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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:29:42 GMT -5
"The End of All Things"
Written by Charles HoM
Cover by Borize
Edited by Brandon Herren |
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:33:23 GMT -5
Chapter One: The Caulder Manifesto
“You have GOT to be kidding me.” Robotman, Cliff Steele, looks at Dr Niles Caulder, a smile on his lips if he had them. “This is a joke, ok? Heh. Funny, now come on, I’m missing Cheers. So I’m gonna’ head home, alright?”
“Cliff… You’ve been gone, in the void, for over a decade, and I am not joking.” Caulder picks up the newspaper from his desk and shows it to his robot associate. “You can still read, I suppose?”
“Christ. Just—2006? This…” Robotman looks to Larry, who sits in the medical bay of STAR labs silently, his body still bandaged, his arms tight around his knees, shaking slowly, rocking backwards and forwards as the revelation sinks in. “And… And…” He looks around at the people staring at him and then shakes his head. “What? WHAT? You never seen a time impaired robot man before? Keep walking!” The people busy themselves, and Cliff falls back into the chair behind him, but the legs break and he falls through, and with that final act of sheer frustration he slams his fist into the ground, causing cracks to race from his fist print. “This is madness! I mean… I mean… Thirteen years? Thirteen goddamn years we were…”
“We need to calm down.” Cliff turns as Mento walks into the room, his hat underneath his arm, his face dark. “This is something we can work around and I know that… I know that we’re all a bit shocked… But it’s nothing, really… We investigate the weird, we…” He shakes his head. “Jesus, thirteen years…”
Niles smiles slightly, looking at his team around him, alive to him once more. “My Doom Patrol, alive to me once more! Do you not see the luck that we have? You vanished, all those years ago in Zandia, and now you’re back!”
Rita Farr shakes her head, and puts her arm around the shaking Mento, who sits on a bunk opposite Larry. “We’re forgotten, Chief… Forgotten for the past thirteen years… You don’t know how we’re feeling right now…”
Niles smiles. “I didn’t forget you, and neither did the world.” He rolls his wheelchair over to his computer terminal and begins typing. “You were legends, and the world remembered…” He turns, smiling slightly. “Well some, anyway…” He pulls up a new tab and shows the team what is in it. “Doom Patrol: Remembered. Blogs, tribute pages, unofficial tribute teams. People trying to build their own robot bodies, exposing themselves to deadly radiation in the hopes of gaining your powers… It’s quite amazing actually…”
Larry stands, anger seething in his eyes. “Amazing? It’s sickening! People wanting to be like us? LIKE US? We’re freaks! Freaks and monsters… I can’t take off these bandages! I have to take a piss in a lead lined cubicle! I’m not even really human anymore!”
Steve Dayton, Mento, looks at the others and shakes his head. “You’re not a monster
Larry, and Cliff, for all the arrogance and insults I throw your way, I don’t think of you as anything less than a man. If anyone is a freak here, it’s them, those… wannabes.”
Cliff stands up and leans against the wall, shaking his head. “Cheers still going?”
Niles smiles slightly, and shakes his head. “It ended a couple of months after you vanished, Cliff.”
Cliff laughs a mechanical, gutteral laugh and shakes his head as well, smiling if he could. “Typical. Typical for us I mean…”
“And like I said, I didn’t forget you. I promise you I didn’t, and you know what I did for those thirteen years?” He begins typing something on the computer, and his printer buzzes with life.
Cliff turns, intrigued. “You… Taped Cheers?”
“I worked. And I found a cure.” He looks at everyone.
Rita shakes her head, confused. “A cure for what?”
“The Doom Patrol.”
Cliff turns away, defused. “Oh, so you didn’t tape Cheers. Thanks anyway…”
Mento shakes his head. “What? What do you mean cure?”
“I found a cure for Larry’s radiation poisoning. And I was at last… Able to perfect the cloning techniques required to grow Cliff a new body to transplant his brain into. A cure for the Doom Patrol!”
Cliff turns, and if he could, his eyes would be open wide. “H-Human again?”
“Human again, and Cliff?”
“Y-Yeah, Doc?”
“They have reruns.”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:33:49 GMT -5
Below Paris, a secret underground lair of two tragic lovers:
“Mallah!” A radio blares, and the gorilla turns at his name, his eyes wide and a smile on his simian lips. “Come to me!”
“Master, what is it that you want of me?”
The brain in the jar shaped like a skull talks through the microphone apparatus on the front of the container, its words raspy and scratchy, sounding like a radio signal. “I was listening to my music, the great works of Mozart, and I came to a realisation… I am still left wanting! I still want to gain the one thing that gives me meaning in my life…”
“Yes master?”
“Revenge, my darling, I still need revenge, and you… You and my Brotherhood of Evil can help me attain that goal… Call together the Brotherhood. We shall visit Doctor Niles Caulder once more, and he… He will help me gain my revenge!”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:34:11 GMT -5
“I’ve been working for the past three years on perfecting the process of brain transplant, and no matter how easy the films make it look, transplanting a brain into a skull is hard work indeed. If you don’t do it right, the rewiring of nerves and synapses and all those little endings that attach to your cerebrum… Your love of driving and athletics might be replaced by pink dresses and hop-scotching, alright Cliff?” Niles looks at the large tube filled with black liquid in front of him, and then to Robotman behind him, his arm still missing, and his eye ports wide. “But three years is an awful long time to be working 24/7 on the process, and it is time enough. Time well spent. I have perfected the process.” He presses a button on the console in front of him and the black liquid bubbles, and begins to turn clear, revealing the floating body of an exact duplicate of Cliff Steele floating there. “Your new home.”
Cliff places his mechanical hand on the large tube and imagines a smile. “It’s me. It’s me. IT’S ME!”
“It’ll take a day to fully transfer your brain inside, remember that, and there might be complications… This process it tailored to your condition, your… Disability, even, so please… Be patient.”
“Cliff!” The two men turn and see Larry Trainor running towards them, sans bandages, and completely naked. “It worked! I’m… I’m whole again!” Cliff smiles as the soaking wet naked man leaps onto him in a tight embrace “My… My negative self is gone! Away from me!”
Cliff shakes his head, confused. “What do you mean?”
“The chemical bath that I placed Larry inside removed his negative self from his being, and at the same time removed the radiation that kept him from removing his bandages… I was afraid that if we removed the negative side of his being he might be weakened, but don’t worry, we’ve made sure that won’t happen! Basically, think of it as a photograph. The solutions used to invert a negative image into a positive to create a photograph… But think of it on a larger scale, and with a human being.”
“I’m… a human photograph?” Larry looks at Cliff, then turns to Niles. “Chief, what do you mean? I don’t… I don’t want to… Even… Where did he… I… It go?”
“Away, don’t worry.” He smiles darkly, then turns back to Cliff, “Now then, my friend. When do you want to begin?”
“What?”
“When do you want to begin?”
Cliff looks around, confused. “You mean we can get straight to it?”
“Of course, Cliff.”
“Ok, here’s what we’re gonna’ do. Larry, you’re gonna’ find some pants, and Chief? Let’s do it.”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:34:39 GMT -5
Stuff Bar And Grill, Metropolis:
“Rita… I…” Steve Dayton looks to the beautiful woman across from him and smiles slightly. “I’m glad you agreed to join me today. I… I’m glad you wanted to grab lunch.”
Rita laughs, and then looks at the menu. “You’d think that after we’d been gone for thirteen years things would seem more different, didn’t you? But for us… It wasn’t even a week away. Moments passed and the world passed us by. Amazing.”
Steve nods, smiling. “Yeah. Yes.”
“Are you ok, Steve? You sound nervous.” She smiles and flicks her hair over her neck, revealing more of her face and those beautiful brown eyes of hers. “Really nervous.”
You aren’t helping, being so beautiful, you know that, Rita? “No, I’m alright. Yeah, you’re right. The world is different now, and we’re… We’re the same.” I think I’m falling for you, you know that? I’m falling in love with you and I can’t help myself.
“Steve, I… I…” She looks at him for a moment, and then smiles. “Let’s order, shall we?” She smiles again and flicks through the menu. “Oo the pasta looks… New.”
“Alright fellow resteraunt goers, this is a stick up!” A man behind them all jerks out of his seat, balaclava over his head, gun in his hand. “So empty your handbags for my associates and allow them to relieve you of any burdens you may be holding!” Steve looks at Rita, and Rita smiles slightly. He places his hand on hers and motions to his briefcase next to her foot, which she gently slides to his side of the table, and then he moves his other hand to it, unclasping the locks on the side. “Oi, stop what you’re doing!” The man swings his weapon round, his eyes wide and frantic. “What did I say?”
BANG!
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:35:07 GMT -5
Paris:
“Ze Brain az called uz ‘ere together for some reason he az yet to reveal to uz yet, az he not, Mallah?” Madame Rouge turns to the large monkey that leads the group of villains deep into the winding labyrinth that makes up The Brain’s secret lair, behind her General Immortus, Warp, The Word, Plasmus and others follow, all curious to what the enigmatic Brain has for them. “Mallah, why do you not speak, I am curious, yes, and you do nothing to sate my curiosity…”
“The master shall reveal all to his Brotherhood, Madame, please, do not make me upset you with my lack of knowledge on the subject…” The monkey continues to move into the darkness, followed by the strange assortment of men and women who make up the Brotherhood of Evil.
General Immortus looks at the assorted villains surrounding him and frowns, confused. “Mallah, where is Mr Morden? Why is he not here to join our righteous band of villainy?”
“Always one for dramatics, were you not, General? Morden hasn’t been heard of for a good long time, so I would just leave the subject if I was you.” Mallah grunts when he finishes and then comes to a strangely shaped door. “Here.” He pushes it with his hairy paw and then steps inside, revealing an impossibly large chamber with a massive table in the centre, with wine and glasses at each seat and at the end of the table sits The Brain in his jar, his skulled container glistening in the flickering light of the fire. “Master, the Brotherhood has arrived.”
“My Brotherhood, you came when I called, and that makes you my greatest allies in the coming war against… Caulder!”
The assorted flinch at the mention of the name, and then look to each other as they shake their heads. “Caulder turned me into vat I am!” Plasmus spits the name, and holds out his protoplasmic radioactive hand in disgust.
“Sebastian Caulder did this to all of us, Otto, he transformed you into the radioactive shell of what you once were. Phobia, it was he who was instrumental in the accident that created your ability to inflict fear into the hearts of men and women.” The brain pauses and if he could turn his head, would be looking at the yellow hooded individual standing behind everyone else. “Warp, my dear Emil, he was the one who created your ability to pierce reality… And it is his progeny, his son… That will feel our wrath. Niles Caulder is in Metropolis, and so shall we, and then… We shall have our revenges!”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:36:14 GMT -5
“STEEEEEVE!” Rita jerks towards her friend’s falling body, a bullet wound in his chest, blood pouring down his chest. “You… You shot him!” She stares at the man with the smoking weapon and then her eyes widen. “You… You…” She shrieks with rage, and enlarges her fist, her blow connecting with the man’s jaw and sending him flying outside the restaurant through the glass windows. The other gun men look at her and then fly into the ceiling, causing Rita to look down at Steve, who has placed his Mento helmet on his head. “Y-You’re ok?”
“Rita, darling, I just got shot through the chest, and it REALLY hurts… So if you’ll excuse me…” He blacks out for a moment, and then jerks up, his eyes burning with life and his teeth gritted. “Come on.”
Rita looks at him, fear in her eyes, and excitement running through his. “What did… What did you do?”
“Rerouted my pain receptors using the helmet. Come on, before I bleed to death.” The gun men struggle to get to their feet, and when they do they fire their weapons, but Mento smiles arrogantly, his eyes manic and wide. “Nuh uh, guys.” He smiles and the bullets freeze in mid air, caught in his telekinetic field, and then they fall to the floor with a quiet tink.
One of the guys looks to the others, fear overcoming him. “He’s freaking
Keanu Reeves! Jesus, someone, do something!”
“I will.” Rita smiles and backhands them with a giant limb, sending them all flying into the counter and knocking them all cold. “Cool move Steve!”
“R-Rita…” Steve grasps his head, his eyes wider than before, excitement and energy replaced by terror and darkness. “Help!” His helmet bursts into flames and she drags it off his head, and he falls lifelessly into her giant hands, his eyes blank, blood pouring from his mouth and wounds.
“NO!”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:37:15 GMT -5
STAR Labs:
“What does the Doom Patrol want with a normal person?” Larry Trainor reads his newspaper in his bed and then throws it to his side, anger and confusion rushing through him. “Am I a hero anymore? Was I EVER a hero? I was just… A freak. A freak of nature who had a talent. But… What kind of talent was that? What was I doing with my… Negative self and all… God why? WHY?”
“Larry… You’re not a freak, you never were. You’re the next step.”
Larry looks round, confused, and then his eyes are drawn to his mirror, and his eyes widen. “Huh? Who?”
“I’m still here Larry, all around you, you’ll never be free of me because no one… Ever is. I’m your dark side, your negative self… And I’m not trapped anymore.”
The reflection in the mirror is not his, nor does it look remotely like him. It’s a disgusting thing, a creature, pure darkness. “Who are you?”
“I’m YOU LARRY TRAINOR!”
A black light hits Larry hard and he falls to the floor, unconscious.
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:39:33 GMT -5
Meanwhile!
“He just… Keeled over! His helmet set alight and…” Rita looks around, confused. “Where’s Cliff?”
Niles examines Steve with curiosity, and then looks at the once great actress. “Cliff is… Indisposed. As is Larry. They’re undergoing some tests.”
“Oh… Ok…” Rita strokes Steve’s head, and then looks back to Niles. “What’s wrong with him, Chief?”
“I don’t know, Rita… It’s… All in his head…” He shrugs slightly. “I’m going to run some more tests on his brainwaves, I don’t want you to lose hope! I will not rest until Steve is awake once more…I lost you once before, never again!” He turns and powers his wheelchair out of the room, leaving Rita and Steve alone next to each other, a machine pumping life into his lungs and her crying silently.
“Steve… In the diner… I heard what you said. I heard.” She strokes his hair again, and deep in the recesses of Steve Dayton’s mind… Something grows.
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:40:41 GMT -5
The fluid drains from the large tube and the man feels his eyes flutter open. He falls to the floor of the small chamber and then grimaces, and then feels his eyes widen even more. That hurt. That begs the question of… If he’s a man with a near indestructible metal shell for a body, why does he hurt all over? His short-term memory returns, and the memories that were a haze slowly become obvious to him, Cliff Steele smiles with human lips. His brain has been successfully transferred to a human body! Robotman no longer, human once more!
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:42:25 GMT -5
Larry jerks up off the floor and looks around slightly. He must have fallen over. Banged his head. He smiles and drags himself up, and then looks at his face in the mirror. He’s gaunt, thin with worn features, but his face is there, he can see his face, and can feel his skin. It’s like he hasn’t been himself for all those years he’s been a member of the Doom Patrol, but now… He’s whole again, and… He doesn’t ever want to go back. “Larry Trainor, you’re a lucky man.”
“You’re not the only one.” He turns and sees a man in a white robe smiling in the doorway to his quarters, and then his eyes widen, recognising the voice.
“CLIFF!” Larry laughs as he sees the human body of one of his best friends, whole like him. “Holy Jesus, you’re…”
“Bald? Yeah, they had to cut open my head so, y’know…” He shrugs smiling. “It’s mad, you know? Been years since I’ve been in the flesh and now… Do you know what its like to taste the air?” He breathes in deeply, smiling. “It’s amazing. It tastes of nothing, but I know it’s there, and actually… Having to breathe… It’s quite hard. So many things I have to get used to now. I’m human, baby!”
“What now then? What you gonna’ do?” Larry smiles slightly, still touching his face.
“I… Am going to go to bed with a beautiful woman. And then…” He pauses for a moment. “Oh do you smell that?”
“What?”
“I think it’s me, I stink… I need a shower… Oh, I haven’t felt water on my skin yet… I’ll talk to you later!” He hurries out the room and leaves Larry alone with his thoughts.
“What does this mean for the Doom Patrol?”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:44:20 GMT -5
Chapter Two: Cliff Steele’s Grand Day Out
Ace O’ Clubs, Metropolis:
“HOT DAMN!” Cliff smiles, stuffing more food in his mouth. “This is… Jesus, this is great!” He licks his fingers, and then when he’s done he strokes his face, and then continues to stuff more and more food into his face until he can barely breathe. “Oh yeah… Yeah… Remember Cliff… You have to breathe in this body. You don’t operate on a depleted core of plutonium…” He pats his belly, and then looks to the woman opposite him. “Oh sorry, I know this is probably reeeeally disgusting for you to watch but I haven’t eaten anything in a relative 20 years so… You know, leave me to it!”
“It’s no worry, Mr Steele, I volunteered to escort you here, and I’m enjoying every moment.” She smiles slightly, and pushes her hair over her ear and behind her neck, just below her shoulder blade. Cliff looks at her analytically, because back when he was a brain in a robot body, that’s all he could do. He couldn’t take in a woman’s smell, her perfume, he could feel their flesh beneath his fingers, because he wasn’t human. He never thought of himself as human when he was Robotman. Always a freak, never human inside. He shivers, a chill running across his spine. “What’s up Mr. Steele?”
“Nothing, missy, just… I feel cold.” He takes another bite out of his chili dog and smiles. “Ain’t it great?” He downs his big gulp and then smiles. “Holy hell.”
“What? What is it? Want me to call Dr Caulder?”
Cliff laughs. “Not for this, no. I need a leak.” He laughs, and then rolls his finger across the table as he stands. “Big gulp. Big gulp. You feel that? The way the words roll off your tongue? I’m freaking alive!” He laughs and looks the girl in the eye, and she smiles slightly. “Can I kiss you?” He moves his hand through her hair and she smiles even more.
“Mr Steele… Why did you think I volunteered? I used to watch all your events on TV when I was younger and… And I had a poster of you on my wall… After the… the accident I was shattered… Obviously… Uh… Not as much as you were…” She laughs uncomfortably. “And… Well… I really like you.”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:46:22 GMT -5
STAR Labs:
“When I was an actress… I was the best, you know that Steve? I was a star. The directors came straight to me for the best roles… And I loved it. I was vain and arrogant and I loved it. You think what’s-her-face was popular…? Jaime Lee Curtis? I turned down Halloween. I was big, you know? And that day when I was in Africa, shooting that volcano scene? I thought it was my big break but then… Then the volcano erupted and I was exposed not to molten magma, not lava or anything like that… But a mutagen from the centre of the Earth. Great, now I can grow my body, shrink my body. Become a freak. So when I saved the crew from a stampede and grew to gigantic sizes to do so… Hollywood left me behind. Go figure… And Chief… He took me in. Gave me a place. A home. I owe him my life but I can’t help but think… Something’s wrong…”
“You would be right to think zat.” Rita turns and is punched so hard her nose shatters and she’s sent scrambling across the floor. “Ze ‘Chief’ Monsieur Caulder… Ee iz a liar and a manipulator, same az his family, iz father…” Madame Rouge smiles. “And iz Doom Patrol will pay. Lucky me that you are alive, yes?”
“You… You…” Rita looks around as she shifts her mass. “BITCH!” She grows to a giant size and crashes through the ceiling above her head, and then slams her foot down on Madame Rouge. The malleable menace stretches her size and loops around Rita’s leg until she has climbed all the way to the woman’s neck, and then tightens her hold, squeezing the air from her lungs.
“Zat was not ze witty comeback I am use to, but ere’s me ‘oping I shall here no more of zat, eh?” Rita claws at her neck and tries to pull Rouge off, but the French villain smiles wickedly and tightens her grip, and when Rita is done struggling and the last of the air is out of her lungs she falls, crashing through more of STAR Labs, the last name on her lips as she falls into the darkness being Steve… “Dis iz Rouge. The Doom Patrol are ‘ere. Yes, I realise dat zay are dead, but my battling of Elasti-Girl suggests otherwise, non? Oui.” She smiles and watches as Rita shrinks. “Ve will kill ze Doom Patrol once and for all.”
And in Steve Daytons head… Something continues to grow…
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:47:43 GMT -5
Ace O’ Clubs, Metropolis:
Cliff Steele smiles as he unzips his jeans and steps up to the urinal. He closes his eyes and aims and then hears someone clear their throat behind him. “Monsieur Steele?” He doesn’t turn around, and continues to relieve himself. “I ‘ave news of your friends, ze Doom Patrol?” Cliff smiles. It’s a man, and one with a French accent, and only one person he knows calls him Monsieur Steele. “Zey are de--” Cliff spins round and kicks the man hard in the face, knocking him down, and dazing him as his head slams into a urinal. “Mon Dieu…”
“Don’t black out on me yet, Emil.” Cliff slams his foot into Warp’s head, and then drags him up, keeping him dazed and confused. “Keep your eye on the prize.” He punches him again, blood spraying from a gash in his face. “French son of a bitch.” He continues to punch Warp till he’s unconscious, and then picks him up and drops his head into one of the toilets. “Let me flush the evil out of your system, Warp.” He smiles as he pulls the flush, and then yanks the toilet roll dispenser off the wall and slams it in the back of his head, making sure he doesn’t wake up. When he’s done with that he runs out of the toilets and then stops in his tracks as screams become louder and louder, and a scene of total carnage confronts him.
“This pretty one yours, Steele?” The villain known as Plasmus smiles, surrounded by piles of protoplasmic flesh, and holding the screaming STAR labs scientist in his pink lumpy hand, her skin and flesh boiling at his touch. “Mine now. Pretty flesh.”
Cliff feels the blood drain from his body. He was only able to stand up to Plasmus before because he had a metal body, and that was thirteen years ago. He was now human, and no matter how good that made him feel… He has no hope in hell of stopping this rampaging creature. “Let her go, before I kill you.”
“Oh that’s funny, that’s funny!” Plasmus laughs, spitting goo, and the woman drops from his grasp, her arm a bloody stump, writhing around on the floor as her flesh turns into sludge. “Oh, I let her go!” He smiles and lifts up his foot, then steps on her face, her screams fading as she dies horrifically by his fiery touch. “You know, I can’t touch a woman, but killing them… Makes up for that, wouldn’t you think?”
“You’re a sick bastard, Furth. And I’m gonna’ see it that you’re dead by the time I’m done with you.” Cliff raises his fists and then goes pale, realising he has no hope in hell in going toe to toe with this creature.
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:48:16 GMT -5
STAR Labs:
“Do you fear me, Trainor?” Larry turns around at the voice of a woman who steps into his room. “Do you?”
He scrambles out of bed and picks up the chair next to it as a weapon, shock flooding him. “Holy mother of Jesus, Phobia!”
“Fear me, Trainor…” Larry sees her look him in the eyes and then feels his body begin to shake. “Because when you give into the fear… The easier it’ll be…”
Larry grabs his chest, dropping the chair, with pain in his eyes, sweat dribbling down his face, and then staggers towards the alluring yet terrifying woman in his door way. “Ph-Phobia…”
“What is it, Trainor? Can you feel the talons of pure fear raking your soul? Is your mind leaving you a desolate wreck of a man?”
He smiles and looks her in the eye. “I looked into the void, and the void looked into me. A place where emotion means nothing, and emptiness is all there is. I have known fear, but no more. But you will.” He slams his fist into her chest, and then elbows her in the face, knocking her out. “And I’m sorry, I don’t normally hit a lady but come on… You’re a freaking emotional vampire…” He turns and grabs his shirt, then walks into the hallway, where a large man stands wrapped in shadows. “Who are you?”
The man smiles, and steps forwards. “I am The Word.”
“Well I have two words for you…” Larry begins to storm towards him but the man shakes his head.
“Ankle.” A loud snap fills the air and Larry falls to the floor screaming. “Like I said, I am The Word, and if you think that I can’t hurt you… Wrist.” Larry screams again, his wrist contorting as it breaks. “You’d be wrong. Please, stop screaming.” Larry looks at him, his eyes wide, breathing deeply. “Fingers.” Larry screams once more and falls backwards, all his fingers snapping at the same time. “Fine, be that way. Jaw.” He cracks his knuckles. “Now to work.”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:49:51 GMT -5
Ace O’ Clubs, Metropolis:
Cliff Steele runs away. He smiles as this thought crosses his mind as he does so, because he being the ‘powerhouse’ of the Doom Patrol, he was the one who always ran head first into the danger, into the mystery, and he always came out on top, so now he’s running away, without his armour body, caught between oblivion and the man known as Plasmus. Contact with his protoplasmic body will dissolve Cliff’s own flesh and blood body, so he needs to do something he rarely does… He needs to think with his head, not his fists. And Plasmus… Well. Cliff grits his teeth and looks past his shoulder, seeing the seething mass of destruction plod towards him at a leisurely pace.
Take stock of your arsenal. Look for your advantages in the battlefield. He looks around and spies the kitchen, and dives in, narrowly missing a spew of toxic chemicals originating from inside Plasmus’ gut. Knives, forks, spoons, frying pans, deep fat fryer, fire extinguisher, walk in freezer… He grabs a handful of cutlery and pelts them at his enemy, but as the metal is slowly absorbed into his protoplasmic body.
“This is the best you can do, Steele? Where are the witty remarks? Where is your American bravado?” Plasmus laughs and Cliff bites his lip, and then dives across the room, swinging open the freezer door and hiding behind it. “Coward! Face me like the un-Robotman you are! COME ON!”
Cliff peaks his head and then smiles slightly. “Uh, no thanks Plasmapuss.” His smile widens and then he dives out of the way, grabbing the fire extinguisher and hurling it at his enemy, only for it to explode as the villain instinctively catches it and the compressed gas inside ignites, sending the mass of protoplasm hurtling backwards into the walk in freezer. Cliff smiles and rams his shoulder into the door, swinging it shut, and sealing the villain inside. He locks it tight, and then slams another fire extinguisher on the handle, breaking it off. “That… Might…”
“I’LL KILL YOU STEELE!” Plasmus places his hand on the metallic walls of the walk in freezer and begins to burn through, but then his eyes widen as the intense cold begins to increase, and then as his body begins to freeze as the structure compensates for his fiery metabolism being in it, he swears in German, and then falls to the floor, his protoplasmic body shattering on contact with the cold hard floor.
“Yeah, well… No.” Cliff smiles and then slides down the wall, coming to rest on the ground, exhausted and feeling slightly sick. “How’d he know… It was me… This is… Oh. Oh no, the others…” He jerks upward and then sprints out of the restaurant, and heads straight for the STAR Labs installation a few blocks down.
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:50:23 GMT -5
STAR Labs:
Niles Caulder whistles to himself, and then turns around when he hears someone behind him. “Who?”
“Professor Caulder.” His eyes widen as his view is met by General Immortus and Monsieur Mallah, two of the most feared members of the Brotherhood of Evil. “You have an appointment to keep.” Immortus smiles as he speaks and then back hands the crippled scientist across the face.
“Unh…” Niles rolls backwards in his chair, and grabs a laser soldering iron from his worktop, used to patch up Cliff’s old Robotman body, and then fires off a beam of light that hits through Immortus’ shoulder and sends him falling back to the ground in agony. Mallah moves swiftly and slams his massive shoulder into the Chief. Niles is staggered, but swings his wheel chair round, and hurries to escape the room into one of the strategically placed panic rooms in the lab, but his chair is grabbed by the massive monkey, and thrown upwards, sending the scientist flying into the air and scattering him on the work bench, knocking off all his work and leaving him dazed.
“General, are you alright?” Mallah picks up the confused scientist and looks over to him comrade, who drags himself up off the ground with his good arm.
“He… Shot me!” The General storms up to the scientist and punches him in the face. “Argh… That really… Ow!”
Mallah shakes his head impatiently. “Do you have the syringe? The Brain wanted the genetic material administered as soon as possible.”
“Yes, yes…” General Immortus pulls out a large needle and grabs the Chief’s head, and then holds open his eye lid with his bad arm and slowly approaches his eyeball with the syringe. “Hold still my dear Niles…”
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Post by Brandon on Jul 25, 2006 21:50:56 GMT -5
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Post by mockingbird on Jul 28, 2011 14:10:24 GMT -5
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