[IC] Marvel/DC: The Coming Storm

[Kafka Komedy]

Deathlok sighed to himself as everyone left. He was placed with the burden of tying all these guys up. He checked his leg compartment for some, only to reveal that all he had packed that day was his major repairs kit. He sighed to himself as he thought of what to do. They were still unconscious, right? Well, most of them were. If the police were fast enough they could scoop all these guys up in one swoop. He knocked out three of the four still conscious bad guys out, leaving the messenger. "Hey, can you do me a solid and go tell your boss about us? That'd be awful nice, and you know what I do to not nice people." He said, lightly tapping an unconscious mafia goon with his foot. The messenger shakily got up and ran out of the warehouse, swearing profusely. Matt then proceeded to call the police, tell them the address, and quickly escape before they had found the metal vigilante. "Day well spent. Well, some of the day well spent. A true hero never stops fighting!" Matt mumbled to himself as hopped between the roofs of homes. There was an incredibly small amount of traffic up there for obvious reasons, and because Matt had rocket boosters, there was little to no risk in being up there. Besides, the wind was nice up here, and it was quieter, which allowed Deathlok to focus more. While walking and going over the events for the day, something Legion had said reminded him of an issue he had been putting off. Money. Matt could only coast on his inheritance for so long. Sure, it wasn't a problem now, hell it wouldn't be an issue for months due to the fact he didn't need food, but it was still an issue. He sighed to himself as he looked down at the small people below. "Man. Wish you were here, dad..."

[Demon Shinobi]

After leaving it didn't take long for Harrison to make his way to his most recent employer. Maybe a half an hour... Forty-five minutes tops. He couldn't very well use the front door as this building would likely have people. Customers, normal employees. It was a small branch of Wayne-Stark enterprises. The man who ran this building had some shares and could handle his own section. The building had a pretty good location. He often tried to outsmart or screw over Harrison, but it never panned out. Harrison had written contracts and other documents and evidence that could easily have him shut down. Much of the share holders actually weren't as noble as Wayne or Stark. Only maybe 3 were on the up and up. Harrison knew because he did his homework on them all. Harrison wasn't playing with a full deck of cards for sure, but an idiot he was not. That's why he approached from the roof. As usual around this time the man's window was open. He wasn't waiting for the young mercenary. That was for sure. He often expected Harrison to bite the dust in fact. No, around this time he'd be enjoying a cool breeze and the feel of the son while sipping some scotch. A habit. A dangerous habit but a habit all the same. The reason it was dangerous was that somebody like Harrison could, "Oomph!" He grunt as he landed in the office transitioning into a roll and immediately stopping in a crouch his guns in hand. One pointed at the man and the other at his one so called elite bodyguard. "Tch tch tch." Harrison twirled the guns and slipped them into his holsters. "Two clicks and two would be dead." He said calmly. He didn't have silencers but that didn't mean a damn thing. He could be gone before anyone even came into the room and saw the bodies. With that done he stood up straight and immediately kicked the body guard back down as he'd tried to get up and make a move. "Don't do that again." He said before turning to his employer. "Now you. Money." "Relax. I gotta inspect my merchandise first." The man chuckled trying to hide the fact that he'd nearly shit his pants. "Sit down. Have a drink. Preferably don't kill my guard." Harrison sighed. "Make it quick old man." He said as he snatched a bottle of the good scotch. The old man didn't try to argue as he opened his box. What was in it was a priceless statue. Worth more than the scotch and the money for the job combined. Which was why he didn't argue with Killing joke snatching liquor bottles. This 17 year old couldn't and likely wouldn't even get really drunk. Buzzed every once in a while maybe, but not drunk. The damn healing factor fucked him over in that regard. It was honestly most of the reason he drank and did other stupid shit at his age anyway. "Everything is in order. How would..." The old man stopped and sighed. "Right... Cash..." He said with a bit of an annoyed tone. "Ricky. Check if the secretary is here and have her give you the briefcase from the closet. Tell her to give it to you and not to come in." With that the old man and Harrison were left to wait.

[Yog Sothoth]

Grim Shadow was slightly annoyed at Nicholas' rude words and he gave him a glare causing Grim's eyes to turn red. "I will ignore your rude words, but I would advise against such stupidity towards one such as I. As I have said I am here to help, do you honestly want to go against Phantom Stranger, Spectre and Death's orders that were given to me?" he asked the conman. Mortals could be incredibly short-sighted in how they talked to beings who are higher than them. He was reluctant to work with Constantine because of the man's nasty reputation, but he had to listen to his master and obey his wishes. He hoped that this wouldn't turn out to be a bad decision, he has seen enough of humanity throughout history to know how irrational and self destructive they could be.

[soren]

----Stark House---- "Gentlemen please we have a predicament that takes precedence over quarrels of how whom can help. I accept help from all places and suggest we get start." Tesla was in no mood because he realized that the spike in the reading was the only anomaly that had happened and for it to happen in New Metropolis felt like no coincidence. He also was feeling a build up in energy again soon he would reach critical failure if he didn't offload some of the energy. "No if you gentlemen would like to accompany me in the lab behind some glass while I work for a few more minutes we can be on our way to investigate the source of the the temporal anomaly." Tesla didn't wait for either of the men and staggered slight to the stairs and grabbed the hand rail for support. He finally made it down and entered the lab again. Grabbing a orb on the table and a large light bulb he began to siphon off his energy into both. The orb would be charged for a long time and could be used as a flash bomb and light bulb was just to help him think as he waited for the two men to join him. ----New Metropolis---- Sara had explored pretty much the city as much as she could. Fatigue had set in from all the walking and she didn't have any money. So it looked like she was going to have play a part to get what she needed. She ducked in behind a building and looked around to make sure no one is around. No one in sight. She began to tear he clothes and mark her face and arms with mud and grim from a nearby puddle. She then welled up some fake tears and ruffled her hair up and then went back into the streets. Soon she came across a hot dog vendor. He was a nice looking older man and was currently taking another customers money. "Thank you sir!" The man said loudly. The customer gave him a weird look and went away. Sara eyeballed the man and let the tears roll from her eyes to her cheeks. "Please sir I am so hungry and lost. Could you spare a small bite to eat?" The vendor looked at her through thick spectacles. "My dear are you ok!?" The vendor said in astonishment. HE had seen people like this before but never someone this young...or had he. He couldn't remember. "My dear please take a hot dog. It is on the house. I have done more business today than I have in a month thanks to my luck turning around." She took the hot dog from the man and ate it in two bites. She was still hungry but wasn't going to ask for more because she wasn't too rude. "Anyhow my dear their is a shelter over on 2nd and 3rd that you can get cleaned up at. I must be off as well." The man packed up shop and she helped a little. Smiling and thanking him she walked over to the area he talked about and looked around.

[Demon Shinobi]

"Ignore them or not, it's up to you. The fact of the matter is..." He stopped. He wasn't about to get into all of his problems with the various supernatural beings of the world. Especially not one of the servants of the reaper who was arguably the only neutral party. Except one or few times in history, but those being arguably weren't THE Reaper. Just various incarnations or something along those lines. "We'll just have to agree to not try and destroy each other, and yes it is possible that I could in fact destroy you just as you could me, and try and clean up some of the mess that's been created." He spoke rather fast and smooth as one might expect of a con man and generally covered most of the bases of the conversation. He didn't wait for the servant of death to rebut his words and simply began to follow after Tesla. "Little word of advice, never be so eager to accept help. It often rarely comes without a price from those that run in the same circle as our new... Friend..." He said pausing for a moment to think of words that would be insulting. Though even using the positive word didn't mean much given the somewhat negative tone of voice. After reaching the lab he made sure to remain back behind the glass as he had been instructed. He watched calmly. It was interesting and yet somewhat dangerous to think that Tesla had to do this. How often did he need to? This along with other questions popped into Nicolas's mind as he began to try and plan how he would get Tesla into position as the CEO of Wayne-Stark Enterprises. "We're really gonna need to talk and do some serious planning to get everything worked out, mate. I hope you're ready." Of course, this time would also call for negotiations of payment.

[soren]

Tesla opened his eyes and looked back at Constantine. "Yes I am ready and I am not so naive to know that this all doesn't come with a price. I fully expect that one of the reaper's plans in sending his Grim to us or me was to collect my soul at the end. I have lived far longer than I should, but I have managed to cheat death with my final experiment that gave me powers and made me what I am. The thing you see me doing here is a by product of being merged with information on the net along with the worlds becoming one." Tesla put both objects down, the light bulb still glowing after he had set it down. "Now for your payment I believe you will want money and a large sum of it since you will be putting me in a very prestigious position. Now the matter of the fact is that I have nothing to pay you with now and gadgetry doesn't to be to your taste and as I have no real connection to the supernatural you have but one choice if I am right and that is to get me in the position then accept payment discretely for the most part." Tesla brought up a screen with the suits information on it. He had made a miscalculation in the design. Charged weapons were running off of power that he currently would put into the suit not off reserve. So in light of this a back panel was extracted from the suit exposing circuitry. A several small arms came out of the ceiling and went to work. Sparks flew off every once in a while and Tesla winced in pain a couple of times but the robotic arms were soon finished and replaced the panel. "Now that's is all done and I think that negotiations are cleared away besides the amount we should probably get moving."

[Argetlam350]

Liz stealthy entered her apartment. It wasn't hard to sneak into it but one could never be to careful. Her apartment faced onto an alleyway with whoever across the way always with their window closed, she probably didn't need to worry so much on getting caught unless someone decided to look up who would be walking down the alley. Her apartment was of fair size, having all the luxuries she needed to survive as a human and was sparsely filled with decor. "All right we had our fun, now I need to get to work, I'll be lucky I get my ass their on time after," Liz said as the symbiote slipped away revealing her face and traveling down, showing her dressed in a tank-top and jeans ",Sucks the office doesn't let me go like this but it's considered inappropriate. Pity, I'm sure Killing Joke would enjoy my look." The though made her snicker as she went to her room and got on more appropriate work clothes. "Pity he is only seventeen though. Guess I'll just stay single forever," she said to herself ",Ah well I don't need any guy helping me in life anyway. Would be just another voice with all the others in my head." She looked somewhat out of place with her work clothes even if they were the most casual she could go. Oddly enough she worked for Wayne-Stark Industries. She worked as an assistant down their for a few of the higher ups. Partially out of necessity, partially because it kept those who had made the symbiote she now was attached with at bay not knowing where to look for it. "Well just another dull day until later tonight," she sighed talking to the symbiote that was silent for this rare moment of time.

[Kafka Komedy]

As Matt stared dejectedly at the people below, someone caught his eye. This girl, this black haired girl with really nice eyes. He watched her with deep interest as she deceived the local food vendor; Hot dogs, man did he miss hot dogs. That wasn't a very nice or brave move, deception was very low on his list of things that were heroic, but maybe she needed food and didn't have money? Yes, that was definitely it. It was fine, yeah. Matt decided to follow her, maybe say hi and stuff. She made her way to the local shelter, as did he. The street was a little rundown, honestly. The city's official's mostly ignored the funding for this place and it pissed him off. Why not sap some money from less important things to help those less fortunate? Man, the more he thought about it, this place was kind of a shithole. I mean, mobster kingpins hosting illegal deals in abandoned warehouses after the companies using them pulled out, leaving all their workers jobless. Hell, that's probably where all these friggin mooks are coming from. Matt shook himself from his thoughts; They were getting much more pessimistic lately and he needed to shake himself from them more and more. Probably due to... life events. Matt sighed as he stopped crouching down and squinting at the female he was, with all intents and purposes stalking. Yeah, she probably needed a home judging how she was making her way to a shelter. He sucked in some breath as he worked up the courage to hop down there. "Once you go down there, there's no going back." He whispered to himself. Matt jumped onto the street, not activating his boosters as to accentuate his entrance. That was sure to sweep her off her feet. Unfortunately, all pretenses of badassness were shattered as soon as he looked up at her, finally close enough to gauge her features. He melted like he was 2800 degrees and he was sure his battery sparked or something. "Uh-um, hi...? I'm uh, I'm Matt. Wwwwhat's up?" He stuttered, flashing a cheesy grin after he finished being an idiot. So yeah, he had about zero chance with this chick. Nice one, Matt.

[Demon Shinobi]

The man was pretty much right, though hearing it all come out of his mouth Nicolas figured it might be more favorable to ask for something else. "Now that you mention it, I think something other than money would work pretty well there mate." He smiled as he watch Tesla. he needed to be on guard despite the fact that what the man seemed to be doing wasn't more than maintenance and things of the sort. "Just owe me a favor or two to be paid sometime in the near future. After all, this is no easy task we'll be taking up. And I have a feeling we'll be working together sometime in the future." He said before noticing Grim had gone. it was likely that his master and the other lords of the supernatural had called him back to rediscuss allowing him to interfere in the realm of the living. "Blokes can never make a proper decision." He mumbled to himself in a somewhat annoyed whisper. ----------------------------- The bodyguard, Ricky, was currently just outside the office. "Dammit... Where's that damn assistant?" He questioned just before laying his eyes on her. "Liz." He said quickly as he approached her. She wasn't necessarily late, but it'd have been better if she was here sooner. It would have made his job much easier. "Boss said to give me the brief case from the closet." He said in a hurried and somewhat frustrated tone. Likely from getting so quickly subdued by Harrison a moment ago. "Just give me the case, and do not even try to step a foot into the room." He added onto the order as he waited rather impatiently tapping his foot. Meanwhile, Killing Joke was lounging on the executives office couch a bag full of expensive drinks and other little things. The man didn't argue. He didn't care for them. Killing Joke made him enough money and completed jobs well enough that he didn't really have to worry about the "losses". "They better hurry. Clocks ticking. Only so much time can pass before I go ballistic." He was joking, but even with his laughter the man was nervous and unsure. Of course, anybody would be considering the amount of laughing he did even was things were serious. And thus he began to whistle. It was somewhat loud. Just slightly hearable through the door. The man didn't think that much mattered. Though he wasn't thinking it would be suspicious if another person was heard but was never seen entering or leaving.

[Argetlam350]

"Oh good morning to you too Ricky," Liz replied sarcastically ",By all means don't get up and doing it yourself, I'm sure you wouldn't want to break a nail." Liz didn't stay to listen to a comeback from the dimwitted bodyguard. She went off to the 'closet' to get the briefcase he had mentioned. The closet was more of a high tech vault if anything that only a few knew how to get into since the Boss was cautious about his goods getting stolen. She went through the process of opening it without anyone else around and went in to get the briefcase, she would of much preferred to punch the hulking bodyguard in the face and watch him in agony hold a broken nose but she couldn't risk loosing the job so she had to play the role of being the good-sarcastic assistant despite how the voices in her head said otherwise. "Here you are big boy, next time though you can get it yourself, I'm sure it would do you good to do a bit more exercise by walking around a bit," she said shoving the briefcase towards him ",Now as for me I have some business to attend to so the Boss's schedule doesn't become a train wreck."

[Demon Shinobi]

Ricky took the case. "Gettin real sick of your attitude Liz. You're just lucky I don't have time to deal with ya or you'd been in for a world of hurt." He snarled as he walked back into the office. "I didn't really liked the way you talked to the lady Ricky." Harrison said as he nestled his bag onto his back and took the case. "I'd teach you a lesson about how to treat a lady, but your boss here wants to keep this as private as possible." He added with a chuckle. "Whatever, that little bitch don't deserve no damn respect." Ricky replied after harrison took the case and turned to leave. "Oh Ricky... I really wish you'd just kept your mouth shut." The Killing Joke replied with a small sigh. In truth he'd been waiting for a reason to give Ricky a good beating. Which he did. A fist to the gut followed by a kick to the face. He grinned. Ricky looked like he was gonna talk. Perhaps he would question Harrison's reasoning. But it was stopped by another powerful kick, this time sending him through the door. Harrison laughed that same somewhat sadistic laugh as he put a foot on the bodyguards chest. He unholstered one of his guns and pointed it at his face. "Now. Your boss is gonna fire you. Cause you suck at what you do. But not before you say sorry to the babe here." He glanced back pulling the other gun. "And I'm sure miss attitude here will keep the secret. Just as long as she gets a raise and some more vacation time. What do you think?" He spoke to the boss and then Liz totally unaware that she was the babe he'd met just earlier today. "O-okay! Okay okay!" Ricky spoke frantically as he glanced at Liz. "Dammit... I'm sorry. I shouldn't talk to you..." "Or any other chick." Harrison interrupted. "I shouldn't talk to you or any other chick with anything but respect!" Ricky finished. This was all mostly for Harrison's amusement. He didn't give a damn about how the dude treated women. But it was fun. Plus Ricky was probably crapping his pants right about now.

[Argetlam350]

Liz was shocked into a state of silence at first to not do much of anything but watch as Ricky got his ass beaten by the very same person she had been fighting alongside with only a few hours before. She only got her composure back when Ricky had apologized and left. "Damn I should of had my camera," she first said realizing how much she would of enjoyed taping Ricky getting beaten before putting on a professional persona and turning to the Killing Joke ",Well since Ricky has been disposed of and you have what that suitcase would be your payment, everything should be accounted for within in it. Now I must be off to work on some other matters for my Boss whom you probably should get back to. I doubt he likes his guest's running around helping his assistants." She turned around and made her exit, a smile on her face as she walked away from the Killing Joke.

[Demon Shinobi]

After the event regarding that idiot bodyguard Killing Joke would have left the building. Although it wouldn't have been until after admiring Liz's figure as she left. Yeah. It was a good day. He ended up with a bag of pretty high quality liquor and stuff. Good enough to get him pretty buzzed and shit before the healing factor drained it off.

--------------------------------Commencing Timeskip--------------------------------

Killing Joke, New Metropolis

For the next two weeks or so, things would go about as usual. He had done about four more jobs for the Wayne-Stark Exec. In fact he was supposed to meet with him today. Hopefully it would be a good day. Especially since it was his birthday today. He thought. He wasn't quite sure. he hadn't celebrated it in a long time and his parents well... He got up from his bed in his boxers and went into one of his draws to look and look. "Ah..." He pulled out his birth certificate. "Yup. 18 today." He said with a slight yawn before walking out to the bathroom. He went through things simply. A little work out here, a little clean up there, some food in another place and time. And then he was getting dressed. Well, more like suiting up.

Nicolas Constantine, New Metropolis

In the two weeks that had passed Nicolas and Tesla had formed a planned to get him into position as the new acting head of Wayne-Stark Enterprises. It had worked fairly well, but he'd be busy for a while smoothing things over. Meanwhile, Nicolas was free to relax bide his time as he investigate things of the suprnatural variety as usual. Still, there was something coming. He didn't know what. He didn't know when. But the storm was brewing and it was going to be a force to be reckoned with. That was for sure.

[Kafka Komedy]

Before the girl could verbally slap him for being a weird idiot who just jumped down from a building, Deathlok heard sirens. Sirens meant generally bad things. Either the police got to a crime before he did, which sucked, or they were after him, presumably because he was a teenager dicking around out of school and beating people up. Also he was a robot, kinda made you want to at least question him. You didn't see robots everyday, did you? Probably not. Maybe not. With a panicked expression gracing his face, Matt quickly flew off into the distance, leaving her with little more the jet fumes and a hurried "I'll seeya later!" Chapter 1 - Rising Action [New Metropolis, August 31, 2058] The next two weeks, things returned generally to normal for Deathlok, or DL, as he commonly initialized himself as. Crime fighting had returned to normal, no cute girls, no dating antiheroes, just pure action. He had also figured a solution to the money problem he was having; freelance bounty hunting. He obviously wasn't old enough for a license, so instead he simply gave the escaped convict to a legal bounty hunter, for a price. It wasn't the most legal practice, nor did it pay the most, but he was still pitching in and fighting crime technically, so he was sure it got him some brownie points. And, hey, he needed money from somewhere, right? With a grunt, Matt powered on at the time he set last night. A glance at his battery told him he was at full charge. Good. He was planning on getting a particularly high bounty criminal today. Hopefully nothing would get in his way, the cops interfered last time he had got close to one this big. Sure, he hated criminals, but the cops were kinda stealin' his thunder and money too. Rent was important, and so was power. (Both electrical and social, in this case.) He kinda needed that stuff to live, since, robot. He hated that crap, being a robot. He was still adjusting to it, even after all this time. It'd been, what, a while, he guessed, and occasionally he'd just lie down on the couch, thinking he would fall asleep and have his body recharge with his mind. Nope, he needed to plug himself in first to wake up in the morning. Ugh. Back to business, he quickly emptied the dryer and clothed himself in his favorite outfit, brown jacket and all. He had polished himself last night, no need for that today. He was prepared for crime fighting! He quickly checked for all of his stuff. Gun, sword, actual freaking rope this time you dumb idiot, yes, all here! He grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter and locked his door on the way out. After slipping his keys into his back pocket, he descended the stairs of the apartment building. He was surprised no one made a fit about there being a robot in the building. Sure, not many people had seen him... Had any people seen him at all? He couldn't quite remember... Ah well, wasn't an issue now. With that thought on his mind, Deathlok exited the building, spirits high for a day of badassery and heroism.