but the attitude was a pain in the ass. Then she looked at Rory. If she told him about this news he may be curious about how she knew. It was time for a lie, they needed to get in and stop this, so she called both to her desk and told them that a 'spy' had provided her with the information.
--
Llyron stood in readiness. Nine different assaults were on the ready ... each waiting for a trigger. He sipped his tea.
'What' trigger? Yes, you might ask that question. Why a wild schemer plan filling the airways.
His first counter assault on the Americans involved the Dreadknight, a mercenary sometimes in his employee. And android death machine who'd once deflected an energy blast as the schemer himself.
Patience was a virtue. Hadn't he waited patiently in those caves for decades, waiting for a chance to redeem his name?
~That was that idiot Vyrra, dear~
~Quiet mother, I KNOW that. I was speaking engramically.~
~Sure ....~
--
The last stunt...getting shot at after a massive narcotics bust was one thing. Getting her face on the news because of the shooting of a passing by mutant at the crime scene made things harder. The fact Junior hadn't had any ID on him made things difficult, as she had to explain why he talked to her afterward.
...and on top of that, when she got back to her apartment, she'd found her car had been repo'd for lack of payment. Emma'd had to take taxi's and regrettably the subway to get between here and there. It was loud, it was noisy...and druggies didn't seem to like her face. "d**n publicity..." She shakes her head as the train stops and she eases out as two larger guys started making their way toward her.
Then she hears the hissing...but it wasn't like the hydraulic brakes of the train hissing, something else. Like the hiss of an angry snake, but coming from the ventilation units. "What the..." She moves toward the vent, then backs away.
"Gas leak..." It was kind of a lie, it wasn't gas, but people wouldn't know right off, "Everyone out, now..." She moves toward one of the attendants and flashes her badge, "Get on the intercom right now and order an evacuation. And call the police and ... screw it."
She pulls out her cell phone and glances at it, mumbling about it only having two bars, but she calls out none the less to the station to alert them of the situation.
--
*The Schemer overhears comments coming from the disbelievers in the group both verbally and telepathically...and merely shakes his head to display his disappointment.*
Oh ye of brains. *He stated quickly.* You will all see!!!
*He glanced at Bruno and winked....displaying to his most loyal friend that any concerns he had were misplaced.
Outside he watched as up through the subway exits his newly created mutants were making their way to the surface.*
Behold! My children emerge! *And so they did....hunched forms with grayskin...and as one looked closer....bloodshot eyes....yellowed in the center. Brawn was the first to comment about them.*
what the f*** are those??
*Creature king spoken up next.* Bloody mutants, eh?? they all look the flippin' same. Like ruddy zombies!!
Fools!! *The Schemer yelled back.* There's no such thing as a zombie. the skin color change is a visible sign they are being altered...becoming like us. Wait a moment....you'll see.
*A moment passed....but there was no change...and then...and electrical burst surrounded one. Another was seen walking through a wall unharmed. More came up from the subway....each seemingly displaying a different mutant power.*
Behold!!! Success!!! I've done!!! *He looked to Rocket, Cameo, his beloved Adrianna and the others.* I've done it!!! I will bring peace to the planet!!! I've created a new race of mutants. Observe...or brothers and sisters!!
*Creature King shrugged.* But they still look like flippin' zombies.
Yeah. *Brawn chuckled.* They gonna start eating brains or something.
*Creature King chuckled....and held Spectrum close to him...when suddenly....some of the altered rush hour mutants having overheard the conversation repeated what they heard.*
Zombies.....brains.
Great. *Brawn chuckled.* you made mutant retards.
Brains!! *The altered beings said louder and looked toward the Schemer's group. Then.....again...now moving toward the clique and new gods they said again....*
Brains!!!
Holy shinola!! *Brawn croaked.* It's a zombie Jamboree!!
*Creature King looked to shadowcaster and Spectrum.* We're outnumbered....We better get us outta here!!!
*the Schemer roared in response.* Fools!!! they are merely confused by your prattle. I'll speak to them telepathically. *But to his surprise...their minds were closed to his mental powers.*
Interesting....some of our children seem to be Psi-blockers. They are preventing my telepathic powers from reaching the others.
No matter....I'll talk to them. *He stepped forward.* My children!!! Hear me!!!
*But before he could speak....raised voices called out.* BRAINS!!! *And they started running at the Schemer's group.*
We gotta run!! *Creature king bellowed.*
Cretin!! The Schemer never runs from danger!!! I'll stop them with my omniblaster!!!
*He pressed for a laser blast....hoping to drive the altered things back....but his omniblaster was not working.*
They must have a technopath among them. My cane is useless!!!
Ye wanna run now Schemer?? *Creature King said again.*
I told you...the Schemer never runs from danger. He merely walks very fast.
*And with that the schemer turned and fled...pushing the pregnant Adrianna aside in the process.*
One-side cretin....those crazy zombies bastards want Brains....and I've got more than all the rest of you combined!!! Everyone....run!!
--
Shadowcaster says nothing. She knows this situation is going to turn sour. She just knows it. Based on the look Cameo gave her she knows it too. She smiles back at the clique girl and outside she waits.
The freak-show mutants he created show themselves. She laughs at Creature King and Brawn picking on them until they start acting nuts and start running toward her and the others.
She just watches the Schemer in disgust as he tries to save himself.
"There goes our fearless leader. Don not worry. My darkforce powers will stop those freaks."
She creates a wall darkforce energy between her group and the superzombies. But some can walk through walls like Cameo. They extend that power to others and phase through her dark energy wall.
"Zoinks." She turns to Spectrum. "Queen Niahm. Would you please fly us to safety. Pretty please?"
--
She shakes her head.
"Test gases before you use them on the populace... will remind my children to test things first." She simply moves toward her darling and grabs hold of him and moves skyward, hopefully out of reach of the new mutant zombies.
"Darling...why didn't you...you know, test the chemical first?" She furrows her brow, taking him up to a ledge of the building behind them, before rubbing her stomach again. "d**n they're kicking..."
--
The White House was shielded from attack. Devices jammed (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) attempts to teleport in or assault the president. Llyron had not heard back from the Americans, even after his UN announcement.
Finally, reports coming in regarding another mad schemer attack. A gas attack on a subway train? Nerve gas? Terrigan mist? So much for not targeting civilians.
It didn't really matter. His personal plan also involved gas of a different sort. The White House's protection was quite impressive versus teleportational effects. But it was minimal vs dimensional attack. Non-gateway dimensional transferences were incredibly expensive, energy consumptive, and limited to a two pound payload. But that was ample to port a sphere of techno-organic ooze into the room. It burst open, and the payload within exploded, gas filling the room while a simultaneous EMP burst hit the chamber, damaging the teleportational blocking field from the inside by affecting the emitters.
The very moment the field dropped, another dimensional sphere popped in ... this one equipped with teleport tags. Dreadknight teleported into the oval office, accompanied by three sentinel units. They were damaged units recovered from NYC, repaired and reprogrammed. Immediately, they began blasting their way out, bursting onto the white house lawn through the windows/wall. The prohibition about harming humans if possible was still active, but it said nothing against subdual of them. Sonics began blasting through the area, shattering windows, and stunning guards.
Dreadknight laughed.
"Cry Havok, and let loose the hounds of hell. Just returning your property to you, yanks."
As attention centered on the huge androids, Dreadknight knelt beside the unconscious president. Time for an engram copy and then hit the trail ....
Back home, LLyron lay in his command chair, headpiece on, eyes closed. Reports were coming in ... received by the Dreadknight and Llyron.
"Lord, a zombie attack."
And the fool had given them mutant powers ... amazing. But ... none of his business. Though schemer had harmed civilians, no press were involved just yet, and ... petulantly ... NYC would have to ASK for his help this time - not a likely thing.
"Dreadknight, mission accomplished. Return to base, via discreet means."
"Understood."
--
*Dreadlocks waver about with concern at the arrival of the freaky Schemer children. Bruno would just glance around at those present and notice the looks ranging from pure disgust to embarrassment for the Schemer's latest plan de jour. It would take much effort to soothe the symbiote, the dreads falling back into place before anyone can become the wiser. It would be most unwise to reveal the trump card so early in the game after all. Mama didn't raise a fool, maybe the occasional zombie after all. That's why Bruno wasn't fazed at all by the constant proclamations for grey matter. In fact the longer Bruno sat puffing away on his cigar he watched a zombie shuffle after Creature King, a slight smirk, filling his lips before peering at the zombie once more.*
Sweet Babylon, be dat you Uncle Willie?
*Sure enough Bruno was able to pick out the rather enlarged dreads and Uncle Willie's slack jawed grin. Bruno would just glance around warily. Bruno would duck underneath the table peering out from the table and the symbiote covering his face. Whatever goofy formula the Schemer had in mind, Bruno was fairly certain that the future of mutantkind didn't involve becoming an extra in a Romero flick.*
Dat crazy crackah got 'is math wrong...again! I know I should have stayed mi ass at da Isle, coulda been sippin' on da drink, ogling Rocket, and soakin' up da sun. Oh no, I gotta save mi brainpan from bein' a snack!
*Bruno's dreads would grab at the nearest zombie hoping to snack on pure Calypso baked brainmeats, tossing the zombie aside, while slapping at another one as Bruno would duck and dart out of the grabby hands.*
--
Nina leans into Creature King, watching the show, waiting for something to happen. The wisecracks are tiresome and she can count easily those she wants to continue to recruit for the New gods. So far , so good, and she can no longer count on one hand those that have turned away from the green-fedora'd scourge. Again, they stand here like some kind of mannequins while he orders them about and tries to turn it all into fame for himself. Boring, waste of time, and she starts to whisper something to Roddy about heading home when she stops short, watching the crowd of a few, then more, and more zombies heading toward them, and she moves into action, stemming the tide, picking off a few easily, holding others back with a huge force field net, but there are too many. Will she toss a lasso around the city of Manhattan?? "Idiot...." she hisses
"Action people, don't just stand there!" But she knows it is no use, even with their powers and the brain dead violent zombies, they can not fight them all. In time she will have to do what Shadowcaster said and just hoist all of the new gods, and her new companion Winston, Jr off to her own headquarters, and figure out what to do.
She holds back a new crowd exiting from below the sidewalk and turns her head to Shadowcaster, beaming at her, golden eyes twinkling. She knows how to show homage and gratefulness.The goddess is pleased.
--
She sighs, and as the urge to whine but then she would sound too much like Lark and that would not be good for her rep. She watched, the the now gray zombie like mutants came out of the subway and were now headed toward them.
"Skata, Schemer really..d**n I need to find a new work environment." She phases as Shadowcaster tries to block the zombies but fails, she also sees Schemer take off and try and save his own hide, only to be picked up by Hard Core. She takes off on her own, there was no way she would be left to deal with these things from another failed Schemer scheme..
--
As the mutant people came out of the subway she was shocked to see they were deformed. This pleased her and she started to relax thinking that maybe this was a good idea after all. But then suddenly it became apparent that they were not only ugly but they were stupid and then they were wanting to eat their brains. Apparently they were subject to easy verbal influence because they hear Creature King make a remark about brains. Now all of a sudden they were all starting to become surrounded by zombie like creatures who wanted to eat their brains. In angry disgust, Rocket took a deep breath and with her arms spread wide and then her hand slapping together, she sent an air-quake at them, sending many of them flying.
"Go to hell where you all belong!" She yelled as she shot up in the air about 10 feet high and hovered there to watch.
--
In the spa Skylark in her super secret identity of Jessica Philmont takes her station and awaits her first client. The place is busy this morning. Dozens of people have come in off the street and seem to be wandering around. A few look grey. Really grey! Like grey grey.
"Stupid glasses. I thought these were nonprescription."
One of grey people, a woman in a tacky blue dress shambles over to her station where Jessica greets her.
"Good morning. Here for a makeover? Can I have your name?"
The lady groans at Jessica who checks her appointment list.
"I'm sorry. I do not have a Mrs Ugh on my list. You need to go to the appointment desk. They will schedule u Mrs Ugh."
Another groan comes from the woman. Jessica takes off her glasses to get a better look at who she is dealing with. She is about to repeat what she just told the lady when she gets a good look at who she is talking too.
Mrs Ugh really is grey! Her skin is dry and craggy. Her eyes are bloodshot! The pupils are glowing yellow! One look leaves Jessica terrified.
"Ooooooooooooh mmmmmmmmmmmy God! It can't be! It is impossible! You. You need a makeover more than anyone I have ever seen! Appointment or not I am helping you, sweety.
A facial for sure. That will improve the look of the skin!"
Jessica reaches across the counter for the moisturizing cream. Once she grabs it she will lead Mrs Ugh into the back room for that makeup the lady desperately needs. But as Jessica gets ahold of the bottle of cream Mrs Ugh grabs her hand and sinks her teeth into the flesh of Jessica's arm.
A scream of pain and Jessica slaps Mrs ugh's head.
"Are u crazy! If you did not like that brand of moisturizer we could have used something else! I am sorry. I afraid I am going to have to ask u to leave the store Mrs ugh. Your makeup is canceled."
Jessica plans to call security but first checks her arm where she has been bitten. Mrs Ugh broke the skin. Weird as it sounds the wound is turning grey. The strange color starts to spider out up her arm as well as down. Soon most of upper body is turning the color of the woman that bit her.
Fearful Jessica runs to the nearest mirror. Her eyes are getting bloodshot and turning yellow.
"Oh no!" She starts to reach for her cosmetic case in her purse when outside she hears people talking. A voice she has heard somewhere before mentions zombies.
"Oh no! Mrs Ugh is a zombie! And she bit me! Now I am going to be a zombie!"
Observing her transformation in the mirror she wonders what it is exactly that a zombies does. They will not keep her working for the spa looking like this. And a repeat shot at idol is definitely out. So what does a zombie do with its time?
Outside another voice talks about brain eating zombies.
"Brains?" Jessica asks aloud. Mrs ugh hears and repeats what she hears.
"yes brains!"
Others like them that came into the spa hear and repeat.
"Brains!"
Jessica nods and joins the chorus. "Brains!"
Soon spa workers and clients not zombies start are being attacked by those that are infected. Jessica leaves them to her friends and heads outside hoping to find brains of her own. Outside she hears the voice she hates the most and looks up in the air. It is her father with his flying superbiatch sweety. She uses her sonic powers to take flight and pursue. Singing her latest larky hit in the process.
"Soaring through the air. Because there's brains up there it's Skylark!"
--
The information Alyssa provided was too late. While they drove to the rendezvous sight, the call came over the radio. An officer in a subway was sending in information on a gas leak in the subway. This was not the kind gas humans should be around. Alyssa knew this. "Rory, tell all humans to get away from the gas. Don't send any non-mutant units in." This was not going to be good, she only hoped her hunch was right and the gas did not effect mutants.
As the car roared down the streets, siren's blaring, the sound echoing off tall buildings, she saw them. A swarm of them. A swarm of gray skinned mindless people. "Oh dear GOD!" This was not good. She placed her hand over her stomach for a moment before closing her eyes and trying to stretch out her mind. There was still a minuscule link from the time Schemer was imprisoned in her mind. She blocked that part of her mind normally but now she opened it for information. Then she gasped out, "Zombies...sh*t."
Rory stomped on the breaks and the car skidded and fish tailed to a stop. Her commander looking at her wide eyed as Naomi sat in the back seat. Her strong psychic abilities now stretching out among the gray skinned crowd. In a strange empty sort of unison, all she heard was 'Brains' shouting clearly into her mind. "The girl's right. They are focused on brains." She looked around the car as she realized they were now noticed and a wave was rushing them.
"Floor it!" Alyssa cried out but Naomi yelled, "You can't run them over, they're human still."
Alyssa turned to look at her, blinking. "Are you looking at the same thing I'm looking at?"
Naomi's lips formed a thin line before looking over Alyssa, she knew everything about Alyssa and knew she was a good person deep down. "If there is a way to reverse this, if Schemer can make an antidote or one of our scientists, then we'd be responsible for murdering a possibly innocent human. Do you want that on your hands?"
Alyssa sighed, indecisive. Then Naomi leaned forward and whispered, "What if it was your child?" Another gasp fled Alyssa's lips. She should have known Naomi would know the truth. Now she wondered if the psychic knew who the father was.
Licking her dry lips she looked to the sun roof. "Okay, I'm the only one fast enough to do this. I...I think I can make it. I'm going to slip out the sun roof and lead them away. I'll try to bring them to an empty building but you have to get out of here and get the streets cordoned off." Rory was about to object when she held up her hand, "I'm the only one qualified for this, just have your car ready to go and make sure none follow you. If we're lucky they're not getting into the rest of the city..." but if the gas was coming from all the subway systems, they were screwed.
Naomi wanted to stop Alyssa, knowing she was with child, but the woman was far too stubborn for her own good. "Just keep safe, who knows what these things will do to you if you're caught."
Alyssa turned to her with a sh*t eating grin, "Oh, I do, they're talking about it now." Outside their car windows they could hear the crowd talking about brains and starting to shake the cars. "We're like canned brain meats for them, we better get this party started." She opens the sun roof and hops on top. "Come and get me..." she whispers to herself, finding a break in the crowd she starts running.
--
Emma shakes her head as she watches the transformations happening around her. These were civilians...and shooting civilians with firearms was never a good thing. Luckily, she had her static gun charged and ready...thank goodness for kinetic charging units.
For the most part, the zombies seemed to ignore her, maybe because she was down in the gas with them, she couldn't tell. Though, if any got close, she'd simply jolt away out of reach, then stun them with a quick shot. Then she grumbles, seeing them making their way up to the surface. "Not good..." She moves to the gates blocking the tunnel access from below and rushes through, pulling it sharply closed in hopes of keeping some contained within...until she saw one simply walk through the fencing. "Crap...seriously?"
She thinks about it, then lets her static pistol discharge against the fence, hopefully stunning those touching it before she bolts toward the surface, knocking back the zombies that stood in her way to try to knock them back down the stairs toward the others...she seriously needed some fresh air.
--
He looked at Blue Goblin with a smile at the mansion. "So buddy Blue...what have you been up to?" Ruffling his hair. Blue Goblin looked up to Prodigy, he was like a big brother to him. "Oh, I've been playing with this interesting device Mr. Philmont is working on that alters N-tron cells to evolve them so that people without powers become mutants, and those who are mutants become even more powerful."
Winston grinned as he looked at him. "Oh really...think you could make a special chip on it that would reverse the conversion of evolution to normal, and then turn the switch in reverse to do the opposite, making those with mutant powers powerless?" He blinked and his eyes went wide. "Well ya Prodigy, that would be easy!" He smiled at him and whispered. "Make a remote for that, and add the chip to it, so when lets say, he hits the remote button on the other remote it does the opposite of what it does...make a suit that would reflect the abilities for Schemer, his birthday is coming up and I wanna give him a gift as special as the gift he gave me."
Blue Goblin giggled. "He's going to love me!" He rose a brow looking at the Blue Goblin..."Yeah, kid...he's gonna love you..." he clearing his throat. "OH, I mean YEAH kid he's gonna LOVE YOU...but you gotta keep it a secret...when you complete the suit lemme know...I wanna try it out to make sure it works." Blue Goblin giggled and went to work happily on the small hidden modification, a day later returned the suit to Prodigy. "Here is the suit, I tried it out, and the button, here it is..." He handing the remote to Prodigy. "Good, I'll hide these and on his birthday I'll give them to him as a birthday present from the both of us..." He ruffled the Blue Goblins hair and smiled walking out.
He headed back to his place, storing the devices into his car, he'd received a message from his father via Lotus that stated the plan of where he needed to be, tapping into the bug listening to the audio feed from the classroom his father was in giving the lecture a grin on his face. He walked to the back of his car, pulling the suit out of the trunk, sliding the foil layered silver suit on, pulling the oxygen pack on and slid the helmet on over the top, it hissing and locking...then he pulled the remote out holding it and walked to the car shutting the door. "Lotus...it's imperative that we head to the scene of the crime, father...is going to need my help." He said with a blank expression, Lotus coming on the over head display looking at Prodigy. "Of coarse Winston...lets go..." The car zipping off...
He reached down as the car pulled up to a stop, just outside the entrance to the subway...the car morphing color and shape into a normal looking car with tented windows...Prodigy reaching down, pulling an AK-47 up...reaching down and sliding four clips of bullets into the slots on his belt. He looked at himself in the rear view mirror through the visor, something had changed in Winston...he looked darker, more perplexed than he had a few months prior...violence and rage festering inside of his soul, he was angry most of the time. Alyssa seemed to have disappeared, he helped poor people, all he did was help, all people wanted was for him to serve them...he was tired of serving them. He was tired of people never being there...he was tired of the people that he had to call family by blood.
His father was never around, his sisters were never around, his lover was never around, no one came around except the occasional hello from Cameo, but he didn't have to hurt her, she was like a sister to him. At the homeless shelter so many of the people were grateful, working hard to become something more than they were...he realized insanity was doing the same thing each day and expecting different results...the cops wanted a hero...the villains wanted absolute control...he knew that vigilantes were looked down upon, but if he followed through with this plan...he could end the need for both, end the turmoil his soul was always encumbered with. Spectrum was right, that he wasn't a forefront pawn of war, but someone that worked in the shadows, and today the shadows slowly began to consume him.
Focus came to his mind as he stepped from the car...slipping out of it and down the stairs, sliding into the maintenance closet, turning the stealth mode of his suit on...it balancing any scanners that might pick him up...snapping the clip in the gun...watching his father and the others walking in...reaching down with a grin as he waited for him to activate the device...he would watch the effects of it to see if it was a dud...when he saw the changes, he grinned...reaching down and pushing the button...watching the indicator on the remote slide in the opposite direction from evolution to normal, to de-evolution...watching the clique lose their powers...and all other mutants in the surrounding area...stepping from the closet with a face that had no emotion in the suit...pointing the AK-47 at the powerless group. "ON YOUR KNEES, NOW!! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS!!!" Pointing the fully automatic rifle at the group running toward him.
Pulses of energy came from the remote on his belt, he sticking the modulation chip his father forgot to get back on it, waving over any mutants and their abilities negating as they became normal in any position or situation they were in within a half mile radius, the radius expanding as the computer chip enhanced it's range...covering the entire midwest...the belt and suit both modifying..., the zombies reverting back to normal people...then collapsing as their hair began to grow longer...their foreheads protruding...one looking at another. "I'm a Geico sales man...I didn't buy life insurance through my employer...my family is screwed!" The other caveman looking person looking back at him. "Go sign up you idiot, even a caveman can do it..." They running off huffing and screaming like monkeys. Mayhem broke loose as the subways became an utter backstage WWE fighting event, the royal rumble of the century, hairy people hitting each other, one man grabbing a broom stick and clubbing a woman over the head, grabbing her by the ankles and dragging her off across the ground. "MINE! M..M...M...MINE!" He roared out in victory of his new possession.
Prodigy however paid the chaos no attention, just stared at the click with his eyes and the barrel of his assault rifle, tears welling in his eyes, his face covered in absolute insanity...
--
*The Schemer clung to Hard Core as she lifted him off the ground. He was nearly whimpering over his latest scheme failure.*
I don't understand. I tested the entron activator. It worked. It worked, Adrianna. I swear it did. the Scheme was flawless. But now all my mutants creations are zombies. they want my brains...my marvelous brains. And everyone will think this is my fault. And they'll all be mean to me.
*then and idea struck him.* Maybe we should make a break for the helicopter on the roof of Philmont towers.
Down the street....something was happening to some of the altered but it was too far away to see...and right now he was just interested in escape.*
Rocket.....get to the chopper!! We're getting out of here!!
*But then he spotted his moron daughter Lark appoarching....singing about eating brains.*
Oh dear lord...she's a zombie!! And she wants my brains!!! We can't let her!!! It goes against the natural order for her to have a brain in her head.
*Hard core...crash through the window. We'll take the elevator.*
--