Supermaxx

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Dammit. The Big Red Cheese AND Thor are taken, huh? That sucks.

@Lucian

While Billy Batson's currently being written in another role, our Shazam player recently put the character down. So he's totally available to play with a little bit of adjusting!

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

<Snipped quote by Byrd Man>

Or we need to find a way to pay the bills without working...?

@EldarionI

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Superboy's Shitty Characters

B A Y V I L L E H I G H S C H O O L

---

^{Midday | Bayville, New York City}

The Bayville Badgers mascot was displayed with pride on the school's tiled floor. That black-and-white little creature had a defiant fist shoved into the air and a certain glint in its cartoonishly large eyes. It'd been a long time since Scott had seen that little furry demon, and the sight of it did little to ease the thumping in his chest.

As far as he could remember the Badgers hadn't won a single prize in the last ten years that wasn't a participation ribbon. The oft chanted 'Badgers Fighting!' had become something of a joke in the state's basketball circuit with how terrible Bayville's teams always managed to be. That never stopped Summers from cheering for them, though- it made their few and far between victories all the sweeter.

They had won a few tournaments in their past, however, and the administration was eager to let people remember. They'd set up a long trophy case along the central hallway to display their former glory for all to see. It used to be an impressive little setup, with velvet carpet on the interior and gold trimming around its mahogany frame. Now the glass was shattered and spread across the floor, several earthen claws impaling through the box and pointing toward the X-Men like accusatory fingers. Cyclops kept moving, his breathing shallow as he listened for even the slightest of sound.

There were muffled sobs coming out of the classrooms he passed by, their windows dark and their locks firmly in place. The hallways themselves were all empty, save for the carnage left behind by the mutant that had made his way through here. No bodies or blood, just mindless destruction. Shattered lights and broken panels hanging from the ceiling. Lockers tossed around and crushed like soda cans. And at least a dozen more remains of stone and dirt constructs that had done the deed.

"No bodies," Scott muttered under his breath, glancing over toward Hank.

McCoy was slinking forward on his knuckles like a hairless ape, his eyes darting over the geomancy pillars with a curious and weary eye. "Or blood for that matter." Beast agreed with a slow nod. "None of the classrooms have been disturbed."

"God this place gives me the creeps," Iceman said a little too loudly, prompting both Cyclops and Beast to glare back at him. He threw up his hands defensively and quickly shut his mouth.

The trio continued their advance deeper into the school, following the path of destruction. It branched off at places, forcing them to split up temporarily in their search, but it always seemed to converge back into a primary, linear path. Their mutant wasn't on a spree as had been assumed- they looked to be pushing toward a specific goal, Scott just didn't know what.

They came upon the first set of open doors near the opposite side of the building to where they had entered. A pair of large double doors had been broken off at their frame and now lay crushed and crunched up on the other side of the hallway. Massive, earthen fists stood dormant to either side of the entrance, their digits dug into the wood, drywall, and steel of the wall. Red lettering positioned above the threshold marked it as the gymnasium.

"Eyes up, guys. Looks like the place." Cyclops warned, doing his best to keep his breathing steady as he stepped inside. He was greeted by the sight of another brutalized room. Cavernously large with long, folding bleachers situated on either side and a multi-purpose court in the center, the gym had seen the worst of the damage. Pillars of earth as thick around as a Giant Sequoia rose up from the floor and cut their way through the roof. Dozens of protrusions cut through the bleachers, walls, and ground at awkward angles, bending metal and splintering wood.

In the very center of the room was a puddle of blood surrounded by a smattering of dagger-like spikes stabbed into the ground around it.

Beast started across the gym at a run, his closed fists scratching across the floorboards as he bounded over toward the pool. He bent his head low, taking in long, deep breaths with his nose until he wrenched his head in the direction of the locker rooms. He didn't say anything as he started in that direction, this time much slower and more cautious in his approach. Cyclops and Iceman moved after him, mimicking his silence until they arrived at the entrance.

A weak, pained mewling echoed out of the tiled men's room. Cyclops placed a hand on Beast's shoulder, ushering him back so he could take the lead. A hand hovering by his visor and the other tracing along the wall, Cyclops crept ahead, following the sound of muffled and pained sobbing. When he turned the corner he came upon the mutant he'd been looking for- and his victims.

The boy was short in stature, perhaps four or five inches shorter than Scott. And he was thin as rails without much in the way of visible muscle. His back was to Scott so he couldn't get a good look at the kid's face, but he had long, dirty-looking hair, a shirt a size too big for him, and worn out skinny jeans that clung to his unimpressive frame. Then there were the other kids.

Three of them, to be exact.

One was a large boy in every sense of the word, with a scruffy jaw and a buzzcut to frame his face. Tears were running down his hairy cheeks and he was struggling to break free from the giant stone fingers that were wrapped around his torso and keeping his arms pinned to his side. It wasn't going to budge no matter how much he wiggled around.

The next was a head taller than him and skinnier, but still a bit meatier than the mutant. His hands were pressed up against the wall and held there by rocky manacles bursting out of the tiles to wrap around his wrists. A mask of stone held tight to the lower portion of his face, muffling his terrified cries and making it difficult for him to breathe.

The final boy was suspended right in front of his captor by a tendril of hardened dirt and clay. Blood was running down from a large gash on his forehead, over his eye and dripping down his chin. Blue eyes were red and puffy, filled with fear and apprehension as they stared into the face of the mutant that held him. "I'm- I'm sorry, Lance.." Griff apologized with haggard breath. "C-come on, just- just let us go, man-"

Lance made a quick motion with his skeletal fingers, and another tendril of dirt broke through the ground beside him. At it's head was a sharpened stone that it traced along Griff's cheek, drawing a short, thin line of red along behind it. He did his best to swallow an agonized scream.

"Would you've let me go?" Lance snarled, motioning for his tendril to pull away.

"I- I was just messin' with you, man-"

"You were gonna beat me until I was black 'n blue you fuckin' liar!" He slammed his fist into Griff's nose in an awkward and mostly ineffectual punch. "I know what people like you do to mutants. They ain't gonna find me in a ditch somewhere, fuck no. But you on the other hand..."

Bobby broke from cover first, dodging past Cyclops' attempt to stop him from rushing forward. Iceman threw up a hand, a stream of frost leaving his snow-covered palm and flying right for Lance's exposed back. A pillar of rock burst from the ground right in its path, continuing forward until it rammed right into the surprised X-Man's chest.

"Let them go!" Beast roared, leaping over his fallen comrade as he bounded toward Lance at frightening speeds. The knife-like tendril whipped around to intercept, flinging itself for Hank's throat only to be stopped by a fist when it was just inches away. Beast wrestled with the construct, his fingers digging into it's length and finding it's stony spine hidden within its center. With a roar he plunged a hand down, took hold of the spine-like structure and ripped it out, shattering the whole of the tendril. He went to grab Lance, only for a hand the size of Hank's barrel chest to pop out of the ground and restrain him.

Even as it began to drag Beast to the floor, Cyclops started forward, his fingers resting on the release button on the side of his visor. "You don't have to do this, Lance." He said, staring right at the sixteen year old boy's chest. Aim for center mass. "We don't have to fight."

Lance's expression twisted as he looked over the X-Men. Strange people garbed in linen costumes ripped straight from the pages of a cheesy comic book. Superheroes like the Justice Society of America, or Captain America and the Wonder Woman. They were the last people he expected to come barging through that door- he expected cops to come in shooting. It took him a few moments to adjust to the situation, his clamy hands opening and shutting as he rapidly looked between the three heroes. "You mutants too?" Lance rasped.

"We are." Scott answered with a nod. "We're the X-Men, and I'm Cyclops."

"Cool name." Lance chuckled a little, his throat as dry as the Nevada Desert. "This...this ain't what it looks like-"

"What do you think it looks like?" Cyclops asked, never letting his fingers stray too far away from the button. He didn't know anything about Lance, but the kid looked nervous- panicky. Scott had to make sure he wouldn't do anything to hurt those other kids or his teammates.

Lance glanced over his shoulder, then to the downed Iceman and the restrained Beast. It certainly didn't look good, whatever this was. "They- they attacked me first-" He stammered, shoving an accusatory finger back at Griff. "He was gonna kill me!"

Griff gave a rapid shake of his head. "We weren't, I swear-"

"You shut the fuck up!" Lance shouted over him, shoving an accusatory finger in Griff's face. Another tendril broke out of the ground and started to snake toward Ryan Griffin.

"Hold on, Lance." Cyclops ordered. Firm, but not angry. He had to make sure he sounded calm and in control. Lance was losing it. He couldn't let the kid do something he'd regret. "Just hold on. Don't hurt him." He insisted, taking a few, careful steps forward. When Lance looked back but didn't lash out at him, Scott got closer- not close enough to get into his personal space, but close enough to make it more personal. "He attacked you because you're a mutant, right?"

Lance nodded quickly.

"I know what it's like. Trust me, we all do." Scott took another step forward. Lance froze up this time, his shoulders tensing. Scott was getting too close, but he decided not to stop. Instead he brought his hand away from his visor, holding them both up in the air to show himself as harmless and vulnerable. That eased the tension in the other boy, at least a little. "But you can't react like this. Nobody else is going to understand-"

"So I should just let them get away with it?" Lance snarled between gritted teeth, running a hand through his grease-slicked hair.

"I didn't say that." Cyclops corrected. "But the police aren't going to take your side, Lance. All they're going to see is a mutant attacking humans. And you know how that's going to end."

But..." Lance snapped his eyes shut. "-they deserve it. I-" He stood, turning to look at Griff. The bully sucked air in, meeting Lance's gaze with wide, terrified eyes. Lance got close to him. "-I don't care what they think. P-people like him have been treatin' people like me like shit since forever, and...and I'm tired of it."

"Don't, Lance." Cyclops warned. "There's no coming back from this if you kill this guy. They'll come after you and they won't stop-"

Lance didn't turn around, he was just staring at Griff now. "Won't be any different from before."

"Think about what it'll do to your family-"

"What family?"

Scott caught himself tripping over his own words. "Lance-" He moved forward again, holding out a hand toward the younger man's shoulder. Not a second later Cyclops felt something punch into his chest with the force of a freight train. The pillar had come faster than he could react, his feet leaving the floor as he flew backward several feet.

The next thing Cyclops saw when he finally hit his back was Lance's tendril shooting toward Griff's throat.

'No!'

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Alright, after much deliberation, we've come to a decision. We believe the best course of action is for @Dblade26 to submit a sheet for Katana and we'll compare that to @Morden Man 's own use of the character, as we would if two players were to submit sheets for the same character within the 24 hour wait period. Whichever one we believe has a better story to tell and is better for the health of the game overall will be given the character. We realize it's not a very comfortable situation and not everyone's going to win at the end of this, but we feel it's our best option.

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Oh no I have to actually do my job now

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

B I G B E L L Y B U R G E R

---

^{1:28 a.m. | White Plains, Westchester County, New York City}

"It was completely assinine, Bobby. I have no idea why you liked that drivel so much." Hank McCoy grunted, his cheek stuffed with the remains of his half-finished Belly Buster. He had the burger clutched in one fist while he used the other one to point an oversized finger at Bobby Drake.

The remains of Bobby's own food was sitting in the little red basket on the table, his face contorted- it didn't know if it was more confused or offended at that. "What?!" He huffed incredulously. "But you saw the sword moment, right?" He asked, miming the motion of pulling a sword off his back and making a wide, exaggerated chopping motion down the center of the table. "Come on! You can't tell me that wasn't the coolest shit you've ever seen!"

Hank just laughed at him and shook his head. "I watched a man walk on the moon. Now that, that was cool. A giant CGI robot cutting the head off a giant CGI alien with a giant CGI sword does not even come remotely close. Honestly, if you spent half the time studying that you do watching movies-"

Drake's head smashed against the table with a sudden and noisy smack that made Hank jump. Not a moment later Bobby began to snore as loudly and obnoxiously as he possibly could. "Booring." He gave a false yawn before sitting back up and finishing off his milkshake. "I'll leave all the Einstein stuff to you. Life's way too short to spend it lookin' through a microscope at nothing-"

"Microorganisms aren't nothing, you dolt-"

"-Anyway, they weren't aliens, they were Kaiju!" Drake corrected. "And they didn't come from space, they came from that hole under the ocean. Maybe you would've liked the movie more if you actually paid attention."

Hank scoffed. "Please. The premise was so ridiculous that I couldn't even be bothered. Giant robots? Honestly. Honestly! I can think of a thousand- no, ten thousand- better ways to spend a global defense budget than robots."

"Mechs. They had pilots, so they're mechs."

"They aren't real. It doesn't matter!"

"Scott," Bobby turned away from McCoy and looked to his fearless leader for help, "Tell Hank he's an idiot for not liking fun."

"I resent that!-"

Scott Summers was busy pouring over notes on his smartphone, jotting down everything he'd learned about the team after today's training regime. He knew Hank was struggling to breach one ton on his deadlift. Bobby was still having trouble hitting his 'icicle bolts,' even while standing still. Kurt refused to even try teleporting passed an object unless he could physically see his destination. Jean was making remarkable progress with her telekinesis, but her telepathy continued to overwhelm her in any kind of stressful environment. They'd been at this for over a year, and though they'd made great strides since their early days, Scott was worried the team had begun to peak far sooner than he and Charles anticipated. How were they supposed to save the world when they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag?

"Earth to Scott Summers, come in Scott Summers." Bobby plugged up his nose, doing his best impression of a voice over a radio. "Scott Summers please respond."

Cyclops didn't so much as look up from the screen. "I'm working, Bobby, settle it between yourselves."

'Iceman' let out a groan. "You're so boring, Scotty, you know that?"

"I'm not boring," Scott grunted. "Some of us have actual responsibilities around here and don't have time to sit around watching TV all day."

Hank gave a smug, wordless grin in Drake's direction.

"If anyone's boring it's Hank," Scott continued without skipping a beat. "Guy doesn't even like movies."

The pair had broken into another tirade of arguing before Summers had so much as a chance to finish his sentence, but he didn't hear a word of it. His attention had shifted back down to the device in his hand and the notification box that had popped up on the top of the screen. The bronze faceplate and purple helmet of the Sentinel app's mascot stared up at him, accompanied by an address. It took Summers a couple of seconds to recognize it, but the moment he did he felt his heart drop into his stomach.

"We need to go." Summers snapped, shoving out his seat as he stood up. He pulled his wallet from his pocket and tossed a twenty dollar bill and some change down on the table and started for the door, with Hank and Bobby rushing to pick up the remains of their food and make after him.

"What's going on?" McCoy asked in a worried voice.

Scott tapped on the notification to bring up the full app and handed it over to Hank as he stepped out of the fast food restaurant's front door and made for his car. "Police reporting a mutant at Bayville High School. That's twenty-five minutes from here. We need to cut it down to fifteen, so get in the car and start changing."

"I'll call Jean and Kurt-" Bobby began, only for Scott to cut him off.

"No time. They're already reporting potential casualties."

B A Y V I L L E H I G H S C H O O L - 1 7 M I N U T E S L A T E R

---

^{1:46 a.m. | Bayville, Westchester County, New York City}

The NYPD had already set up a perimeter by the time the X-Men had arrived. Scott, Hank, and Bobby climbed out of the car, clad in their yellow-and-blue spandex uniforms. Cyclops had abandoned his ruby-red glasses for his visor and Iceman had already gone through the trouble of putting on his 'snow armor,' as he had taken to calling it. The three of them made sure to keep a low profile behind the cover of their car as they scanned the area for trouble. There had to be almost a dozen cops here already, and there wasn't any question that more would be there soon. But that wasn't the most troubling thing about the scene before them.

Bayville High School was surrounded by walls of rock and earth. Stone barricades had been erected over every window, door, and vent that Scott could see. Even the windows on the second floor were covered. There wasn't going to be an easy way to get inside. Luckily the NYPD didn't look like they had any clue how to get past the barriers either, so there was still a chance that the X-Men could get inside and defuse the situation. New York's finest weren't known to negotiate in situations like this one.

"Alright, here's the plan," Cyclops muttered, crouching back down beneath the car to speak to both Iceman and Beast. "Iceman, you're the fastest one here. I'll need you to distract these cops here. Make them chase you to the other side of the school if you can. While you're doing that, Beast and I will break through one of those windows on the second floor to get inside. When you come back around I want you to ice up the window once you're in so they can't follow us. Got it?"

Iceman gave an enthusiastic nod of his head. "Got it Scott, can do-"

"Cyclops!" He hissed.

"Right. Cyclops. Sorry. Aight, I'm on my way." Iceman jumped to his feet and launched a spray of frost against the ground several feet in front of him. He gave himself a running start toward it to build up momentum, then hopped atop it and continued to spray a path across the ground. The snow-covered mutant shot across the pavement faster than any human being could run. "Hey! Coppers! Over here!" He shouted, dragging the attention of the police line around to the odd site of a living snowman skating across the pavement in March. It didn't take the NYPD officers long to start shouting back at him and giving chase.

Once the coast was clear Cyclops and Beast bounded across the grass toward the school, Hank running on all fours and managing to beat Scott there by a good eight seconds or so. Cyclops took a few steps back to get a good angle on the stone outcropping and lifted a finger up to his visor. With the press of a button, he caused the front of the visor to pop open, a pair of violently bright and hot beams shooting out of his retinas to blow the stone to chunks. It hurt using the beams for even a few moments- he needed a second or two to readjust to sight once he released the visor's button and it fell back into place.

"Alright, Beast. Toss me." Cyclops ordered. Hank gave him a quizzical look, but he didn't argue, settling down low so that Scott could step onto Beast's cupped hands. Once his fearless leader was in position, Hank gave it his all and flung Summers as high into the air as he possibly could. Cyclops went flying for the second story window, all but smashing right through it when he landed on the ledge upper ledge.

It didn't take long for Scott and Hank to both climb itself, and not more than two minutes later Bobby appeared on the street below.

The sound of shouting voices was distant behind him as Drake constructed a ramp up to the window, his feet clinging unnaturally to the ice pathway as he seemed to counteract gravity itself by skating upwards toward the window. He dove inside with an overly theatrical roll, popping back up with his arms spread wide so he could give a bow. "I gave 'em the slip, boss!" iceman proudly proclaimed. "Won't know I came this way for a good five minutes."

"Good. Ice this up, we don't need them trying to follow us." Scott ordered. "It looks like our mutant can control earth, and quite a bit of it. So we need to do this carefully, but we gotta be quick- I don't know what we're going to find downstairs, but..." He swallowed, his hands shaking ever so slightly. He was praying it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. "Let's get moving, X-Men. We have a job to do."

Superboy's Shitty Characters

B I G B E L L Y B U R G E R

---

^{1:28 a.m. | White Plains, Westchester County, New York City}

"It was completely assinine, Bobby. I have no idea why you liked that drivel so much." Hank McCoy grunted, his cheek stuffed with the remains of his half-finished Belly Buster. He had the burger clutched in one fist while he used the other one to point an oversized finger at Bobby Drake.

The remains of Bobby's own food was sitting in the little red basket on the table, his face contorted- it didn't know if it was more confused or offended at that. "What?!" He huffed incredulously. "But you saw the sword moment, right?" He asked, miming the motion of pulling a sword off his back and making a wide, exaggerated chopping motion down the center of the table. "Come on! You can't tell me that wasn't the coolest shit you've ever seen!"

Hank just laughed at him and shook his head. "I watched a man walk on the moon. Now that, that was cool. A giant CGI robot cutting the head off a giant CGI alien with a giant CGI sword does not even come remotely close. Honestly, if you spent half the time studying that you do watching movies-"

Drake's head smashed against the table with a sudden and noisy smack that made Hank jump. Not a moment later Bobby began to snore as loudly and obnoxiously as he possibly could. "Booring." He gave a false yawn before sitting back up and finishing off his milkshake. "I'll leave all the Einstein stuff to you. Life's way too short to spend it lookin' through a microscope at nothing-"

"Microorganisms aren't nothing, you dolt-"

"-Anyway, they weren't aliens, they were Kaiju!" Drake corrected. "And they didn't come from space, they came from that hole under the ocean. Maybe you would've liked the movie more if you actually paid attention."

Hank scoffed. "Please. The premise was so ridiculous that I couldn't even be bothered. Giant robots? Honestly. Honestly! I can think of a thousand- no, ten thousand- better ways to spend a global defense budget than robots."

"Mechs. They had pilots, so they're mechs."

"They aren't real. It doesn't matter!"

"Scott," Bobby turned away from McCoy and looked to his fearless leader for help, "Tell Hank he's an idiot for not liking fun."

"I resent that!-"

Scott Summers was busy pouring over notes on his smartphone, jotting down everything he'd learned about the team after today's training regime. He knew Hank was struggling to breach one ton on his deadlift. Bobby was still having trouble hitting his 'icicle bolts,' even while standing still. Kurt refused to even try teleporting passed an object unless he could physically see his destination. Jean was making remarkable progress with her telekinesis, but her telepathy continued to overwhelm her in any kind of stressful environment. They'd been at this for over a year, and though they'd made great strides since their early days, Scott was worried the team had begun to peak far sooner than he and Charles anticipated. How were they supposed to save the world when they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag?

"Earth to Scott Summers, come in Scott Summers." Bobby plugged up his nose, doing his best impression of a voice over a radio. "Scott Summers please respond."

Cyclops didn't so much as look up from the screen. "I'm working, Bobby, settle it between yourselves."

'Iceman' let out a groan. "You're so boring, Scotty, you know that?"

"I'm not boring," Scott grunted. "Some of us have actual responsibilities around here and don't have time to sit around watching TV all day."

Hank gave a smug, wordless grin in Drake's direction.

"If anyone's boring it's Hank," Scott continued without skipping a beat. "Guy doesn't even like movies."

The pair had broken into another tirade of arguing before Summers had so much as a chance to finish his sentence, but he didn't hear a word of it. His attention had shifted back down to the device in his hand and the notification box that had popped up on the top of the screen. The bronze faceplate and purple helmet of the Sentinel app's mascot stared up at him, accompanied by an address. It took Summers a couple of seconds to recognize it, but the moment he did he felt his heart drop into his stomach.

"We need to go." Summers snapped, shoving out his seat as he stood up. He pulled his wallet from his pocket and tossed a twenty dollar bill and some change down on the table and started for the door, with Hank and Bobby rushing to pick up the remains of their food and make after him.

"What's going on?" McCoy asked in a worried voice.

Scott tapped on the notification to bring up the full app and handed it over to Hank as he stepped out of the fast food restaurant's front door and made for his car. "Police reporting a mutant at Bayville High School. That's twenty-five minutes from here. We need to cut it down to fifteen, so get in the car and start changing."

"I'll call Jean and Kurt-" Bobby began, only for Scott to cut him off.

"No time. They're already reporting potential casualties."

B A Y V I L L E H I G H S C H O O L - 1 7 M I N U T E S L A T E R

---

^{1:46 a.m. | Bayville, Westchester County, New York City}

The NYPD had already set up a perimeter by the time the X-Men had arrived. Scott, Hank, and Bobby climbed out of the car, clad in their yellow-and-blue spandex uniforms. Cyclops had abandoned his ruby-red glasses for his visor and Iceman had already gone through the trouble of putting on his 'snow armor,' as he had taken to calling it. The three of them made sure to keep a low profile behind the cover of their car as they scanned the area for trouble. There had to be almost a dozen cops here already, and there wasn't any question that more would be there soon. But that wasn't the most troubling thing about the scene before them.

Bayville High School was surrounded by walls of rock and earth. Stone barricades had been erected over every window, door, and vent that Scott could see. Even the windows on the second floor were covered. There wasn't going to be an easy way to get inside. Luckily the NYPD didn't look like they had any clue how to get past the barriers either, so there was still a chance that the X-Men could get inside and defuse the situation. New York's finest weren't known to negotiate in situations like this one.

"Alright, here's the plan," Cyclops muttered, crouching back down beneath the car to speak to both Iceman and Beast. "Iceman, you're the fastest one here. I'll need you to distract these cops here. Make them chase you to the other side of the school if you can. While you're doing that, Beast and I will break through one of those windows on the second floor to get inside. When you come back around I want you to ice up the window once you're in so they can't follow us. Got it?"

Iceman gave an enthusiastic nod of his head. "Got it Scott, can do-"

"Cyclops!" He hissed.

"Right. Cyclops. Sorry. Aight, I'm on my way." Iceman jumped to his feet and launched a spray of frost against the ground several feet in front of him. He gave himself a running start toward it to build up momentum, then hopped atop it and continued to spray a path across the ground. The snow-covered mutant shot across the pavement faster than any human being could run. "Hey! Coppers! Over here!" He shouted, dragging the attention of the police line around to the odd site of a living snowman skating across the pavement in March. It didn't take the NYPD officers long to start shouting back at him and giving chase.

Once the coast was clear Cyclops and Beast bounded across the grass toward the school, Hank running on all fours and managing to beat Scott there by a good eight seconds or so. Cyclops took a few steps back to get a good angle on the stone outcropping and lifted a finger up to his visor. With the press of a button, he caused the front of the visor to pop open, a pair of violently bright and hot beams shooting out of his retinas to blow the stone to chunks. It hurt using the beams for even a few moments- he needed a second or two to readjust to sight once he released the visor's button and it fell back into place.

"Alright, Beast. Toss me." Cyclops ordered. Hank gave him a quizzical look, but he didn't argue, settling down low so that Scott could step onto Beast's cupped hands. Once his fearless leader was in position, Hank gave it his all and flung Summers as high into the air as he possibly could. Cyclops went flying for the second story window, all but smashing right through it when he landed on the ledge upper ledge.

It didn't take long for Scott and Hank to both climb itself, and not more than two minutes later Bobby appeared on the street below.

The sound of shouting voices was distant behind him as Drake constructed a ramp up to the window, his feet clinging unnaturally to the ice pathway as he seemed to counteract gravity itself by skating upwards toward the window. He dove inside with an overly theatrical roll, popping back up with his arms spread wide so he could give a bow. "I gave 'em the slip, boss!" iceman proudly proclaimed. "Won't know I came this way for a good five minutes."

"Good. Ice this up, we don't need them trying to follow us." Scott ordered. "It looks like our mutant can control earth, and quite a bit of it. So we need to do this carefully, but we gotta be quick- I don't know what we're going to find downstairs, but..." He swallowed, his hands shaking ever so slightly. He was praying it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. "Let's get moving, X-Men. We have a job to do."

Charity Beach: Paradise Gone [Semi-Sandbox/Superhuman]

J O H N D O Y L E

♫♫♫

Downtown Charity, Charity Beach, Florida
Boardwalk

---

Detective Rose was gone, sent packing with her tail tucked between her legs. John lowered himself back into his chair, a satisfied grin on his old, rocky face. It'd been a productive conversation- gave him a whole hell of a lot more to work with than he'd had previously. He knew Morgan didn't trust him, and he had the name of a place where Warmonger might'a gotten that case of his. Doyle plucked his notepad from his pocket, scribbling down a few more notes as he mulled it all over. He hadn't a clue what he could'a stolen at a research facility. Certainly wasn't money. First thought was something like plutonium or uranium- might'a been that the case was sealed to keep in the radiation. But what in the hell could a bank robber want with something like that? To sell it on the black market? Was it really worth the extra trouble?

'Could be workin' for somebody...'

He made a note to start looking into criminal organizations active in Charity Beach. Start local and if he couldn't find any leads he could expand his range until he caught something. Wasn't gonna be fast, but these things never were. Might be worth trying to get a meeting with Aldrich...see if he'd be willing to talk. But...

'Don't know how keen he'd be to spill his guts to the guy that made him a Cyclops. More likely to try spillin' mine.'

There was something about this whole thing that didn't sit right with John. He couldn't put his finger on it, but somethin' about the case just didn't add up. There was no way that case should'a gotten open on it's way back to Charity Beach. If the cops did take it then why in the hell would they tell Doyle about it? Were they trying to frame him? That'd be ludicrous. 'Course, it spent most of its time in the care of federal agents- if they were the ones that took it then its contents were long, long gone and everything the sheriff was doing was a massive waste of his time.

And to make matters worse he was apparently bein' followed.

There'd be plenty of time later to stew on all'a this, and there wasn't much work to be done while he was sittin' here. Better to wait 'til tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the day. Normally for a shindig like this, he'd have his wife and daughter around. They'd enjoy it a hell of a lot more than he would, but he'd be happy seein' them havin' a ball. Marcus wouldn't wanna come- he'd stopped caring about going outside ever since his uncle bought him that Gamestation 600 or whatever it was called. John didn't understand it. He could barely sit still when he was his son's age. Spent every waking hour runnin' around the town and rollin' in the dirt and gettin' into trouble. Little too much trouble, to be fair; so maybe it wasn't all bad that Marcus liked that new age stuff.

Without Abi around to decide what to do he felt a little lost. There were a lotta people on the boardwalk. Plenty of, uh, activities set up 'round the place. But none of it really caught his eye. Most'a it looked like it'd been set up for families n' youngsters. An old man out here alone was a bit outta place. John decided to order somethin' he could eat on the go, figuring his chances of running into something interesting would increase if he wasn't just sittin' on his fat ass and chewing down on a taco stuffed with too many ingredients. Rising slow n' steady from the table he adjusted his shirt, making sure the badge on his belt wasn't stabbing him in his belly and that the holster inside his waisteband was still pretty well hidden.

Then he was off, hopin' to God somethin' exciting would come his way.

Superboy's Shitty Characters

J O H N D O Y L E

♫♫♫

Downtown Charity, Charity Beach, Florida
Boardwalk

---

Detective Rose was gone, sent packing with her tail tucked between her legs. John lowered himself back into his chair, a satisfied grin on his old, rocky face. It'd been a productive conversation- gave him a whole hell of a lot more to work with than he'd had previously. He knew Morgan didn't trust him, and he had the name of a place where Warmonger might'a gotten that case of his. Doyle plucked his notepad from his pocket, scribbling down a few more notes as he mulled it all over. He hadn't a clue what he could'a stolen at a research facility. Certainly wasn't money. First thought was something like plutonium or uranium- might'a been that the case was sealed to keep in the radiation. But what in the hell could a bank robber want with something like that? To sell it on the black market? Was it really worth the extra trouble?

'Could be workin' for somebody...'

He made a note to start looking into criminal organizations active in Charity Beach. Start local and if he couldn't find any leads he could expand his range until he caught something. Wasn't gonna be fast, but these things never were. Might be worth trying to get a meeting with Aldrich...see if he'd be willing to talk. But...

'Don't know how keen he'd be to spill his guts to the guy that made him a Cyclops. More likely to try spillin' mine.'

There was something about this whole thing that didn't sit right with John. He couldn't put his finger on it, but somethin' about the case just didn't add up. There was no way that case should'a gotten open on it's way back to Charity Beach. If the cops did take it then why in the hell would they tell Doyle about it? Were they trying to frame him? That'd be ludicrous. 'Course, it spent most of its time in the care of federal agents- if they were the ones that took it then its contents were long, long gone and everything the sheriff was doing was a massive waste of his time.

And to make matters worse he was apparently bein' followed.

There'd be plenty of time later to stew on all'a this, and there wasn't much work to be done while he was sittin' here. Better to wait 'til tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the day. Normally for a shindig like this, he'd have his wife and daughter around. They'd enjoy it a hell of a lot more than he would, but he'd be happy seein' them havin' a ball. Marcus wouldn't wanna come- he'd stopped caring about going outside ever since his uncle bought him that Gamestation 600 or whatever it was called. John didn't understand it. He could barely sit still when he was his son's age. Spent every waking hour runnin' around the town and rollin' in the dirt and gettin' into trouble. Little too much trouble, to be fair; so maybe it wasn't all bad that Marcus liked that new age stuff.

Without Abi around to decide what to do he felt a little lost. There were a lotta people on the boardwalk. Plenty of, uh, activities set up 'round the place. But none of it really caught his eye. Most'a it looked like it'd been set up for families n' youngsters. An old man out here alone was a bit outta place. John decided to order somethin' he could eat on the go, figuring his chances of running into something interesting would increase if he wasn't just sittin' on his fat ass and chewing down on a taco stuffed with too many ingredients. Rising slow n' steady from the table he adjusted his shirt, making sure the badge on his belt wasn't stabbing him in his belly and that the holster inside his waisteband was still pretty well hidden.

Then he was off, hopin' to God somethin' exciting would come his way.