Eljay blinked comically behind his full face mask. He hadn't quite realized that his normal expressions tended to make the fake ears twitch as though they were real.
"Huh? Why me?" His confusion was evident in his voice. Which was good, because Evangelia had long ago given up trying to read the faces of heroes with full face masks since Superball's infamous "Playboy Prank."
"Because," Evangelia said, "you have experience at the 'hero thing' that dates to before the First Rikti War."
"But that was against mostly norms," he argued. "Manchester and Portsmouth aren't well-know for harboring a complex cave system which Pseudo-Fascists and crazed cultists can hide in. Heck, the worst I had was some guys in clown makeup trying to rob a Dairy Queen."
"That's exactly WHY we need you," Shizuru said as she entered the meeting room. "Not everythin's goin' t' be as bleedingly obvious as some o' th' street gangs in Paragon. We need your expertise at dealin' with th' more subtle criminals t' be passed on t' th' next generation."
"You call Whitey Bolger SUBTLE?" He chuckled ruefully. "The Family is heckuva lot more restrained than his subordinates."
Evangelia grinned triumphantly. "See? We need you to get it into these kids' heads that 'normal' crooks can be more dangerous than the metahumans they find in Paragon."
The Original Foxboy groaned and rubbed his forehead while Shizuru and Eva did their victory dance. "Just don't lock me out of the base, okay? Gonna take a while to get the funding where it should be."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
"Huh? Why me?" His confusion was evident in his voice. Which was good, because Evangelia had long ago given up trying to read the faces of heroes with full face masks since Superball's infamous "Playboy Prank."
"Because," Evangelia said, "you have experience at the 'hero thing' that dates to before the First Rikti War."
"But that was against mostly norms," he argued. "Manchester and Portsmouth aren't well-know for harboring a complex cave system which Pseudo-Fascists and crazed cultists can hide in. Heck, the worst I had was some guys in clown makeup trying to rob a Dairy Queen."
"That's exactly WHY we need you," Shizuru said as she entered the meeting room. "Not everythin's goin' t' be as bleedingly obvious as some o' th' street gangs in Paragon. We need your expertise at dealin' with th' more subtle criminals t' be passed on t' th' next generation."
"You call Whitey Bolger SUBTLE?" He chuckled ruefully. "The Family is heckuva lot more restrained than his subordinates."
Evangelia grinned triumphantly. "See? We need you to get it into these kids' heads that 'normal' crooks can be more dangerous than the metahumans they find in Paragon."
The Original Foxboy groaned and rubbed his forehead while Shizuru and Eva did their victory dance. "Just don't lock me out of the base, okay? Gonna take a while to get the funding where it should be."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll