Nexus Prime

Maximum Comics

How's everyone doing? Y'all enjoying yourselves?

Maximum Comics

Very short, very shitty post up.

Only took you a month, you lazy bastard.

Maximum Comics

May 1^st, 2016. Star City, California.

Silas King slammed both fists upon his desk, inadvertently scattering various documents and files that had been piled up on the edge. His chair creaked as the man leaned forward, dark eyes glaring at the unlucky messenger across from him.

"What do you mean the shipment was destroyed again? I told you assholes to increase security!"

The younger man flinched at the words screamed at him. He was just the poor sap who had gotten the unfortunate duty of informing King of the most recent raid, and had no authority to affect anything, security or otherwise, in the operation. But he wasn't foolish enough to remind Silas King of that fact. It was well known that King, a captain in one of the Pacific's largest drug cartels, had quite a temper, having earned his higher position for his ability to keep the lower lieutenants and their underlings in line through promises of brutal violence and retribution of any failure. It was also rumored that he was close to, and had the direct ear of, the Pusher Man himself. All in all, it was best not to give the already angered drug trafficker any more reason to be upset, the messenger decided.

"I'm sorry, sir, but this week's product we were going to ship to the Philippines was intercepted by --" His voice was cut off by another loud crash as Silas brought his fists back to the table even harder.

"It was her again, wasn't it?" Silas spat out the question, venom in his words, practically daring the courier to confirm what he already knew.

The messenger's eyes flicked back and forth, nervous to respond. He eyed the two guns in the room; one in the waistband of King's personal muscle, and the other to the right-hand side of his desk, just within arm's reach of the cartel captain.

"Y-yes, sir." He stammered out a response, tendrils of fear gripping at him. "Several of the men you had guarding the shipment, the conscious ones, all spoke of a woman in black who jumped them from the shadows."

Silas leaped out of his chair, sending it skirting back behind him and clattering against the wall. "That's the fourth fucking time this goddamned bitch has screwed with the shipments! We're losing product almost as fast as we can make it, and our business partners are beginning to question us!"

A metal cigar tray was flung across the room, nearly striking the now whimpering messenger in the temple, as King seethed at this latest misfortune.

"It's just a fucking girl," his screaming caused veins to start bulging from his neck. "This isn't Gotham, she isn't the goddamned Batman! I thought I hired dangerous men to guard the shipments, not fucking pussies!"

King reached for his handgun, tired of the incompetence of his employees and wanting to make a point of no longer tolerating its presence in the way his simple mind usually leaned towards. Just as he gripped the weapon, a new voice interjected the fury-filled silence.

"Sir, if I may make a suggestion."

King whirled around to face the owner of the voice. Red-headed and strikingly beautiful, she seemed out of place in a room belonging to the captain of a drug cartel. Her grey business attire definitely clashed with what the three criminals present wore - even the sniveling messenger was wearing an untucked, plain t-shirt, and sneakers. Her thin glasses framed green eyes, and she wore a polite smile as she spoke to her superior, unfazed by his tirade.

She was already talking again, not waiting for King to renew his shouting. "This woman who keeps disrupting operations is clearly skilled, at least enough to dispatch close to a dozen heavily armed men on multiple occasions. For all we know she isn't working alone. It is possible, after all, that she is merely the distraction while others attack from out of sight.

"Even still," she continued. "there are certain measures that can be taken to prevent this mystery woman from interfering again."

Silas King eyed her, his fury still present but his curiosity now piqued at her statement. His methods may be simple, but Silas wasn't stupid, he had already taken several precautions after the first instance, and with the most recent before this one he had more than doubled security at the docks. His supply of able men wasn't unlimited, though, and he couldn't continue to sacrifice them to this assailant indefinitely. So the notion that there could be a method he hadn't considered was worthwhile to hear out, he knew.

The woman before him, who looked more like an accountant than a member of an international drug trafficking organization, was named Sara White. She was the former adviser to one of his lieutenants in Washington state, and King's current counsel on intricate matters after his last had died in the flood caused by the April First Invasion. Sara had been highly praised by his lieutenant, having been instrumental in the evasion of law enforcement agencies in Seattle, and had been proving the same here in Star the past month. In fact, aside from the woman in black, his side of operations had been running smoother than ever before in recent times, and most of that could be attributed to Sara's newly valued advice and input.

"I'm listening," growled King. He still held the pistol in his right hand, but it was now at his side and pointed harmlessly at the floor. For the moment, at least.

***

Ten minutes later the messenger exited the room hurriedly, sweat clinging to his brow and soaking his hair as he quietly thanked every higher power he could think of that King's counsel had spoken up when she did, taking any and all heat that had been focused on him away. With Silas King's reputation as it was, the young man was confident that he had been mere seconds away from, at the very least, a case of shattered knee caps for merely being the proverbial bearer of bad news.

Following behind, at a much calmer pace, heels clicking against the wooden floor, came Sara White. As she left King's office and rounded the nearby corner, a subtle smirk broke across her face. It was the smirk of a woman who was very pleased with herself. It was also the smirk of a predator who had just laid out a very carefully planned trap, long in the making, for an unsuspecting prey. While Silas would believe this trap was intended for the woman in black that had been troubling him for weeks, the reality of the situation was going to be far more problematic for the cartel captain than he ever could have realized.

The well-dressed woman whispered to herself as she made her way outside of King's run-down complex. "Good job, Dinah. You've really outdone yourself."

Rogue Continuum: The Singularity Crisis

A Q U A G I R L

---

Lorena continued down the path she had chosen from her starting point, heading left and staying as close to the perimeter wall as possible. With all the ruins and partially destroyed structures that blocked pathways or formed new ones, the arena very much resembled an ancient maze that twisted in towards the center. It brought back memories of the catacombs beneath Atlantis, and one of Lor's earliest battles against the immortal sorcerer Kordax, a former denizen of Atlantis before it had sunk to the bottom of the sea.

In that encounter she had inadvertently become trapped inside the catacombs after a youthful exploration of her new home, and had discovered the elderly man beneath. If it weren't for the timely intervention of Lady Mera, Lor would have perished there against the long-gone-mad Atlantean. As it were, she was left with a very painful scar, albeit one that didn't leave a physical mark; Lorena Marquez was not comfortable with enclosed spaces, and although this colosseum was incredibly large and expansive, the knowledge that she was trapped in here did not resonate well with her or those memories. But Lor was also calm, and collected. Her time training with King Orin and Lady Mera had provided her with great mental poise, and she had yet to face a challenge during her time as Aquagirl that she had shaken her internal fortitude.

So, as she walked down her chosen path, she was scanning the outer wall for defects. Any chinks or signs of structural stress. Lor had been running her hands across the surface, palm flat against the wall, feeling for even the slightest crack or dent. Surprisingly, she had found the wall was not metallic, as she had first believed seeing it from far away, but that it appeared to be made of some sort of stone. At least, it felt like stone to her, and not at all like the purified material that would be used to craft a sturdy metal wall. It was of a strange, grey-blue hue, and slightly cool to the touch. Every so often she'd find slight scorch marks present, mostly higher up just out of reach, obviously left over from past matches, but despite walking for some minutes now, Lor had found not a single imperfection in the wall's structure.

Odd, she thought. There are clear signs of battles waged here, but no damage visible to any of the outer wall. Either whoever maintains this arena repairs the damage before the next matches are fought, or whatever this material is is of considerable durability.

Lor stopped now, facing the wall to scrutinize it more closely. It would make sense that the arena would be constructed of material much stronger than stone, or even metal, she considered, given the magnitude of power those of us held captive likely possess. It would not do for them to allow us escape so easily. Still...

She closed her eyes and focused, pushing her senses past her body, and spreading her awareness. Although Lor was only a pseudo-Atlantean, she possessed the signature ability all Atlantean-blooded creatures shared on her world; hydrokinesis. With it, she could affect and control water in a myriad of ways, and she had been personally trained by Lady Mera - the strongest hydrokinetic Atlantis had ever seen - in its arts. Unfortunately, there were no bodies of water present in this forsaken arena, as she naturally would have felt the draw of any lakes, rivers, or seas even miles away the moment she came to consciousness. However, any truly skilled hydrokinetic was never without a source of water. As Lorena concentrated, she began to, slowly at first but more rapidly with every passing second, pull to her the very moisture in the air. There wasn't much around her given they were indoors, and even the ground was made from the grey-blue material, but despite the general low humidity there would be just enough for Lorena's purposes.

As Lor drew the water vapor to her, she directed it towards her right hand, collecting it around her balled-up fist until it was enveloped in a thin-coating. She concentrated more, packing the molecules of the water closer together to increase the density, effectively "hardening" the water into something vastly more solid than ice. It was a common technique for hydrokinetics, and would normally be mere child's play for Lorena under normal circumstances, but both the facts that she hadn't been submerged in water for a month and thus wasn't at her peak, and the very little amount of moisture she had to work with made it necessary for her to focus more than usual.

Due to her Atlantean powers coming from a transfusion of King Orin's royal blood, her physical abilities were not of the same levels of full-blooded warriors, and never would be. Though she was still magnitudes stronger than any human could ever hope to be, she wasn't capable of matching the sheer force of a strike from her King, or even Lady Mera. However, Lor had long ago devised her own technique, utilizing the super-dense water to aid the power of her own attacks, amplifying the force of her blows to levels even her King could not achieve, if she had ample enough water to manipulate. Though the pitiful amount she had managed to gather wasn't even close to those levels, it would, at the very least, she estimated, double the impact of her punch.

Ready now, Lorena's eyes opened, narrowing on a section of wall just below a blackened scorch mark. She took an appropriate stance; left foot leading, right foot back, and body rotated so she was at an angle to the wall. Her strong arm was brought back, tensed up, parallel with her waist. As she thrust forward, Lor pivoted her hips, adding to the momentum of her swing as she brought her fist around to connect with the wall, putting all the strength she could muster into a singular blow. The force of her punch colliding with the stone-like surface caused a loud "thud" to resound throughout the arena, echoing through the connecting labyrinth passages around her, and the thin layer of water she had used to enhance her strike dissipated in a light mist upon contact with the wall.

Lor looked on, perturbed, but not surprised to see the wall still standing as sturdy as ever. That was to be expected. She was, however, surprised, to see that there wasn't so much as a scratch made on the surface itself. No dent, no thin spider-web cracks crawling away from the spot of impact. She may not have had full Atlantean strength, but even without enhancing her strikes through hardened water she was more than capable of shattering stone with her punches, and there should have at least been some sort of indication that her attack on the structure had even occurred in the first place.

Blast! Lor cursed this new revelation. I am not at my strongest, but that should have had some effect. Just what is this made of? She asked herself, once more running her fingers across the somewhat rough, but cool surface.

With her primary method of escape being exhausted, Lor decided it was time to explore another. Turning from the wall, she looked out towards the nearest pillar - the structures that she and the other intended slave combatants began atop of - and began making her way in its direction.

If I do not possess the means for escape, perhaps another does.

Maximum Comics

@HenryJonesJr I have one very important, very serious question for you.

Is this classic Fury, HasselhofFury, or Samuel L. Fury?

Maximum Comics

I take all the credit for the inspiration of said sheet.

What do you mean I'm a narcissist? Pft.

Maximum Comics

<Snipped quote by Nexus Prime>

I'd sooner gargle with shards of glass. haha

@HenryJonesJr

That sounds like an odd kink, but if you insist...

... got your beverage right here.

Maximum Comics

I don't know what you're talking about. I just have a bad cold. *Cough cough* Don't bully the sick, Gowi.

Maximum Comics

*Cough* Frank Castle Captain America *Cough cough*

Rogue Continuum: The Singularity Crisis

The fact that you don't even know what you did makes me worry about you.