[IC] QUIX Universe - Claychester

[Hansa]

The sun was moving slowly across the sky, hiding behind the occasional cloud, staring brightly down on the city of Claychester. A Saturday morning like most others, an onlooker would never guess the absurd events that had taken place in the city over the years, and what was to come. Luckily gifted, heroic individuals called this place their home and swept in to protect the regular men and women when needed. Today, however, this was not the case. Today, the time moved slowly with nothing even a little remarkable taking place. And thus, these fantastic freedom fighters remained in their normal, human forms, cloaked in normality.

* * *

Walking through the southern part of Manrock, a man seemingly in his fifties whistled as he cheerfully went on. Random bypassers had no idea that this man, Hyde Sideros, was in fact an eternal being from the heights of Olympus, once known by the name of Hephaestus and now commonly known as Godsmith, one of the few altruistic protectors of Claychester. He whistled cheerfully because today he was needed neither in his workshop or in the skies, scouting for evildoers. Today was a normal, relaxed Saturday, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to enjoy it.

So Hyde made his way down through Manrock, step by step, closing in on a small park, just shy of being in the bustling center of the city. This park, called Sentry Park, was Hyde’s little secret, not many others visited, keeping the place silent and refreshing.

It was one of those warm, but windy days, evident by Hyde’s white beard blowing across his neck. He wore a flannel jacket, dark blue argyle pattern, perfect for the late summer. His rough jeans were on, as always, in and out of the workshop. His boots were of brown leather, and he wore them all year round. Together, these pieces of clothing provided a perfect body temperature for normal humans, but Hyde, being a true god of forges, only wore it to fit in. If he wanted, he could walk around naked in any temperature, and even warm his body so much that he would be cloaked in steam. That, however, would be very counter-productive, as in this moment he only wished to enjoy a warm, windy Saturday morning.

[Mr_pink]

~Around one Year Previous~
Joe sat with his feet up on the dashboard of his delivery ship. He ran a comb through his hair as he watched a small television broadcasting some gameshow from Galganon III which involved a rather unhealthy amount of lava and a lot of questions about something that was essentially space cheese. The hand without the comb in it was flipping a pen inbetween Joe's fingers. Boredom was rife upon his one-man ship to say the least.

Joe rose from his chair, tossing both the pen and the comb on the dashboard and making his way to the cargo bay of the ship. He threw the tarp off the bike when he reached it. It was a beauty to say the least. Some rich teenager had gotten his dad to buy it for him for his birthday without even knowing the true story of the bike. It was a renowned racing bike, used by the famous racer 'Gip Bruter' in his sand marathon against 'Braethor Huskin'. Of course, to an Earthling this would all sound like gobbledy gook, but to Joe it was his favourite sport. He ran his hand along the bike before throwing the tarp back over it, sighing and returning to his seat at the front of the ship.

The quiz show had long since switched to informercials and it seemed, Joe had little to do, but sleep. He switched off the tv and put his feet on the dashboard while resting his hands on his stomach. He stared at the vast emptiness of space for a while, before his eyes began to flutter and he fell asleep. After about 15 minutes of proper REM sleep disaster struck. Joe's hand fell onto the console and slapped the button to change course before sliding down to the warp drive key. Unbeknownst to, Joe, he had just set co-ordinates for earth at a speed much higher than he had ever anticipated.

A few hours later and Joe awoke to see flames engulfing the front of his ship. He was crashing through Earth's atmosphere and down onto the hard land that would inevitably spell his doom unless he got to safety. He leaped from his chair, sending it spinning as he sprinted to the cargo bay. Dynamo-Corp took much better care of its cargo than it did its workers, and in accordance with these ideals, the cargo bay would lock after any sign of danger. Joe of course knew this, but had not planned ahead in case of an emergency. He started hammering random codes into the keypad by the door. After 3 tries it simply displayed the words "locked" and Joe was unable to work the keypad anymore. He began biting his finger nails and hopping from foot to foot. He could feel the ship getting warmer as it plunged further towards Earth. He turned back to the keypad and ripped it from its place on the wall. He reached his hands into the wall and began connecting wires in a seemingly random order. As if he had meant it to happen, this worked and the door slid open. He threw himself into the room and the door quickly slid shut behind him. Joe slumped against the motorbike as the ship plummeted to Earth.

Present Day
Joe wrestled with his hair as he tried to fashion it into his signature pompadour. He swaggered out of his bathroom, putting on his letterman jacket as he did. The apartment he lived in looked quite nice when Overwatch Twelve had first placed him in it, but since then it had become messy and awkward with all the clothes and whatnot strewn across the floor. Joe had meant to clean the place, but had been preoccupied with important things such as video games and television.

He left his house with the intention of finding some crime to stop, which was much easier said than done these days. To tell the truth, the heroes had been on top of their game and every supervillain that came along was quickly dispatched before they did too much damage. Deep down, Joe actually wished for some sort of challenge to come his way, he was in no way an exceptional fighter, but something that got his blood racing every once in a while was much appreciated. Plus he had a bunch of one-liners memorized in his head for various obscure occasions.

Joe stuck his earphones in and began to wander. Claychester was a big place, and Joe didn't entirely know his way around the place as much as he probably should have. As a result, he often got lost which was what he had done today. He had made his way to the poorer part of town and essentially went down various alleys and streets and had strangely ended up in some sort of park. Joe sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He wandered into the park, smoke drifting off behind him as he walked. He found a seat next to what seemed like some sort of homeless wizard. He hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Excuse me, you don't happen to know where I am do you?"

[TheUnknowable]

Anarchy watched from the shadows as Senator Roberts got in his car amid a crowd of adoring fans. He needed to learn about the senator, where he went, who he dealt with, etc. before he took the man down. So far he hadn't seen the man do anything that could even be considered scandalous, much less criminal, but then again, politicians quickly learned not to do certain things when people were around who might not like it. Anarchy would have to be stealthy, waiting until the Senator slipped up and met with someone who might lead to answers.

Anarchy was dressed in civilian clothes, wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and sunglasses. He had left his weapons at his hideout, which turned out to be a good thing, as there is no way the secret service would have let an armored man with a P90 anywhere near this close to the Senator without extensive checks to make sure he was on their side.

While Anarchy was certain that the run-of-the-mill agents wouldn't be a problem for him when he made his move, Roberts' personal bodyguard concerned him. The man had far too much muscle to just be your normal federal agent. At best the man was a trained killer, likely special forces, at worst another Super. Anarchy needed to know for certain before he made his move. He hadn't managed to free so many villages from the Dictator by jumping into a conflict without knowing his enemy, and he wouldn't do so now.

When the Senator's motorcade drove away Anarchy stopped leaning against the wall and walked away. Sure, he could fly after them if he wanted, by any agent worth their over-sized paycheck would quickly notice a Super following them. He would need another way to keep an eye on the Senator. Hopefully one of the criminals he had made contact with could point him towards a hacker capable of getting him satellite surveillance. If not, he'd have to see about getting a few bugs and a tracking device. For now, though, he'd wait. No use tipping my hand before the game gets started, he thought.

[HylianRose]

That morning, Scout had left her home, a van she'd managed to save up enough to buy from some fat woman with fat wallets. She'd honestly paid too much for the hunk of metal, considering that at the time it couldn't even move. The woman had paid for it to be towed somewhere for Scout. Since then, she'd been slowly working on the van. Right now, it was sitting in the parking lot of a church. Occasionally, she'd get one of the members of the church knocking on her window to tell her either to leave or to ask if she needed anything. The pastor had allowed her to stay as long as she spent every Sunday in that building.

Now, having taken the offer, her van sits in their parking lot, on stilts with the hood popped and several tools surrounding it. She'd often get looks from the little girls and boys that walked inside the church and their mothers and fathers would tell them not to stare at the poor homeless girl. The other band members had offered their homes to her, but a lot of them lived in far off places now or lived on the road. She figured it was time she figured things out for herself.

Now, Scout wanders the streets of Manrock. It was a rather... boring day and so Scout found it hard to keep herself out of trouble. She chuckled as she came up on a woman and a man bickering over something.

"You said you wouldn't talk to her anymore, Charles!" She yelled, throwing a weak punch at the man's shoulders. It looked rather silly with her in her yellow dress and nice shoes and him in his work cloths, grease splotched overalls.

"I told you April. She came to my work, I couldn't exactly not talk to her." He explained, sighing.

Scout smirked as an idea crossed her mind. "Though, she was kind of hot." She spoke, mimicking the man and throwing her voice. The woman, April's, eyes grew large and her mouth dropped. The man quickly pulled his hands to his lips and looked around as if he didn't know whether it came from him or not. Scout turned herself around to pretend to look at a nearby ATM, snickering to herself.

"How could you?!" April shouted at him, glaring at him.

"I-I... She was just so beautiful, April..." He began. His eyes shot open when he realized that what he'd said had not been what he'd... said. "Wait, I mean... She was so sexy..."

"W-Wh-What?!" April shouted, pulling her hands to her mouth in disbelief. Without another word, she ran off, nearly tripping over her heels in the meantime.

"April, no!" He shouted, running after her.

Scout was now squatting down on the ground, holding her stomach, tears falling down her cheeks from laughter. One woman walked by and put a hand on her shoulder to ask if she was okay. "Yeah..." She finally spoke, wiping the tears from her eyes. She turned and saw the woman that had stopped by her and lifted a brow at her. She was in a pin strip suit with a tight bun atop her head.

"Alright, if you say so." She returned, turning to walk on.

"Actually... Now that you mentioned it... My breasts sort of hurt. Mind massaging them for me?" Scout added as the woman turned, lifting a brow at her.

The woman slowly turned, blinking. "You... are kidding, right?" She asked, eyes narrowed down at Scout who was still seated on the concrete.

"Why, I'd never." Scout responding, now standing up.

"Go screw yourself." The woman responded, turning suddenly to walk off. Scout snorted before turning to walk on herself, making her way for a car place to pick up the parts she needed. She had a long discussion with the clerk, a man of about 25, about cars before moving on. On her way back to her car, she picked up a doughnut and stopped to sit in a nearby park. Across from her were two men, one very old in appearance and another with a very... odd pompadour. She raised a brow at them with a doughnut held in her mouth before pulling out the part she'd bought to inspect it. One part was a tube for her radiator and the other were a couple of spark plugs she'd needed to replace. It wasn't too late in the day now and she'd caught sight of a woman in the park, playing with her dog, throwing a frisbee for it. It wasn't too long before the frisbee flew into one of the many trees and got stuck. The woman, a brunette with small breasts, walked over to the tree shaking her head, her large black lab shaking his tail, waiting for her to get it.

Wanting to finally play the part of the hero like she'd wanted, Scout left her stuff on the bench and ran over to the tree, climbing up quickly. "I've got it ma'am." She told her, a bit out of breath now. Once she retrieved the frisbee, she started throwing the disk for the dog while talking to the woman she soon found out was called Megan, a pretty name.