Deus Ex Superheroes

Well, it's been a while but I have some excellent news for those of you who are interested (and let's face it...who wouldn't be)...

When last I left you, the mafia was in my room offering assistance in recovering my lost Superheroes and I was about to get the keys to a tank...

And then, finally, something good happened.

One of the goons with Mr. Cantara walked in the room, bent down, and whispered in his ear. There was a short pause before he said, "Okay, go check it out, we'll be there in a minute," and waved the underling away with one hand. From under his heavily-lidded eyes he peered at me and said, "Come out to the back parking lot with me."

Thinking that the tank might already be in the North lot, I got shakily to my feet and followed him down the hallway and out the side door. At first the sight that met my eyes meant nothing to me. Peering out into the center of the lot all I saw was a pile of scrap metal arranged in a dome-like structure that was taller than I was (not so very tall at that) and measured at least 10 feet in circumference. For a moment the sight tangled all the circuits in my brain and I merely stared in bemusement... And then I realized what it might mean for the Team and I staggered toward the pile. The only thing that came out of my throat at first was a series of hitching wheezes, until I finally began shouting, "AVIATOR! Is that you in there?"

I didn't even think about what I was doing as I picked up speed, running toward the pile and proceding to grab the first piece of metal in an attempt to pry it up. I managed to do nothing except cut my hands open on the sharp piece I grabbed. I resumed my shouting and within moments the metal began to peel away of it's own accord, revealing beneath the metal shell three of my Superhero friends.

The Aviator, though quite bedraggled and with eyes tinged red from whatever drug had been administered to him looked only a little worse for wear. He was shaking somewhat from the strain of maintaining so firm a hold over the metal shield he'd somehow managed to construct (mostly from loose pieces of metal he summoned from the roof of the Middle Part of the Saltmine.

Inside the shelter with him were Lizzard, even more green than previously, and a somewhat changed Shaggy.

Now, here's where things get wierd. Apparently, when the Guild had dragged their seemingly unconscious bodies from the Saltmine, they had failed to notice that not everyone had been completely knocked out by the drug. Since she'd been in flux when the drug hit Lizzard, she hadn't recieved a full dose and within minutes she'd begun to swim to the surface of consciousness... Somehow she managed to crawl to Shaggy in the parking lot while most of the Guild was focused on tying me up and preparing their little Q&A.

Upon reaching him she'd grabbed his foot and one of the Aviator's hands and tried something she'd never considered before... She attempted to change all three of them into dragons.

She'd been unsuccessful, changing only herself but something wholly unexpected happened... Although she hadn't changed either Shaggy or the Aviator, she had worked as a conduit between them, transfering some of their powers one to the other... The Aviator awoke at once, feeling a tingling in both hands and Shaggy woke as well. Within seconds, the stumps of his wings healed.

That was when the REALLY weird thing happened... Although his wings did not regenerate, the stumps twisted and changed, turning to metal and seeming to melt down his back and up to his shoulders... He now appeared to have silver tatoos on both shoulderblades that reached down to the middle of his back and up to his shoulders...they looked like strange heiroglyphs, and when he summoned the strength to stand he found something strange had happened...

He could still fly.

And now his clothes would fit again...

Aviator leaped to his feet and went to work with his now much stronger fists, knocking out three of the Guild and a couple of ninjas, while Lizzard went to work breathing fire on the remaining members. Shaggy also leapt to his feet and took out several of the now fleeing ninjas, shooting them with bone spurs and knocking one down with a scissor kick to the head as he leapt into the air without the aid of wings to propel him...

At this point the Aviator began constructing his shelter, intending it to be big enough for all the Superheroes, unfortunately a van containing the other team members had already left the parking lot headed for an unknown destination. Still, he used his powers to protect the three of them as the Guildmembers and ninjas who'd remained behind to question me emerged into the lot. Somehow they had managed to avoid the summons of BlueUniform when he commanded them to lower the sheild and they'd remained inside until hearing my call.

After an exchange of hugs (and a bit of weeping on my part) we all put our heads together...

We would find and rescue the rest of our crew.

AT last...after all the painful screw-ups...

It was ON.