Chapter 04-02

The stage was set.

Four remaining Goldy Thugs versus Alex and Obsidian. Alex gripped his crowbar in his right hand while he clenched his other fist. Obsidian seemed to have regained some of her energy, but she was not keeping her ability activated. Instead it would seem that she was readying herself to activate at a moment’s notice.

The Thugs ran towards the two heroes splitting into two groups. Alex faked back and juked behind where Obsidian was standing. He leapt up and flew over top of her bring his crowbar down on the head of the left of the two who were coming toward her. He flipped in the air and landed on his feet.

Obsidian activated her ability as the baseball bat of the second smashed into her arm. The bat exploded into a spray of splinters upon impact. Obsidian wasted no time jumping at the man. She wrapped her legs around the man’s mid-section and brought him to the ground. Like a machine she began punching him in the head. Alex sensed that there was a just a little frustration from what had happened earlier with Laser-man behind her attacks.

Alex flew at the two remaining thugs who had redirected towards him. He kicked one in the chest as he landed in a roll coming to a stop on his feet. The thug crumpled to the ground, but he wasn’t out for the count yet. The second spun around and attacked Alex with his crowbar. Alex used his own to deflect the incoming attacks like they were fighting with swords.

Obsidian ran towards the thug getting up off the ground and jumped. With both of her feet out she drop-kicked him in the back. He dropped to his knees and wobbled in a daze for a moment. With a rounding kick she got the side of his head knocking him to the ground.

Alex jumped back as it seemed they were getting nowhere with their crowbar sword fight. He ducked under the wide swing of the crowbar and shouldered his way through taking a hit to his side. He slammed the curved end of the crowbar into the last thug’s chin lifting him off the ground. When he pulled back the thug dropped to the ground and fell over in silence.

“Nice move.” Alex said pointing at Obsidian. She was dusting herself off. Alex held out his fist for a fist bump.

“Thanks.” She said knocking her fist against his.

“How are you doing?” Alex asked concerned with her energy level.

“I’m alright. Dick hooked me up with an energy drink.” She said with a nod. Energy drinks awarded temporary energy points. The major downfall is that they could wear off in the middle of an encounter. They had a random buff time that the user can’t see.

“I’m still mad that you disobeyed my orders, but glad that you did.” Alex said shaking his head.

“I couldn’t just sit back and watch them kill you.” She said with a deep frown.

-You’ve Made it through a Wave

-Wave 2 Complete

-Defeated 6x Goldy Thugs

-1110xp (185 Each)

-+6 Heroic Points

-+3 Hero Tier (-42 Until Next Tier)

“Ten more of these scoundrels!” Alex said puffing out his chest.

“Scoundrels, huh. Why don’t you just pull dialog out of the fifties?” Obsidian rolled her eyes.

“Look I can’t bad mouth them or the system with hit me for villainous banter again. I don’t want my more villain points for that. It’s pissing me off that I’m not getting credit for my other schtick.” Alex said with a sigh.

“Live a little.” Obsidian said with a sly grin.

“No, I’m a Hero!” Alex said firmly.

“I was born into a family of villains. I was coursed into doing villainous things before I knew better.” Obsidian said frowning, “I can tell you it’s not that bad.”

“How many villainous points do you have?” Alex asked.

“Enough.” She said clenching her fists and readying for the next wave. Alex turned towards where she was looking to see the ten Goldy Thugs marching unceremoniously down the streets. They had their weapons ready and they were out for more than blood.

Alex clenched his own fists and held his arms up ready for a fight. He knew that this was going to be rough and that he was going to have give it his all to get through the next phase.

“Time to kick some ass!” Obsidian yelled. In a flash like a bolt of lightning she rocketed towards the incoming thugs.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself!” Alex said. He launched himself into the air towards the enemies almost just as fast.

Alex decided to go full bore with his super-strength power. When active he has an extra three points in his strength. This meant that he could lift a small car if he wanted to, not that there were any small cars around to lift, but he could.

He drew back a punch and the moment that they two of them smashed into the line of incoming thugs he released it into the gut of the first thug in line. The wind was knocked out of him while Alex could feel the crunching of bone. The thugs body flew back and tumbled on the ground a few times before coming to a stop. The thug made to life himself off of the ground, but lacked the strength, or will.

Obsidian became a purple blur in the corner of Alex’s eye. He couldn’t keep up with her movements and avoid having his own face smashed into mush. Turning he focused on the closest targets. There were four thugs around him. They came in a wave all at once. Instead of dropping Alex jumped and activated his flight ability to put himself above them. A wide grin crossed his face as the four thugs attacked each other in the sudden burst of movement.

He dropped down bringing his crowbar down onto the head of one of the four. He ducked back dropping to the ground to avoid being hit in the head with a bat. He rolled to the left to avoid being stomped in the face. Reaching out he grabbed a leg and ripped the thug off of his feet.

A loud ‘ohf’ signaled the thug’s back smashing against the ground. Alex lifted his leg and kicked the thug in the bottom of the chin still holding onto his leg. He used his flight to help get himself off of the ground without having to stumble.

The third and fourth thugs were both inbound with their weapon’s held high. They swung down onto Alex like madmen. He was able to stop one of the incoming weapons with his crowbar, but the baseball bat hit him in the left shoulder dead on. He felt something break and his left arm went limp. Jumping back, he spun in a kick using his flight to hold himself higher for a second to kick the culprit in the side of the head. The thug dropped to the ground and blood pooled out of his ears onto the ground. All he could do was moan from the ground.

One last Goldy thug stared him down heaving heavy breaths in and out. One less arm for Alex to use to stop the thug he didn’t want to direct any energy to his regen ability until the fight was over, so his arm hung limp.

The thug swung at him, but Alex blocked it. He swung again yelling, but he was deflected glancing off of Alex’s crowbar. This continued for what seemed like hundreds of attacks. Alex needed to wait, watch, and calculate the moment to strike. If he gave the thug any opening another hit would probably disable him, then the following would kill him.

Finally, it came. The thug stepped back just a bit too far having lost his footing. Alex took the moment and struck. The crowbar swung down smashing into the thug’s neck with a sickening thud and the thug dropped to the ground. The thug was knocked out cold.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t over yet. Obsidian was squaring off with the last two of the thugs having already taken out three. It was his turn to repay her for the times that she had saved his ass.

He silently ran at the back of the two men. She was careful not to look at Alex so that she wouldn’t give away what was about to happen. Alex threw his crowbar that the back of the head of the one on the left while he leapt and did the same drop kick move that she had done to the one on the right. Both attacks landed in unison. The thug who received the kick was instantly down for the count. The other turned sharply towards Alex but received a kick in the back of his head sending him to his knees. Obsidian lifted her leg and kicked him in the back. The last thug fell on his face.

“YEAH!!” Alex yelled in excitement as he lifted himself off of the ground with his flight ability.

“Boom!” Obsidian yelled holding her hand out of another fist bump. Alex attempted to use his left hand forgetting that it did not work at the moment and awkwardly switched.

-You’ve Made it through a Wave

-Wave 3 Complete

-Defeated 10x Goldy Thugs

-1850xp (185 Each)

-+10 Heroic Points

-+5 Hero Tier (-37 Until Next Tier)

~~~

-You’ve completed a Hero Mission

-Clean up the Neighborhood around the Bureau

-1000xp

-+10 Hero Points

-+10 Hero Tier (-27 Until Next Tier)

The two of them began to collect the needles that they could from the thugs all over the street. Each down enemy had one.

-Needles 20x

-Total Value: 8270t

-Your Share: 7450t

-Deposit in personal account?

-Yes | No

“With that my young ward, I think that we will call it a night.” Alex said dropping down to sit on the stairs of the Hero Bureau stoop. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Pain was radiating through his body staring at his arm and moving throughout his body.

“Hey, Aether.” Obsidian said tapping him on the shoulder.

“Yes?” He asked blinking his eyes open.

It was obvious what she was talking about. In the street hovering about ten feet over where they had been fighting a swirl of blue light had appeared. Within the light a surface of pure blackness formed, and something slid into existence from within the blackness. The object floated down drifting like a feather. It landed on the ground.

Alex stood up from the stoop and walked over to the object with Obsidian in toe. They both leaned over the object and looked down at it. It was a card. Alex assumed it was the back of the card because it was just a swirl of colors and shapes. He reached down and picked it up.

On the other side there was a beautiful painting of the sun. It was a tarot card. Something clicked in Obsidian’s mind. She tore the card of Alex’s hand and threw it as hard as she could towards the opposite side of the street away from the Hero Bureau. She whipped around throwing her arms out and activated her ability.

The card exploded with the force of a bomb. The building on the opposite side of the street erupted in debris causing a cloud of dust to fill the air. Alex was pelted by chunks of concrete and glass, but Obsidian took most of the blast.

When the dust began to settle Alex saw that the building was gutted. Several stories had fallen in and the roof looked as if it were about to cave in. The three walls that weren’t completely turned to dust by the explosion looked as if they would fall in at any moment. Like a strong gust of wind would take the whole thing out.

“What the hell was that?” Alex asked picking glass out of his bad arm. He began to expend energy into his regeneration ability.

“That was a villain named The Priestess.” Obsidian said with a grimace. She limped around to look at the damage herself.

“And how do we know this Priestess?” Alex asked getting the feeling there was more.

“She’s my mother.” Obsidian said without looking at Alex.