I almost got there too late -- it had taken far longer to backtrack the video transmission than I had expected, even (or maybe especially) from the inside. And reassembling my body into its proper form after spending what seemed like a subjective lifetime as a living stream of electrons within the Tapestry wasted more precious seconds.
"Fuck!" I hissed softly to myself. "I am never doing that again." How the hell do electromorphs do that on a regular basis?
Once my vision cleared, I realized just how late I was. The teenager in the green outfit and the deadly little girl with purple hair were kneeling by a horrifically burned person -- the man in the black outfit I'd seen on the webcast. She was crying, and the kid in green just looked lost. "Shit. System, 'I'm Alive'. Play!"
None of them had paid any attention to my arrival, but they immediately noticed when the man in black started healing. The kid in green -- "Kick-Ass", or so he called himself -- looked up and spotted me as I started circulating through the makeshift "studio" and taking care of the mooks who hadn't been killed outright and who were healing up as well.
"Hey!" he shouted, getting the others' attention.
"Calm down, kid," I said as I snapped the neck of a guy who was tattooed to beat a Yakuza soldier. "I'm on your side." I nodded at their little group. "I'm the one healing your boss, there." I stepped past another couple of bodies to stomp the hand of a live goon reaching for a dropped pistol, before taking him out as well. "So... who was the considerate soul who threw you guys this party?"
"D'Amico," the guy in black rasped. "Frank... D'Amico."
"The local crime boss," I said, and got a nod back.
"That's... him. He ... set a trap and we... walked right into it." The older guy's speech was oddly stilted in a strangely familiar way. It wasn't a result of his injuries, as the feedback down the channels of magic told me he was back to full health and he still talked that way.
I smiled inside my helmet as I shut down the song. "What do you say we go pay him a visit, and show him what happens when you try to kill heroes, eh?"
The little girl grinned nastily as she wiped the tears from her face, knocking her obvious wig partly askew in the process. "Let's kill the fucker back!"
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
"Fuck!" I hissed softly to myself. "I am never doing that again." How the hell do electromorphs do that on a regular basis?
Once my vision cleared, I realized just how late I was. The teenager in the green outfit and the deadly little girl with purple hair were kneeling by a horrifically burned person -- the man in the black outfit I'd seen on the webcast. She was crying, and the kid in green just looked lost. "Shit. System, 'I'm Alive'. Play!"
None of them had paid any attention to my arrival, but they immediately noticed when the man in black started healing. The kid in green -- "Kick-Ass", or so he called himself -- looked up and spotted me as I started circulating through the makeshift "studio" and taking care of the mooks who hadn't been killed outright and who were healing up as well.
"Hey!" he shouted, getting the others' attention.
"Calm down, kid," I said as I snapped the neck of a guy who was tattooed to beat a Yakuza soldier. "I'm on your side." I nodded at their little group. "I'm the one healing your boss, there." I stepped past another couple of bodies to stomp the hand of a live goon reaching for a dropped pistol, before taking him out as well. "So... who was the considerate soul who threw you guys this party?"
"D'Amico," the guy in black rasped. "Frank... D'Amico."
"The local crime boss," I said, and got a nod back.
"That's... him. He ... set a trap and we... walked right into it." The older guy's speech was oddly stilted in a strangely familiar way. It wasn't a result of his injuries, as the feedback down the channels of magic told me he was back to full health and he still talked that way.
I smiled inside my helmet as I shut down the song. "What do you say we go pay him a visit, and show him what happens when you try to kill heroes, eh?"
The little girl grinned nastily as she wiped the tears from her face, knocking her obvious wig partly askew in the process. "Let's kill the fucker back!"
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.