Question Hit and Run

August 12, 2007

Oh boy, a kid with a big mouth that gets them into trouble, hope he learns from experience. *facepalms* Pickpocket who steals wallets from drunk college guys, not smart. Surrounded by drunk frat boys and in for a fight, good grief doesn't cover it. Ouch, see why the kid has his attitude and habit though, with no parents left in his life hard to survive on your own.

At least Brian stopped his attack, thank you, friend who spoke up. A mutant and drunk, his friend wasn't kidding, the kid almost got killed. Acid covering his hands, Brian could have left almost nothing left of this kid, yikes. So that is why he started barhopping, kid, you need to get into a good homeless shelter or something already.

14 and looks like a little kid, no wonder most people overlook them. So his dad was known as "The Spitfire", good nickname for a prizefighter. De Luca, last name sounds familiar. Calling someone a little thing, when you don't even know them, not smart no matter your age. Steroids to help you grow, without a doctor, so many ways that can go bad. Fell in with a group of kids who taught him how to pickpocket, hhm.

Tony sounds like he is too confident for the groups good. And Maury, indebted to the mob and using a pawn shop to fence stolen goods, oh boy, what have you gotten yourself into, kid. This kid's mom is a tall, Nordic beauty, how did his father end up married to her? A "smug jerk" with a description like that, with a suitcase like that sitting by them, danger, danger Will Robinson!

He snorted. “Time for little boy’s like you to be in bed.”

*sigh* This guy is just asking for it at this point, underestimating someone based on their apparent age and how they are acting. Following the guy and another guy in suspicious clothing for the time of year with an identical briefcase shows up, this is an illegal deal going down, get out of their, kid! Grabs the jerk's case but is spotted, now he has who knows how dangerous individuals after him. Couple of death threats, this time I think they are serious, kid.

Back at Maury's Pawn Shop, Feds monitoring the place from a "florist's" van, too many people have seen those in TV shows and movies for that to work much anymore. After Maury's boss, why do I get a very bad feeling his boss is a lot worse than we can guess?

All that miscellaneous electronics in the back room, no wonder the kid things Maury is a Devisor. "Late Night Clientele", wonder how many of those are mutants? An electronic wheelchair like that, he either has a friend who is a gadgeteer or Devisor or is one himself. Maury's custom "tools" sure add another clue he is a Devisor, hhm.

Michael Crawford, yet Maury calls him Greg when he ask what he did. Those papers with equations must be for something huge to get Maury upset. Echelon Corp, oh crud, he stopped what sounds like industrial espionage, an employee seeling company secrets to another.

“They’re a genetics corporation. On paper, they’re all pretty legit. Trying to crack the human genome and all that bull. Behind the scenes though, they have half a dozen government contracts, military contracts. Rumor has it they’ve been trying to design their own mutant.’

*eyes bug out* Greg, you need to find a deep, dark place to hide and fast.

Maury may have smacked your hand, but the red liquid in one of those two vials could do a lot worse to you, Greg. Corporate espionage, knew it, I just hope those looking for it don't have a way to track that red liquid that will lead them right to the pawnshop.

August 14

2 days later and no one's come looking, so no easy way to track the stuff at least. Shuttered up the store, keeping Greg locked inside, locking the briefcase and its contents in a safe, may seem paranoid to you, Greg, but seems reasonable with the kind of people who will be after this stuff.

Maury packing in a panic, running scared, says they are looking for them, uh oh. Now Greg packing so they can go on the run. The "stash" seems common for those in dangerous business. And I hope nothing happens to Greg's picture of his mother. Big man in a dark suit with a white envelope, don't tell me Maury is sending Greg away with this Hank guy to be safe while going on the run by himself? The farm, why does that sound like code for something else?

Maury looked around nervously before he spoke. “The Bliss Society is closer than I thought.”

He said it.

Just hearing the name made me shudder.

There wasn’t a criminal around that didn’t know of The Society. They were a group of supervillains that pretty much ran every bit of criminal activity in this part of the city. I had often suspected that Maury paid them tribute money to keep them off our back. By the looks of things though, it wasn’t enough. They were a dangerous group of psychopaths, ones you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of. That’s what I did too. I got on their wrong side. As soon as Maury realized that the guy from Echelon corp was selling the serum to someone, it didn’t take him long to figure out who. Plus the initial on the note was a dead giveaway, “Z” as in Zodiac, more specifically Mistress Zodiac, the powerful Warper. Some said she could bend time but I was pretty sure that was BS.

*jaw drops* One little snatch and dash has lead to this, The Bliss Society sounds like the kind of villains that need to be taken down hard.

*facepalms again* Greg, taking one of the vials as a bargaining chip from the briefcase, at this rate it is going to end up breaking to spill its contents on you. Holy ****! Did Mistress Zodiac do that to the shop, come personally to deal with them? I hope not, especially with what Greg saw before darkness consumed his vision.

Those sensations Greg is experiencing, aftereffects of the blast or something else I wonder. Wait, the place is intact as if the blast never happened, did time get rewound a couple of seconds somehow or what? And the shattered vial cutting into Greg's hand, yeah, he just got affected by whatever that red liquid is.

Maury actually arguing with Mistress Zodiac, calling her Clarissa, he has guts.

Mistress Zodiac aka Clarissa Church was well connected politically. So even though the government and several hero groups were aware of her criminal activities, she always managed to get away from incarceration and restitution. She was as slippery as she was beautiful.

Crud, the worst kind of criminal to deal with next to those with diplomatic immunity. Hank unconscious or dead and someone else there with Clarissa, as if the situation wasn't bad enough. Carbuncle, a Warper with short-range teleportation, those are the worst kind to deal with, headache to keep track of.

There for the goods and she sends off Carbuncle to search for them, run, Greg, run! Clarissa still trying to convince Maury to hand over what Greg stole and they will be on their way, why don't I believe that for an instant. Levitating Maury like that, gravity warper or something else?

Greg escapes through the window and is on the run, only taking his pack from Hank's car and starts to walk away.

I snapped around and saw it. The shop was a disaster. There was a hole in the front of it. Not a blown out hole from an explosion either. I’m talking an actual hole. Like someone took a giant cookie cutter and made a circle in the front of the building. Through said hole I could see Maury and Mistress Zodiac.

She was stabbing….

I snapped.

This psycho-b needs to be taken down already and hard! Wonder what that tingle is as Greg runs to try and rescue Maury. Ouch, clotheslined by Carbuncle, brutal.

“Hello Cutie, going somewhere?”

Wait, why would he call Greg a Cutie, don't tell me the red liquid turned Greg female or changed enough towards female Carbuncle thinks Greg is female? And MZ stabbed Maury and then froze him in time inside a time bubble, scary powerful. Called a her, yup, the red liquid has changed Greg that much already, dang.

And she can seemingly shift through space as well, just how powerful of a Warper is she? Darn it, Carbuncle not letting Greg rescue Maury, leaving him to bleed out, sadistic monsters. Wait, Greg hurt the arm Carbuncle used to clothesline them, does that mean Exemplar-like trait or something else? Kicks Greg to the ground but it didn't hurt, hhm, could they be absorbing kinetic energy perhaps.

Distracted by the fact Carbuncle's attacks are hurting less each time and the changes in their hands, barely felt a fist to the head, I would love to know what is going on with Greg as well.

It was an overwhelming surge of energy, unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was followed seconds later by a tingle that coursed through my entire body. I staggered, almost falling to my knees. It was intense and it felt good. Standing up straighter, Carbuncle appeared for another blow. He went for my head again, hoping to catch me off guard like before. I can’t describe what happened next though. He clearly punched me, I felt the dull bump of his knuckles against my forehead. It disappeared immediately though to be followed by a crunch and his hollering scream of pain.

Carbuncle dropped to the ground, wailing.

He was clutching his wrist.

“You broke it….you broke it….”

A dull red glow around their hands, increasing in density by absorbing kinetic energy or a PK field for what happened to Carbuncle, dang. Blonde, long hair, finally notices her breasts, but no time to process this as Carbuncle accuses them of taking the serum.

Bullet to the head for Carbuncle from Hank, not sure he is dead though.

I quickly rushed over before he fell over. I reached for him but he stopped me with a hand. It took me a second to realize that the glow in my hands was starting to pulse. I stepped back, absently touching a dumpster nearby. As soon as I did though, the whole thing exploded. The blast sent me to my knees. Shit. It hurt like hell too. The world started to spin for about a minute but I finally managed to recover. When I did, I hurt all over. It was like I could suddenly feel all of Carbuncle’s punches. Groaning, I did my own staggering.

Sounds like kinetic energy absorption and redirection, potent ability especially with training. At least Maury is still alive, but Hank nor Maury don't want to deal with the authorities even though an ambulance shows up, never easy.

Greg having to keep Maury from bleeding out as they rush to get him help, and double crud, no wonder they want no authorities involved, the Society owns everything. All of them injured after that, lucky to be alive, and they are going to see a doctor who works on the down-low, just hope the Society hasn't gotten to her already. Purple eyes a bit larger than normal, a mutant doctor, yay.

State of the art equipment, no wonder Hank brought Maury here. Mags seems nice. Tina, poor Greg has got it bad for this girl who is an obvious exemplar.

I stood stunned until she disappeared into another room. As soon as she gone, I blinked.

Wait, what just happened?

Glamour, pheromones or just usual teen reaction to a girl that attractive? And Greg looks just like their Mom's daughter, she is going to get attention she won't like. Boy, Greg is getting thrown into the deep end of being a girl fast, even reflectively going to cover her breasts. A six-pack and muscles like a Fitness girl, and now she is realizing that is her and isn't happy, I see counseling in her future for various reasons.

A short denim skirt, great, she is giving Greg clothes she likes to wear or giving her some of her clothes.

“These clothes are...”

“Great aren’t they? They’re too small for me obviously, I wore them when I was your age but I bet they look really cute on you...”

*groan* She has been dressing like this since she manifested, oh brother. And Greg has to lie to Tina about why she isn't used to those type of clothes, the truth will come out sooner or later.

I also didn’t want her to look at me like I was a freak or something. I was also pretty sure she’d never believe me. I mean, how often do boys turn into girls during manifestation?

*suppresses the urge to laugh loudly*

Stuck in the girl clothes as their old stuff is washed, poor Greg.

Why did this have to happen to me? Manifestation was supposed to be this cool and amazing thing. When I was a little kid, I dreamed of one day waking up with superpowers. You’d be a liar if you didn’t think so. The thing was, the truth was a lot scarier than the fiction. Especially these days. It wasn’t getting better either. I saw the news.

The MCO and other organizations were out of control.

It was hard not to turn on the TV and hear about something new and “horrible” going on with mutants.

And now I was one of them.

And pretty cute is the furthest thing from what Greg wants to be, wonder if the serum will show up in blood test or not and thus out Greg's secret.

The surgery was a success, why doesn't that reassure me much? Ack! Tina is an extreme girly girl and her room shows up. Mutant Detective movies, darn, I would watch those. And Tina is a Whateley graduate, old school uniform in her closet, or is she still going there and she just outgrew that uniform? And Tina can see an aura which mutants shine a bit brighter to her, neat.

And now the torture of hair care and Tina nagging Greg about not taking care of it, heh. A braid that reaches down to her butt, that is long hair. And ballet slippers, at least it is something to wear. Thank you, Hank, for sparing Greg from the nightmares of makeup so soon, glad Maury is awake.

Mistress Zodiac used a jagged knife to make deep wounds, Maggie is only able to heal surface wounds, and Maury only has a few hours left, dam it! That cover story brought a tear to my eye with Greg always wished it to be true. Lossing a man who is family to him like this, I hope Greg is able to avenge him.

He reached and gently stroked my face. “You’re strong, Mox, and good. Remember that. Don’t let anything change that. You’re a bright kid too. You land on your feet, you’ll be ok...”

I shook my head. “I’m messed up. I did this”

“No” he said sternly. “She did this. That bitch. I want you to promise me something. I want you to forget her. I know you, I know you’ll try something stupid. She’s not worth it. She’s dangerous. Her and the people she answers too, leave them alone.”

Dang, Maury may be in debt to the mob but other than that he seems like a good man. A letter to his daughter Gloria whose farm they were sending Greg to, explaining everything. Even as he's dying he is treating Greg like the son he never had and watching out for him.

Oh crap, I knew Maggie felt like bad news, just paying him back a favor and she works for the Society. Gloria's husband was a superhero, hope she does still have those connections and can get the other vial of serum to superheroes before anything else goes wrong.

August 18th

Huh, the attack was on August 14th, it says Maury died a day later, yet the time stamp says August 18th. Did I miss something? Poor Greg bawling their eyes out all day over him, that was someone they truly cared for. Oh, that explains the time stamp, been a few days since then. And still no solution on how to leave without being found out on the way.

And just great, MCO after them as well now, I won't even ask the question.

Ricky Cartelli was a low level enforcer for the Crux Crime Syndicate.

Using another crime family to escape the Society, eep. The Prowler and he looks like a black leopard, surprised Marvel hasn't sent their legal guys after him for the codename.

“The Society has the city on lock down. Everyone of their informants has your and my face. Without Maury to make the deals, everyone is clamming up. Not only that but the cops and those MCO clowns are watching the airport and bus terminals. If we want out of the city, we need to be smuggled out. We don’t have a lot of options.”

*looks at the odds of them escaping the city without a fight, likes the odds of surviving being struck by lightning twice in a row better*

Turn themself over to the Crux, bad idea. And keeping the secret from Tina is getting harder with time, how long before she figures out Greg used to be a boy. Able to read emotions as well wonder what Tina's full power ratings are, intriguing power set so far. And projective empath who can "push" good feelings into a person, dang. Both Tina's parents are mutants and went to Whateley together and Tina used to be Trevor before she manifested, didn't see that one coming.

She closed the book and sighed. “I just turned thirteen. I had the biggest crush on this girl in my class, Julie. One day, she approached me and told me she loved me. It floored me. We went on a couple of dates but took it slow, lots of hand holding. It happened on our third date. I finally got up the courage to kiss her, I was so scared. It happened almost as our lips touched. It was like lightning. One minute I was kissing the girl of my dreams, playing rubbing her training bra through her shirt and the next week, I was wearing a training bra myself. To say I was shocked was an understatement. My parents always suspected I might be a mutant, I had the gene after all. They were about as shocked as I was though and not in a good way. Losing their beloved son took a toll. They got a divorce shortly after and well Dad couldn’t even look at me, I went to live with Aunt Maggie after that...”

Ouch, parents divorced because of her gender change and sent to live with her Aunt Maggie.

She giggled. “Its ok. I know what you meant. You’re right though, they tossed me away. They were scared what their friends would say about it all. Dad was scared he’d lose his position at work, Mom feared for her practice. It was all stupid bullshit.”

Rejecting your own child because of those fears, I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with them if they tried to reconnect later on either.

Going to NYU sounds like Tina might follow in her aunt's footsteps. Dang, sounds like Greg has become a straight girl. And Tina continued to date Julie, TMI for poor Greg's ears, hehe.

She gave me a look. “Sure, there’s a whole lot of us, Changelings. In my year, there were only four but there were more that came before and after. I’ve even met a few of us at college. Of course, its a bit on the hush hush there too. There are many like my parents who just aren’t accepting. So its kept pretty secret. You’ll see eventually...”

A Changeling who lived with other Changelings that long learns to pick out the newbies. Finally, Greg is able to let it all out and not have to live with that secret anymore around Tina.

And Gretchen is her name, Tina saying she has no say in it while laughing, oh well. Tina Royce, this is the Gretchen who lived on the farm who Riley met 10 years ago. I knew some of these names seemed familiar. See Rain on a Sunny Day Part 1 for those who don't know what I'm referencing. I love stories connected through the generations.

Hank in the doorway with a bemused look on his face for a moment, guess he heard more of what they were talking about then he is going to let on.

Hank shook his head. “When The Prowler heard the MCO might be on your tail, he called it off. Said it was too hot. He wants them as far away as possible.”

Well, that is a little good the MCO did at least indirectly, getting them on their way out of the city in 2 hours. MCO is paid off by Mistress Zodiac if anyone could prove that it would bring down the MCO in the area fast. Favor for a favor, at least Gretchen knows this is a dangerous risk.

Clothes from Tina but being handed the box of tampons directly, way to nearly cause Gretchen to have a BSOD on us. At least Gretchen has Tina's phone number, a good friend to help out and talk to. Basic education on being a Changeling and safety, need to get an MID as soon as possible, and to get powers testing, ooo, can't wait to learn what her powers are. She is interesting as a person already, but those powers of hers are a mystery.

“They know you have it. I did all I could to stall them but they’re coming. I’m sorry.”

She let me go, teary eyed.

Shit.

Maggie was a good person and actually trying to protect Gretchen as best she good, I hope the Society doesn't do anything to her or Tina. Cowards! An attack like that and Maggie has to shield Tina from harm, any of them die and the Society needs to be destroyed past tense. Minotaur, they sent a brute like him, I hope he ends up dead after what he did to the cab driver. A white shimmer around Maggie, please let that be a force field like Gretchen suspect.

And Maggie is pissed calling Minotaur by his real name, Dennis, about how he could have killed Tina. Creep doesn't even care, says isn't his problem, I hate people who cause harm and say it isn't their problem. They filmed the fight between her and Carbuncle, Minotaur actually wants to fight her, this guy is a complete psycho.

He smirked. “You think I got where I am by being a dummy?”

“You have to ask?”

He sighed. “You see my size and you just think, that hurts. I’m a person you know, I have feelings. I have dreams and goals. I’m not some dumb monster.”

“Sorry” I said, hoping it sounded the least bit sincere.

The last thing I needed was to piss him off.

“I wanted a family and...” He stopped and shook his head, almost as if he was shaking cobwebs.

Tina got him chatting, codename of Serenity, nice. And then beating up Tina like that, she has combat training of course but he knocked the wind out of her, darn brute. He goes to kill Tina only for Maggie to stop him, definitely a force field and she will never let Tina come to harm no matter who is involved.

Forced to push her force field to its limit, Minotaur literally charges right through and tries to gore Maggie, but Gretchen pulls her out of the way, close one. Dang, Maggie is out now and Gretchen has to deal with this thug. Hhm, why does he keep hitting the ground in front of Gretchen, always missing, something to do with her powers or orders to bring her back alive perhaps.

Less shockwaves with each blow, fighting angry, is Minotaur going into a rage or what? Sure seems like she is absorbing the kinetic energy he is putting out, even using it reflexively to heal herself, the power testers are going to go crazy figuring out the full extent of what her powers do. And Minotaur has broken a fist when he punched Gretchen, yet the idiot goes to attack her again. Could Gretchen be draining kinetic energy directly from her opponent, causing them to appear slower and weaker to her, instead of just absorbing kinetic energy directed at her?

And she takes down Minotaur with one punch to the face, though he is still alive. And now once again comes the rebound as all that energy comes out of her explosively, leaving Gretchen in pain and unconscious.

Waking up in the clinic and not remembering that she knocked out Minotaur, powers testing especially for side effects, now!

“Well, let’s see” he continued, “a fourteen year old girl just single handedly beat the strongest man in all of New York City and didn’t even break a sweat doing it. A feat, I might add that usually takes three or four highly trained supers to do.”

Minotaur is the Ox from the Society, seems obvious now.

Tina sighed. “After you passed out, Aunt Maggie’s healing fully kicked in and revived her. She woke up to find you unconscious, Minotaur a few feet away. At first, she was certain he killed you. But then she found a pulse. She did what she could to keep you stable. Then she went to check on me and Hank. We couldn’t stay long though as the police and ambulance showed up shortly after. The MCO wasn’t far behind. They took Minotaur into custody, I don’t envy him in the least. Maggie stayed behind to allow us time to get out of there.”

Maggie's healing can revive her from being unconsciousness, dang. Wait, did she mean revive as in wake from unconsciousness or revive as revive from the dead? And at least Minotaur is being taken by the MCO, maybe they will actually do they jobs and not let him free.

He laughed. “I probably would have been but I like to be prepared. The inner lining of my suit has a special weave. Mostly to stop small arms fire but its also a decent shock absorber. I managed to see him as he was falling and just barely got away from the initial blast. It wasn’t enough to keep me from getting caught up in the shockwave. Got a couple of bruised ribs for my trouble.”

Now that is a good suit Hank has, I would like to meet his tailor. And now Gretchen wondering if she is a true mutant or not, there is a rabbit hole that can wait for another time. And Gretchen fully healed while unconscious, good to know.

Maggie's car, good, no favors owed at least. And MCO not looking for her as hard, another bonus.

The farm was apparently a few miles north of Buffalo, just outside of small city that I didn’t care to remember the name of. Most of the area around here though was farmland.

Nice area to hide out in, especially a farm with horses. Aww, young Riley and her big sister. cute. Gloria upset didn't want to see her father until she looks for Maury in the car and realizes who is missing. Even estranged from him, the shock of losing him, at least the grandkids never knew him.

Tina volunteers herself and Gretchen to look after Riley and her sister while Hank talks with Gloria. About 7 and Riley about 4, sounds right to me. Summer warming up to Tina and Riley smiling after she takes Gretchen's hand, awww.