Futuristic Paradise City Chronicles

[Skylord Nexus]

Next to no human interaction AND shady business practices, Crow was like a kid on Christmas, everything he could have hoped for, all in one MercerTech shaped package. As Alex left, Crow had a slightly malicious smile "Goodbye Mr Mercer, I look forward to working with you." Crow kept his smile on after he left, his life really was getting interesting, perhaps losing the Sovereign was the best thing that could have happened, life was sweet... EVIL sweet!

Becky decided to play along and nodded at the secretary, handing her a business card, not even a nefarious one for some evil establishment "Try this private doctor, he's quite good.". After they left she turned to Crow and looked him straight in the eye "She's onto us. Luckily it seems Alex Mercer is an idiot, so he may not believe her, but if he does then we're in big trouble." Crow looked back to her, a serious look on his face "If that's true then we're screwed, what do you suggest we do?" Becky brought his hand to her chin in thought "Not much for now, at least until you get into MercerTech. For now, I can bug Alex's apartment, that way we should be able to keep tabs on him at least some of the time." Crow nodded in agreement "Get on it. We need to be careful, we can't let it slip that I'm the real Crow, fortunately, there's no way he could know yet, I'm surprised his secretary got it, I mean, what would have given it away? This is a completely normal house." He said, motioning to the house painted in Crow's colour scheme, with Crow themed items only Crow would have.

 

[Gegawat]

Once outside, Alex and Litchi talked for a bit, before making their way to Alex's office and in turn - in his lair.
"I don't know if you noticed, but some strange things happened while we were there...!" she crossed her arms.
"Oh, you mean that he is the villain I fought earlier?" Alex crossed his hands on his chest.
"Wait, you knew?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Of course... I knew the moment I shook his hand... for a second time this week! Well, this one was less shocking, but still..." Alex shrugged.
"And you gave him full access to your lab? Are you out of your mind?" She was beginning to question her decision to work for him.
"Of course! How else is this story going to progress?" Alex threw the question back. "Do you expect me to just go out there and fight him in an all out battle and end this roleplay by the time we reach page 3? Don't be ridiculous, there is still a lot of development to go, plot-wise. For starters, have you noticed my name is Template? What sort of a stupid name is this. Also we haven't posted pictures of my costume yet, and we have 2 pictures and a gif of you! How is that fair?"

Litchi sat down on the couch and fixed her glasses again. "You have a point there..." She then looked up. "Alright, let's get back to work! What's on the agenda for today?"
Alex sat down on his chair and lit up a cigar, burrowing his face in his notes.

​

"Hm.... Let's see... Get a super secret lair? Check!" he crossed it off the list. "Get a 72" plasma screen TV... With Netflix? Check!" he crossed it off as well... "Get a... big tittied assistant?" He lowered the book and looked at Litchi, who was looking at him with an annoyed look. "Check!" He crossed it off the list and placed the notebook on his desk. "Brand, logo, name!" were the last words that came out of his mouth, before he turned into Template.

Litchi looked at him for a while, then went over to the TV, which happened to be touch screen and drew the regular double helix of the DNA. "How about that? Back to basics, simple and yet complicated enough. Also, the suit. It looks... bland... Have some white here and there, also put the logo on your chest!" Template nodded and focused. His "skin" started to boil and soon he had some details on his suit. "How is that?"
"Good enough to sell lots of toys! Now we need a real name!" Alex brought out the list again, with lots and lots of complicated names, most of them wordplay. Others were copyrighted... He threw the list back on the desk and let out a big sigh and looked at the monitor slapping his head. Of course! It was that simple!
"How about... Heelix?"
Litchi gave him the thumbs up, as Alex got up and stroke a heroic pose!

(sorry for the huge file, I spent the last hour drawing this on photoshop)​

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow was looking out over the city in deep contemplation, there was a lot riding on this going well, and if Mercer was onto them then he'd be cornered "Becky. We need a way to sneak stuff in and out of the lab without raising suspicion, any ideas?" Becky looked at the ground, contemplating the issue herself "Well Boss if we can hack into MercerTechs inventory reports and delivery schedules then we may be able to have thing delivered too and from the building off the books, though that might be hard. I believe that, for now, we need to focus on the threat of Mr Mercer and his secretary above anything else." Crow begrudgingly nodded in agreement "Fine. Becky, get into that penthouse and bug it. Though I imagine it'll be hard, this is a top of the line residence, the locks are probably pretty tough."

Fortunately, Becky was a secretary of many, plot convenient, skills, one of which was picking locks. Crow watched her from the doorway, keeping an eye out for anyone coming up whilst a minion stood in front of the corridors security camera so all it could see was a handsome Mexican with an illustrious moustache. With an audible click, The door to Alex's room swung open and Becky chucked a minion inside in case there were any traps. Crow, meanwhile, turned to the minion next to him "Minion. Remind me to have better locks installed."

 

[Gegawat]

Meanwhile Alex was totally oblivious of what was happening in the building next door. He was too busy admiring at his new superhero lair, outfitted with monitors, computers and a collection of exotic bugs, lizards and sea creatures, along with a laboratory with specialized genetics equipment.

Alex made his way to one of the terrariums and knocked on the glass, causing the beetle inside to appear and investigate the commotion. Alex looked at the bug with fascination, not realizing Litchi was trying to talk to him.

The large screen came on and Catman appeared. "Nice to finally meet you, Helix!" The superhero started off but Alex interrupted him. "Spare me the pleasantries, cut to the chase!" Alex spoke, making sure he was out of range, until he got the suit changed. "We want to formally introduce you into the league!" Catman said!

"Is that the same league, which made bets instead of sending the Witch the help she needed?" Helix asked. "Because if that's the case, I want nothing to do with it. I will make my own league, with big tittied supergirls and bald superheroes who can destroy enemies with one punch!"

This song started playing for some reason



But quickly stopped when Helix started talking again. "You all are a bunch of posers, I am starting to think Crow is the real hero here!" He cut the feed off, to Litchi's surprise, Alex showed some common sense, finally! "So what now?" She asked. "What is Helix going to do?" She asked

"Helix will keep protecting the City!" He replied changing back to Alex. "Alex Mercer is he one who will take the next step!" He headed into the regular area of his office, followed closely by his secretary. "I want info on all potential metahumans out there, who are not related to the League! I am doing exactly what I said I would do!"

 

[Skylord Nexus]

The minion Becky had thrown into the room stood there, waiting for something to happen like sharks to eat him or to be fried by a death ray, but to his surprise and relief, nothing happened. Not being one to take chances, however, Becky grabbed a broomstick and used it to push the minion around the house just in case, as she planted little bugs in the shape of Crow's face around the penthouse. Much to her surprise, it was rather mundane, though she wasn't sure what she was expecting, he wasn't a hero or anything after all.

Walking out of the house with a thoroughly traumatized minion behind her, Becky returned to Crow's suite "There you go Boss, the rooms been bugged. I'll have a couple of minions monitoring them and they'll inform us if Mercer says anything suspicious." Crow was positively beaming "Great! Now onto our next matter of business, making alterations to this lab I'm being given."

The two of them then spent the next few hours designing the perfect lab for Crow, well more like Crow said what he wanted and Becky found a place to put it and how much it would cost. Once they had finished, Becky had sent the specifications and estimated costs off to the project manager as Alex had specified "There, finally done Boss. Your dream lab fully planned and none descript so it can have whatever the plot requires it too." Crow breathed a sigh of relief and reclined on his seat "Wonderful, everything going perfectly, what would I do without you, Becky." "Probably Crash and burn." Crow looked at his assistant again, a deadpan expression on his face "You're still not getting that pay rise." "Bolts!" Crow then smiled at her "But~ I guess I can give you another week of paid vacation once we're out of this mess." Becky looked over at the villain, a smile on her face "Thanks, Boss."

 

[Gegawat]

The woman sitting behind the desk raised an eyebrow at the pretty extensive list she just received. Of course, Alex had informed her of the whole situation, but she still had hard time figuring out why would this new engineer would need "lightning strike harvesting equipment" and why the color purple was underlined as non negotiable. She had to call here and there, before helicopters and trucks started rolling in, bringing he equipment, much to he amusement of the regular folk, who just happen to pass by the skyscraper. "Alex is probably redecorating!" was the most common phrase, as they were used to seeing blue gadgets being delivered.

Meanwhile Alex was deep in paperwork, having to go through potential candidates for his Aveng... Ahem... I mean... Defend.... Dangit, all the cool words for superhero teams are taken... well, then we will just go with "Assembly of Special Superheroes, Willing and Inspired to Protect Everyone", A.S.S.W.I.P.E. for short. The name is just a work in progress, so it is a subject to change.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

For the first time that day, Crow was able to relax, all immediate business was taken care of, and the Minions had mostly finished the decorating of his new abode, though admittedly, there were still some mementoes he still needed salvaged from the Sovereign, like that bust of his head, or that painting he stole of the Armoured Crusader chasing him when he had stolen a painting. Never the less, the place felt like home.

A few hours later, Crow was alone, Becky and the minions had gone back to the temporary hid out, and for the first time in a long time, Crow felt lonely. That was short lived though when he was given company by the sound of his growling stomach, and that's when Crow realised that this was his first test of self-sufficiency, We would need to shop for himself!

Crow had made his way to the local supermarket and just stood in awe, never had he seen a place so enticing yet intimidating at the same time, well actually that's what it felt like every time he looked at the princess, but that's beside the point. Crow's first task was clear. He would need to do battle with the great many wheeled beasts of chains! A great battle shortly ensued and both combatants traded blows, neither giving in, both standing strong.

Reality:
Crow was struggling to dislodge one trolley from the other, apparently, some madman had connected chains to each of them, making them impossible to pull apart "Damn you trolleys! Do you not know who I am?! Bow before your soon to be ruler and obey my grocery based commands!"

 

[Gegawat]

It was getting late and Alex was still fighting the comically tall paper towers of superhero files. He had lost track of time, fortunately a beep brought him back to reality. It was he end of the work day. And it was Friday, which meant he absolutely positively had to get off from work in time for the weekly family game night.

Every Friday all notable Mercers gathered in James' mansion, and played board games, such as Monopoly, which usually ended up with flying hammers, glitter rainbow and unicorns and furniture. Alex couldn't miss that! So he locked the files in the office, entered the code for the security system and left in a priceless Lamborghini Centenario for the large mansion, which was located on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the city. It was a long 2 hour drive, but it was going to be worth it.

Once exiting the garage, he noticed a certain Chinese looking someone pacing around, so he stopped. After a quick chat, Litchi agreed to come with Alex, mainly to keep an eye on him.

Couple of hours later, Alex arrived at the humble house of the Armored Crusader, which looked very similar to the house of another armored superhero.

Once inside, the game night started, and continued as expected, but that's not important to the plot. More important is that Alex had the gears in his head turning. "Let me refill your glasses with wine!" He said as he took the almost empty glasses to the kitchen. He looked to he side and smiled. He removed his glove and placed his finger in the glass. His skin started boiling and, guess what! He turned into Jade! "Ah, wrong glass" he said in her voice and everything. "Damn, how does she even walk with these?" He mumbled as he tried the other glass. "Jackpot" he said as his reflection turned from a female one, to the reflection of an old man with beard.

He refilled the glasses and fixed his looks. But now he had his family's looks as well added to his gene pool. What he really wanted to do was test the full extent to his shape shifting abilities.

Litchi suspected he was up to no good, but kept silent, keeping her eyes on Alex. He didn't even try anything, which made her fall asleep quickly in the guest room. When everyone was asleep, Alex made his way to the lower level. He removed the glove and his hand turned into an old man's hand as he placed it on the palm scan. The light turned to green and the door opened, exposing something spectacular, which made even Alex lose his vocabulary.

A devil Alex appeared on his shoulder. "Wouldn't it be cool to take one armor for a spin?" An angel appeared on his other shoulder. Alex looked at him, and expected to hear a moral speech on why he shouldn't. "He is totally right, it would be so awesome!"

Alex didn't have to wait anymore. Without thinking he got inside the first suit and flew out through the secret door. It was surprisingly easy to operate the suit as it was very intuitive. Unfortunately the interface was in German for some reason, but it wasn't much of a hustle, as Alex knew some words.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

It had taken Crow another half hour before he realised that he needed to put a coin in the slot to release the chain, and by 'he realised' it was actually a security guard who did it for him after he made a big commotion. It was at that moment that Crow realised that he may not be well adjusted to normal life, apparently, it was a lot different from that of a supervillain. Some stuff really was crazy to the villain, such as how he apparently had to push the cart himself instead of having a minion do it. Crazy, crazy world.

Crow was now inside the store trying to work out what to buy, you see Crow has two main food based weaknesses. Weakness 1: Crow has an insatiable sweet tooth. Weakness 2: He has no idea how to cook. Through the power of both weaknesses combine! Crow is super screwed! It also didn't help that he has no idea what to buy and what went together. By the end of his shopping trip, Crow had a trolley half full of junk food, and half full of random food that he put into the trolley so that it was perfectly full. Fortunately for everyone, Crow didn't have to wait in a line to check out his stuff.

Now out of the story, Crow had one final great challenge to overcome before he could revel in food-based victory "How am I supposed to get all of this stuff back?"

 

[Gegawat]

Alex in the meantime was enjoying a ride in his father's suit however that quickly became boring. Or at least not as cool as he thought it would have been. But then again, he fact that he managed to operate a suit, Genetically coded to certain DNA strand was pretty awesome on its own. At least when a larger than life hammer slammed him down to the ground.

Alex got up and shook the dirt off his face, just to see a larger than life fist coming towards his face... And he was eating dirt again.
"I don't know how you managed to do it, but you will pay for stealing my suit!"

It was James. In a golden lion suit. Without a helmet. Pissed... A lot!
So much so, that Alex dropped the helmet himself! "Cut it out! It's me!" He dropped the helmet and tried to get up.

What followed was a quick explanation on how they ended up in this situation. James was still pissed off, but was proud that his eldest son was actually a superhero, although there was nothing superheroish in his behavior. Alex picked the helmet and pit it back on. "I just wanted to use the armor to bring some heroes in my organization. That's all."

James placed his hand on his shoulder. "You don't need my name or reputation to do that. If you want to be a leader, you need to inspire people to follow you, not your reputation. Be yourself, as hard as it could be for a shapeshifter..."

They got home, as their bond became stronger. James promised to help Alex as much as he could, as long as he doesn't do stunts like this anymore. Once they were home, they spent the rest of the night drinking beer in James' lair and laughing at stories of how James beat Crow and testing the extent of Alex's abilities.

The next morning Litchi got up and put a T-shirt on and made her way to the bathroom, stumbling upon the opened lair door. She peeked inside, just to see James and Alex drunkenly sleeping on top of an armor, with beer bottles rolling on the ground... She smiled as she closed the door and continued on her way.

She entered the spacious common area of the house, and then... Got lost. It was a huge house, she was glad her apartment only had 2 rooms. Wandering for a bit she ended up in the kitchen, where, for reasons unexplained, Max was standing having breakfast. "Oh, hello there! If I knew you would be coming dressed like this, I would have slipped into something less comfortable!" He picked up a cherry and this followed:



What followed next was a female scream loud enough to wake dead people up, followed by some curses in Chinese and a rumble of ass kicking. Alex, James and other inhabitants of the house rushed to the kitchen to see Max knocked out, with stars and chicks rotating around his head. His eyes were X shaped and Litchi was standing over him, holding a frying pan, her eyes in the form of flames, her teeth were like shark teeth, and there was a vein popped up on her forehead. James and Alex made a few steps back, gulping, while Jade, Laura and Natalia were shaking their heads at Max....

 

[Skylord Nexus]

It had taken Crow the better part of the afternoon, but he was finally able to get his shopping back, admittedly it was harder than Crow expected, apparently, the trolley wheels lock up when taken far enough away from the store. Now he was home however, Crow was able to relax, he got a large bag of crisps and began resting on the sofa watching TV for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, Paradise city didn't receive any of the conventional supervillain TV stations such as the creatively named Villain News channel, or the greatest station for evil gameshows Foil... oh and Fox.

The Next day, Crow awoke to find he had slept on his sofa, crisps scattered over the floor like a junk food massacre had occurred, luckily, however, this was a problem Crow could solve. The villain spent the next hour building and tinkering until he produced something that looked like a Roomba. Placing the device down on the floor, Crow watched in delight and a small blue eye opened up and the Roomba began moving towards the nearest crisp. When it arrived a small orb extended out of it that fired a focused laser at the crisp, completely removing any trace of it, this continued until all the mess was cleared.

In spite of the room being clean, the Roomba continued looking for trash, until it saw Crow, at which point its eye turned red "Oh no." Crow then began running as the Roomba gave chase, firing lasers at him, it was just is luck to build a laser firing Roomba that not only cleans rubbish but also cleans the city of crime. This continued for a few minutes before the robot mysteriously stopped, and began going towards the entrance, once there it used its laser to disintegrate the door, rolling through it out of Crow's view.



Crow cautiously stuck his head around the doorway, to see that the killer Roomba had also disintegrated Alex's door and was currently patrolling the inside of the house.

 

[Gegawat]

The elevator door opened with a Ding® and Alex got out followed by Litchi. "Yeah, you can stay at my place for the time being, I am sorry to hear your apartment complex got filled with Orbeez!" Apparently some kids thought it was going to be fun to put 100 000 boxes of Orbeez in the rooftop pool in Litchi's apartment complex, resulting in a disaster. Why Alex waited the whole ride to his place, the elevator ride and getting out of it, to say that was another matter.

He noticed something different however... There were no doors on either side of the hallway and he could see crow cautiously peeping over the couch, before he heard Pew-Pew® from his apartment. "Oh, no! Crow found out who am I and where I live! I will have to find a way to protect my neighbor without giving away my secret identity!" He told himself as he tried to figure out his next move.

Litchi on the other hand was having none of it. Her morning started violently and she was in a bad mood. She stomped in the apartment. "Hyaaaa!" Then glass shattering. "Haaayaaa!" More shattering sounds... She came out with what seemed like crumpled remains of a Roomba in one hand and a frying pan in he other.

"Are you ok?" He asked his neighbor who looked like a bit like a groundhog peeping from its hole.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow was a strange mix of relieved and scared shitless when Lichi destroyed his killer Roomba, honestly, he half expected her to just chuck it back into his house and seal him inside with it, fortunately, she seemed too angry to think straight. He could now see though why Becky had warned him about her, she was definitely dangerous. Crow then made a mental note to try and stay on her good side.

The villain then removed himself from the safety of his large purple couch and gingerly made his way out to meet his neighbour "Um... yes, I'm fine, thank you. Apologies about the killer Roomba, I made him to quick and efficiently clean my house for me, however, when it finished it tried to clean me for some strange reason before stopping and going to your house, I have no idea what it was doing though, so i'd probably check if I were you. I would have stopped it, but it's kind of hard to get close to when it has a laser strong enough to disintegrate anything it hits and has a three hundred and sixty degree firing arc."

 

[Gegawat]

Alex looked at the debris the Chinese woman was carrying. "I would say it has particular weakness from Chinese women and frying pans..." he pulled a notepad from his inner pocket and wrote something down. That something being not to piss Litchi off and invest in tougher front door.

"I'll be sure to check thoroughly, before going out again. I had plans on watching Exposition News Network, but since it is such a nice day outside, I might go and actually watch the Royal parade live today!"

Litchi made her way to Crow, still menacingly holding the frying pan and then with the nicest and friendly voice she asked him "I'm sorry I broke it... Do you want it back or should I just dispose of it... I mean... It was interesting concept..."

Alex pointed at the apartment, as she left the wreckage and got to checking the damage and ordering new door. "Well, I gotta go, I have repairs to make and a parade to attend... Gee wilikers, I sure hope no crazy villain decides to invade the parade and kidnap one of the 10 princesses we currently know about..."

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow was surprised that there was a princess parade today, in fact, he didn't even know they had parades for the Princesses, then again, the only time he ever paid attention to anything related to the Princess was when Euphemia talked about her siblings "In all honesty, I don't see the point in a Princess parade, what does it achieve? It's just a waste of time and money."

Crow looked at the wreckage in Litchi's hand, trying not to focus on how terrifying she looked, before waving dismissively "Do what you want with it, and don't worry about apologies, that blasted thing tried to atomize me, I have no remorse for it... Thank you for dealing with it though." Crow hated having to apologise because that meant he was wrong, and he HATED being wrong, he also hated having to thank other people for saving him, what made it worse was the fact that it was to the woman who could ruin his plans at any moment.

Crow smiled nefariously at Alex "Yes, it would be SUCH a shame if something like that happens. Anyway, have a nice time, I have some... 'cleaning' to do." After Alex left, Crow went to his room where his various suits were kept, no very secretive I know, but then again, what about Crows' house is? You see, Crow had a plan! He would kidnap the Princess! Nothing particularly new, and she would probably be a little pissed since the kidnapping hadn't been scheduled beforehand, but this was more of a way to relieve his boredom than anything else, no minions, no help, just him!

After getting suited up, Crow left his home, we'll ignore how no-one saw him, and took his place on top of a building where he believed the parade would be, waiting to spot his favourite princess.

 

[Gegawat]

Meanwhile Alex and Litchi were going around the apartment. Alex was a bit busy examining the wreckage, making 2 deductions from it. One: machinery would be perfect product to sell in the consumer electronics department, of course, when the "disintegration of humans" glitch has been dealt with; and two - don't ever ever piss off Litchi, near any kitchen equipment.

Speaking of the Devil, she was having a list and was supervising the workers who installed a new door. "This door is made by Vibranium imported straight from the mines of Wakanda and Adamantium, harvested from the meteorite that hit South Africa in the 80s. It is practically indestructible!" She explained to Alex, although he already knew that. "That's why I am keeping a stash of it in M-Tech..." He replied, although Litchi already knew that. It was almost like Their whole conversation has been aimed for someone else.

After extracting finishing with the debris, he took a quick shower and got changed, heading down for the parade. The streets were already blocked by people, so he had to elbow his way through.

The parade was the same as last year - a big fan service to the population, as the princesses in their fanciest dresses were sitting on a platform, waving at everybody, accompanied by marching bands and giant balloons of Popular culture idols, amon which - Armored Crusader kicking Crow's ass.

Litchi looked at the platform and pointed at the princess with the pink hair. "I recognize this one, that's the girl who gave Crusader the medal on his retirement day." "This is correct!" Alex replied. "Did you know I went to high school with her older sister?" Litchi was shocked. Not from the fact he knew her, but by the fact that royalties apparently went to public schools.

"Yeah, the one with the white hair over there!" He waved at her, but she didn't notice him.



"She was to be married to some prince from across the globe, but he died in mysterious circumstances. Then they tried to marry her to an Arab prince for his oil, but he died as well. Then they tried to marry her to a duke from across the country..." "Let me guess, he died under mysterious circumstances?" Litchi interrupted. "No, everybody knows he killed himself, because he didn't want to die under mysterious circumstances..."

"You seem to know a big deal about the family. What can you tell me about the one in black?" She pointed to a weiredly dresses blonde girl with a scepter.



"Ah, you talking about Maggie!" He scratched his head. "She is super weird. Some say she is not a princess but a witch! But that's just rumours, I am sure."

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow looked down upon the Parade as he weighed his options, getting to the princess would be easy, but getting away would be harder. The way Crow could see it, he had three options: 1. Once he grabbed the princess he could bunny hop over the other floats to the back and break away from their, 2. He could dart through the crowd down a nearby alleyway, though there was no way to tell if it was a dead end out not, and 3. He could use his 'special' trick to gain some extra height and move along the rooftops. After much, and by much I mean next to none, deliberation, the villain decided to go for option 3.

When Euphemia's float came by, Crow made a jump from the top of the building right into the centre of the float. Gasps sounded from the crowd, the princess seemed rather neutral, and a TV presenter filming the event went "I'd give that landing a perfect 10!" Crow revealed in the attention, this was where he thrived, all eyes on him, fearing him "Ladies and Gentlemen of Paradise City! How wonderful to speak to you all again so soon. You'll have to excuse me, but I require your princess, don't worry though, you still have at least nine more Muhahahaha!" The villain then walked over to the princess and politely bowed "Hello Euphemia, if you'd please stand still, this will only take a moment." The Princess smiled at her kidnapper "Oh, hello Crow! Yes I know the drill, though we do need to have a few words, you're not supposed to be kidnapping me for another two weeks." Crow rolled his eyes at the princess' sunshine and rainbows attitude "Yes, yes. I'll explain everything later."

Crow the grabbed the Princess, slinging her over his shoulder and leaping from the float they were on dashing towards the crowd, who all vacated the area immediately "Now if everyone would please stand a safe distance away, and Princess, if you could please hold on tight." The villain that pointed the palm of his large robotic hand at the ground, a hole opening up in it, firing out a small container filled with a yellow substance. Seconds later the substance began to glow and exploded, launching Crow and the Princess up onto the roof of the nearby building. From there, Crow was home free, he knew where he was going to take the Princess, he just had to get there before any meddling hero interfered.

 

[Gegawat]

The moment the crowd started running, Alex kept his cool. He kept his place, no matter how many people were running past and bumping into him. His face was in a neutral expression, as he removed his sunglasses and placed them in his inner pocket. His features started melting in the black tar like substance, which covered his body. Nobody even noticed, as everybody was too busy running for their lives. As he was transforming, Alex crouched a bit, charging up his jump.

One flea jump later Alex was on the roof across the street. He lined up another jump and he was right in front of Crow. "You heard the princess! Leave her now, and come back in 2 weeks, and I won't have to use deadly force!" Small electrical arcs crackled across his fingers. "I must warn you, my powers have doubled since we last met!" He lunged 2 lightnings, forming the letter X, and hit both sides of the roof Crow was standing on. He wasn't stupid, he wouldn't zap the princess. His goal was intimidation. He wouldn't want to use his new superpower, especially in front of the princess.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow skidded to a halt when he saw his new nemesis land in front of him "Well look who it is, it's the hero who's cocky enough to think he can stop a tank." Crow then looked the hero in the eye, unafraid of what he had to offer "So let me get this straight. If I don't release to the princess, you're going to use deadly force on me, whilst I still have the princess? I think you may have missed the step where you SAVE the princess there zebra boy."

The Princess then began wiggling in her place on Crows' shoulder "Crow? Do you mind letting me down for a second? I need to talk to the hero for a second." Crow rolled his eyes before complying with the Princess' wishes "Uh! Fine!" The villain then gently lifted the Princess down like she was a baby before so walked on over to Helix "Thank you for being a dear and coming to save me, but can you give me a minute with Crow, I need to talk with him." within the deep recesses of her voice, there was something which would give most people the feeling like they shouldn't mess with her, Crow definitely recognised this, because as she talked, a visible shiver went down his spine.

 

[Gegawat]

Helix used his powers to shapeshift spiderman eyes and squint in confusion. "Man, I really need to rethink my one liners!" He then quickly hatched a new plan, but it was risky. Very risky... However he didn't have to take further action, as the princess asked to have some time with Crow, which made him squint so hard that a question mark appeared on top of his head.

"Well, Don't mind me then!" He squatted down on the roof like a the Russian gopniks do in front of the apartment building while drinking vodka and eating sunflower seeds.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Euphemia smiled and patted the confused hero on the head before walking back over to Crow. The two of them went off to the side a bit and began whispering to each other, and though our hero was unable to hear what they were saying, he could see their facial expressions. For most of the conversation, the two of them had their normal expressions, the princess was all smiles, and Crow looked like he wasn't to kill himself, then, however, the princesses expression changes to an angry smile, a vein popping up out of her head and she cracked her knuckles. This caused Crow to gulp and nod at the princess, as he wrote down something and gave it to her, seeming to satiate her anger.

Now that that fiasco was over and done with, Crow walked back to Helix whilst the Princess stood out of the way "There, now that that's over and done with, let's get on with this, shall we?" Wasting no time, Crow shot another of his grenades at the hero. In truth, Crow had no ideas what to do from here, the plan relied on him getting away unhindered, but now that that wasn't possible, it was beginning to look more like he would be going home with a concussion.

 

[Gegawat]

Helix looked in confusion, but as they were talking, one thing was evident... they knew each other well, be it because Crow tried to kidnap her 317 times, or for some other reason, it was beyond him. He could use some of the abilities he had to grow doggy ears and listen up, but he was a hero, not a neighborhood watch, A.k.a. retired females over 70, who can hear an insect fart on the street 7 floors down from their flats. He kept drawing DNA double helixes in the dust on the roof, untill Crow was ready.

"Round 2... Fight!" The mortal kombat voice echoed, causing Helix to look around, ignoring the fact that there was now an explosive grenade flying his way. He screamed like a little girl and crumpled down to the ground in fetal position. The grenade exploded in a cloud of smoke, dust and what seemed to be roofing concrete pebbles...

When the dust settles, Helix dusted himself, as his skin appeared to be the texture of an armadillo. "Psyche!" He yelled! "My turn!" He then disappeared like an octopus and after a couple of seconds appeared couple of steps to the side of Crow ass aimed at him. "I am terribly sorry about what follows. I hope you have tomato juice and apple cider vinegar at your place!"

What followed next can only be described as glass shattering, face melting fart, smelling of rotten cabbage left in the August sun for a month, mixed with 10 year old eggs. "White stripes are not for zebra!" Helix said after disappearing again.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow cackled at Helix's deception "Are you sure you were pretending? That scream sounded pretty real to me." Unfortunately for the purple villain, karma was about to pay him a visit as he looked around, searching for where Helix had gone "Come out and fight me like a man so I can blow you up with grenades from far away!" it would then seem that the hero did exactly as Crow asked.

The second the small hit him, Crow was on the ground, rolling back and forth clutching his nose, as if someone had punched it, his eyes watering from the mind-numbingly horrendous smell the hero had just emitted "Good God! What is wrong with you?! That is just SO wrong on SO many levels." In his incapacitated state, Crow then began randomly firing out grenades in every direction, hoping to hit something.

 

[Gegawat]

Helix appeared at a respectable distance, not because he was afraid of Crow shooting blindly, but because of his own triumphant victory, which was painful to breathe around. "I'm sorry, man, I just can't come near you. You stink!" He kept his distance, circling around and going to Euphemia.

Meanwhile the royal guards have been mobilized, and they arrived with a helicopter, disembarking directly on the roof. Helix was standing between the princess and the villain. As soon as the wind hit them, all them held their noses. "Ah, bloody hell, what is this smell?" The royal guard captain could feel it even behind his full helmet.

(A bit demonic, but I love the purple look, looks royal to me)

He pointed at the princess with his sword, as the others formed a wall between her and the hero. "The royal guard thanks you..." He teared up and coughed. "Barely" he made a sign with his hand and the guards took her to the helicopter. "I'm gonna go now... My job here is done!"
"What of this one?" The guard pointed at Crow
"No punishment he would receive will beat this one!" He shapeshifted his nose away.
"Fair enough!" The guard sheathed his sword and headed for the helicopter. Helix walked over to the ledge of the building and jumped off, disappearing from sight. The parade was over, but the princess was saved... This time....

 

[Skylord Nexus]

In Crows' entire 6 year career, he had NEVER been this humiliated in defeat. He's been punched and kicked and exploded and blasted, but NEVER had he been stink bombed and left to lay in the stench. It was then, that the villain came to a horrendous realisation, he would rather fight the Crusader! He would rather the Armoured Crusader smashed him with his hammer! Sure, Crow was left with a concussion after most fights, and his repair bills were larger, but at least he knew what the old man could do! This Helix guy seemed to have a bottomless back of tricks to use.

Crow proceeded to make his way home, stopping to burn and salt his suit on the way, before having a three-hour long shower to remove the stench that clung to him. Sitting down to watch TV, Crow was quite happy to see that no one had been able to film his short-lived fight, that meant that bearly anyone knew about his embarrassment except the hero and the royal guard. The hero probably wouldn't tell, seemed a bit to vindictive for someone hardwired to do good, and the royal guard were generally pretty chill, so he figured he had nothing to worry about there.

Finally able to rest, Crow slouched down onto his sofa and put on some kids cartoons, there were the most entertaining things on.