[h1][b][center]Mantis[/center][/b][/h1][center][sub] and Zach[/sub][/center] [h1][b][center]Versus Necro
 Fear the Family[/center][/b][/h1]


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Necro walked through the cold metal hall, his boots echoing loudly throughout the building, combined with his grim bone armor he was a most foreboding character indeed. The lone staff member at the morgue collapsed on his desk, killed in a matter of seconds by his deathtouch. Necro's eyes were like dull glass beneath his mask, emotionless as they stared ahead mirroring his own walk through the building. His mind was a swirl of confusion, driven by an overarching command to help his new family.

Necro's death sense travelled throughout the building, seeking suitable bodies to raise. It didn't take long for him to find a few such individuals and he entered a side room, pulling out two such bodies and placing his hands on them. In a moment they rose from where they lay, standing laxly next to Necro and staring at him with something resembling confusion. Necro ignored them, standing there a moment longer and throwing his senses further throughout the morgue. He wanted more than two bodies for something like this as well as replacements. He didn't want to fail his family.

It had been a long day and Mantis was ready to head home. FBI work into martial arts really kept his mind and body in constant work. He liked it though, it kept him at the top of his game. Soon he would meet Zach and discuss their options regarding vigilantism. It gave him a sense of pride and empowerment. This could be the beginning of something huge. He drove down the streetlight illuminated roads of downtown Denver back to his place. Things were eerily quiet tonight and he didn't know why. He hardly passed any cars on his way. Sure he was working late tonight, but that shouldn't change the traffic this drastically. He consciously expanded his emotion sensing abilities. It was a great tool to find any criminals in his vicinity. They usually gave off a plethora of negative feelings including; fear, rage, pride, lust, envy and cruelty. There was rarely any shame to go with them, indicating psychopathic tendencies.
 
As he continued to drive, he felt a very strange wave of emotions. It was as if they originated spontaneously were there was previously none. Living beings are always feeling something from the very broad list of emotions. Mood shifts are normal phenomenon, though spontaneous generation of emotion is rare to non-existent. Something was up and Judah was going to find out. He turned his vehicle in the direction they were coming from about a block away. After about a minute he pulls the car to a stop near the disturbance. As he exits the vehicle he notices the building where the emotions are leaking out is a morgue. [color=Green] "Delightful,"[/color] Mantis muttered to himself sarcastically. He then donned his costume, pulling his baklava face mask over his face. A white Mantis head, with its appendages crossed below made for an intimidating sight. He grabbed the rest of his gear including; tear gas, a flash bang, his Mp5 submachinegun with silencer, extra magazines and approached the morgue. As he entered something wasn't right. A body lay on the reception desk in a horribly mangled position. Mantis raised his Mp5 and cautiously walked forward, making sure to check his corners for signs of intruders. Powerful feelings emanated from the back of the dark morgue. 

Necro turned around and paused for a moment. The sound of faint footsteps were echoing throughout the hallways, someone else was here. After a moment of consideration Necro slumped against the wall and one of the zombies stepped next to the door, the other stood in front of Necro, making loud groaning noises. The noise would surely attract whoever it was. They would come into the room and be immediately grabbed by the zombie hiding by the door, then secured by the one in front of Necro. Afterwards it would be a simple matter to touch whoever it was and kill them. Normally Necro wasn't so frivolous a killer, but he would do whatever it take to help the family. Just in case Necro raised a zombie from a greater distance and sent it to the entrance of the morgue.

Mantis stepped closer very cautiously and heard the sounds of loud groaning. Was somebody hurt? Or was it a trap by the killer? As he came to the back of the morgue, lights flickered on and off. [color=Green]"It's like something out of a horror movie,"[/color] he thought. Then, standing just inside the doorway was a man. He was making loud noises. Unsure of what to do Mantis stopped for a moment and levelled his weapon at him,[color=Green]"Get on the ground now!"[/color] Mantis ordered. The man simply stared blankly and continued to groan. Mantis didn't have time for these games. He tuned his emotional sensors to see what was coming from that room and was shocked. The one standing in front of him emulated emotions of great cruelty and hate. That emotion came from multiple sources in the room, the same exact . Then before anything could react, Mantis fired a burst at the man's chest. He staggered and fell over with a groan. Then Mantis moved into the room seeing a weird skeletal shell wrapped around another man behind the one he just shot. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, a shadowy figure leapt forward at him from the side. Without even processing it, Mantis's reflexes and training took over. He turned his weapon lighting fast and pulled the trigger as the creature knocked into him.

Though Mantis had reacted well to the situation, the fleshy mass that launched towards him did not care for things such as bullets other than the raw physical force, which was insufficient to stop it. It's arms were flung around Mantis in a crushing deathhug. The one he had initially shot lunged from the ground and latched onto Mantis's legs. Now confident his opponent was immobilized Necro rose from his position on the ground and strode towards Mantis quickly, his right hand latching onto the cape's neck, his death touch creeping from his hand into the parahuman. To his surprise though the effect was not nearly as fast as he'd expected, merely causing a black splotch in the form of his hand to manifest and slowly creep along Mantis's neck.

This was really bad. Mantis could feel his skin burning. He could not begin to comprehend how those two survived point blank submachinegun fire, let alone, have enough strength left to render him immobilized. But now was not the time for deep thinking; if he didn't act fast he would probably join their ranks. Using all the strength he could muster, he jerked his entire body to the side. The action put him just in reach of his flash bang grenade and gave him a few precious seconds away from Necro's death touch. Then he pulled the pin, still in the grasp of the two undead and let go of the grenade. It fell, almost in slow motion. The results of this would determine whether or not Mantis had more than a minute left alive. Realizing this, he imparts the thought into Necro, [color=Green]"I will let him see my face before he dies."[/color] He hoped to get the skeletal freak a full blast of the flash bang when it went off. Having anything protecting his head would limit the effects.

Necro was already confused by this new interaction of his power and his mind was not in the most stable of places despite his overridding purpose. Some of the bone mask protecting Necro seemed to melt backwards- just in time for Mantis's flashbang to hit his newly reveled face. Necro reflexively reeled backwards, letting out a surprised yelp that turned into a coughing fit, hands flying to protect his eyes. the zombies he controlled still there watching, having received no additional order besides restrain the target which they still clung to half-heartedly.

Before the flashbang went off, Mantis shut his eyes and brought his ear to shoulder in order to negate some of the blast's effects. After the loud 'BANG', Mantis struggled out of the goons' clutches. Their grips had apparently loosened up after the flash making escape possible. Then he ran. One hand grasping his weapon and the other covering his ringing ear. Out of the cadaver storage area, past the deceased receptionist and through the front door. Any sane person would have taken the opportunity and made their escape. Mantis wasn't what you'd call sane. Instead, he had planned to lure his enemy out into the open. The cramped confines of the morgue gave Necro the upper hand. While the street gave Mantis the tactical vantage. He crossed it at a sprint, and took cover behind a mailbox on the other side. He aimed his Mp5 at the morgue and waited for them to follow. He had to come up with a way to take them down, but how? Then he crafted a plan. If he disabled the followers he could focus on the main threat, [color=Green]"Aiming for their legs should do the job. Afterward, I can take on skeletor, he appears weak minded, obeying my thought after I implanted it. I just can't let them near me,"[/color] he thought as he instinctively rubbed his neck. The burning sensation was gone now, but a dull numbness had replaced it.

Necro took a few moments to recover before he was able to determine that his victim had escaped. He let out a low growl of frustration. Things would be much more difficult now. At least the zombie he'd prepared out back should come in handy. He gave it a mental order to guard the escape and took the two with him through the building, assuming that Mantis was trying to escape and thus heading straight to the primary exit. The lone zombie outside stand up from where it had been laying and began walking towards Mantis, as it had observed his escape, but previously had no orders to react. Necro would just exit the building by the time the zombie had finished shambling to the mailbox Mantis had taken cover by. 

Seeing the stumbling figure make its' way towards him would be humorous, were it not trying to kill him. It was almost on top of him. Knowing a little about the undead, Mantis put two and two together. If he could sever the head from the body it would die (again). he pulled out his combat knife and let the zombie in close. It reached out to restrain him as Mantis sidestepped. As it stumbled, Mantis circled behind to its' exposed back. Then he took the knife in both hands, raised it over the creature's neck and began sawing  back and forth furiously. It was extremely sharp and made short work of the creature's rotting flesh. It flailed about gurgling all the while. Within a few seconds it's head lay next to the mailbox. Its' body fell with a thud. Then Mantis quickly rearmed himself with his submachine gun and backed away as quickly as possible. Necro was more than halfway across the street by then and he didn't want a second embrace. He fired at the following zombies' legs hoping to slow them down. Running out of bullets, he reloads and unloads a flurry of hot lead at the skeletal man.

Necro could feel his zombie collapse, no longer able to move due to it's head being kindly removed from its body. However it had bought him enough time to nearly catch up to the unknown person, who began firing a metric ton of bullets at him. Necro dove to the side behind a parked car: one his zombies becoming crippled by the salvo aimed at his legs, the other managing to make it into cover with him. Necro moved the bone that made up the back of his armor to the front, reinforcing it and helping fill in any holes. If he could keep the gunman firing at his front and get close again he could kill him. The zombie on the ground with its head still on was still crawling vigorously towards Mantis and Necro came around the car as it got closer, going for a frontal charge at the man, further supported by the zombie that had made it into cover now serving as a literal body bag in front of Necro to help protect him.

Zach paused in his walking  at the sound of gunfire. Worse yet silencied gunfire, meaning somebody was planning to shoot without being heard. He'd been on his way to meet with Mantis thinking about potential ideas for teaming up, scenarios they could run into and what not. That all flew out the window however, as he began running towards where he thought the sound had come from. 

Mantis understood Necro's intentions to overwhelm him with numbers. He couldn't hope to win trying to take them all on. The bone encased man was his target. He would have to gas him out of his protection. His armor did not appear to have any sort of filtration from gas. Mantis pulled two tear gas canisters from his belt and yanked the pins. At the same time he backed away from the crawling zombie, keeping out of its' reach. He threw a canister directly in Necro's path boxing him in with the police car. He could either go around the entire car giving Mantis extra time or he could sidestep the gas and have a shorter distance to travel. Mantis wasn't about to let him choose. He imparted the thought to necro,[color=Green]"I should move to the side of this gas and get closer fast. Time is not on my side."[/color] As the thought came to Necro, Mantis, lobbed another canister high in the air. Its' trajectory was exactly where Mantis wanted Necro to run to. If his timing was right, Necro would reach the spot just as a large cloud of gas enveloped him.

A scowl crossed Necro's face as Mantis pulled out two more objects. More flashbangs? Or did he have something else up his sleeve? Regardless he had to close the distance so he pressed forward. One canister was thrown into his way and it started spewing gas. Not knowing what it was he couldn't risk breathing it, it might just kill him in his constant half-dead condition. By the same reasoning giving Mantis time to use his other one would be equally dangerous. So Necro instinctively, or so he thought, moved to the side of the gas. Doing led him straight into Mantis's trap and thus a face full of gas that neither his bone nor zombie could protect him from. The gas filled his cancer ridden lungs and Necro broke into grotesque coughing, attempting to cover his mouth even as blood spilled out and he collapsed to the ground hacking. Both his zombies came to a halt at the lack of input, staring with glassy eyes.
 
Seeing Necro hacking gave Mantis the perfect opportunity to flank him. He rushed to his side and opened fire ten feet away. Necro's side armor was no match for twenty rounds of hot lead at close range. It shattered and splintered into pieces under the repeated fire. Even so, he did not stop shooting until his magazine was empty. The silencer did help with the noise, but it was very likely that at least a few people had noticed their battle on the street. As the gas and smoke cleared, Mantis reloaded and moved in closer to examine Necro's body. It was riddled with holes. He then turned towards the zombies. They had fallen over and were immobile. [color=Green]"What kind of parahuman was this?"[/color] Mantis thought.

Necro lay on the ground, his armor shattered and body bleeding from a dozen holes. He was certainly for all intents and purposes dead. Or so anyone would think. But there was a will driving Necro that refused to accept such an outcome. One red-rimmed eye sudden flew open and locked onto Mantis. Necro's raised an arm and the bone that still encased his body flowed like liquid around it. In one last effort that seemed to drain all remaining life from him, the bone launched forward from where it had congealed around his arm, driving towards Mantis's heart. There was less than a whisper of auditory indication and Mantis was looking at the equally immobile zombies after believing his foe to be dead. His chances of survival were non-existent. 

Zach threw himself forward, desperately hoping he could make it there in time. The spear cracked loudly against Zach's barrier and collapsed to the ground in little bone fragments. Zach was panting heavily at this point, partly from the exertion of running and partly from the adreline rush of making it in time. [color=#00b200]"A hero always arrives just in time!"[/color] he said with a confident, one might say cocky, grin.

Mantis whirled around to see Zach panting, but with a smirk on his face. Around him lay the fragments of bone,[color=Green]"I shot him up! How did he manage that?"[/color] Mantis aimed his weapon at Necro once more, but his body had completely exhausted all life that remained. Even those who can toy with life and death are still bound by its' rules. Mantis looked back at Zach from Necro's body, [color=Green]"Thanks for the save,"[/color]he paused for a moment,[color=Green]"I don't know how he managed that. Do me a favor,"[/color] he motioned to the tear gas canisters, [color=green]"Grab those, don't want to leave any trail."[/color]

A zombie that lay just a few feet suddenly turned its head and began speaking in a rasping voice, [color=gray]"So, I'm dead now. Sorry about all the trouble I caused, but in my defense it wasn't really my fault."[/color] the voice sounded just as perplexed as Zach and Mantis would likely be.

The infectiously cocky smile spread across Zach's lips didn't diminish in the least at Mantis's gratitude. If anything it got bigger. He moved to pick up one of the gas canisters, his barrier immediately filtering the residual gas out of the air. As his hand closed around the canister, he heard a voice that clearly didn't belong to his partner. The young man turned his head to a body lying on the floor a couple feet away, and listened to its words in a confused stupor. At the claim that 'it wasn't his fault' Zach frowned. [color=#00b200]"What do you mean it's not your fault? Is that you Necro?"[/color] He asked, sounding concerned

[color=gray]"Ah the kid from the alley. Yes. My mind wasn't in the right place I fear. What was his name again? Patriarch. He made me part of his family."[/color] His voice began slowing down as it kept talking and a tinge of fear crept into it. [color=gray]"Oh, I'm going for real now. In a morgue... how fitting..."[/color] With that the body that was talking also fell limp. It seemed Necro was gone for good now. His parahumanism had let him survive his cancer for longer than he should've yet in the end one could also say it was the reason he died as well. Of course Zach and Mantis would likely care less about this and more about the wail of police sirens that was gradually getting louder. It seemed somebody had seen or heard the fight and called 911, given that there wasn't the additional tone of the PRT with it.

Mantis listened to the real Necro intently. Someone named Patriarch had taken him over. But the fact that Zach knew him was pretty strange. Not as strange as a talking zombie, but strange nonetheless. That question would have to come at a later date. Now they had to get out of their while the place wasn't swatted. Mantis ran into the morgue, grabbed the spent flashbang and booked it out of there to his car. [color=Green]"Get in,"[/color]he stated more calmly then he was feeling. It was a rush and it all happened so fast. The life of a hero was exhilarating, to put it mildly. 

Zach eyes snapped onto Mantis at the command, and he ran over to the vehicle. As fast as he could he climbed into the passenger seat, his breath coming out in gasps as his exhaustion hit him. He suddenly felt nailed to the seat, his eyes staring uselessly up at the roof of the car without seeing anything. Suddenly a laugh bubbled in his throat, as he looked over at Mantis. [color=00b200]"Oh god, oh god we actually beat him. The last time it didn't go nearly as well,"[/color] He said, his voice brimming with satisfaction.

Mantis glanced over at Zach after he hopped in the driver's seat. [color=Green]"You'll have to tell me all about him when we're out of here,"[/color] he said with a smirk. Then he pulled the car out of park and slammed the clutch in, putting the car into gear. The smell of burnt rubber permeated the air as they sped off as fast as their ride could take them. The chases he had been in over the years had given Mantis the experience he needed to maneuver vehicles skillfully and fast. Though in the past he had been the one chasing the suspects, not becoming a suspect himself. After a few minutes of weaving through the streets, Mantis made it to his  house and got out of his ride. And what a ride it was. [color=Green]"We made it, now let's lay low for a little while,"[/color]he said as he removed his baklava and costume. Then he led Zach to his place and got in through the front door. Sirens wailed in the distance. Their adventures were only just beginning.

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