The Whacko

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

9:43 AM, December 3rd
The Wedge; Hub City
@Blackstripe

The lightning nearly made Clayton jump when the flash of blue surged through the apartment, his massive frame taking a step back as he heard someone on the other side approaching the door. He sighed again deeply, reaching up to straighten the gray hatch tie before the person on the other side opened up. Sure enough, the woman who stood in the doorway was a tall, statuesque, beautiful blonde in a short robe and hood that looked straight out of a fantasy comic book. The woman who had taken down the Nazi scumbag in German. The necromancer stood to his full height, but kept his shoulders slumped, presenting as little of a threat he could, no small feat for a man of his size.

"Karen, right?" The big man stepped forward and offered a massive paw to her. "Clayton Toombs, pleasure to meet you at last. Don't suppose you have a moment to discuss some matters of concern for the arcane community?" The line sounded rehearsed, and it was. It wasn't that Clayton wasn't a people person, but a situation such as this was always going to be awkward."Representing a...let's say an interested party that might be able to provide some insight into your gifts."

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

December 3rd
9:43 AM, ET
The Wedge, Hub City

@Blackstripe

Hub City was as much of a shithole as Clayton had remembered, even after five years had passed since the last time he'd been here for work. To make things worse, the ley lines here were so goddamn strong that he swore even the Mundies could feel the power radiating from them, and he just knew that there would be dozens if not hundreds of people that would start to dabble in magics both light, dark, white and black. It would certainly be hell for whatever bastard had to manage those sort of things here. The big man sighed and puffed on his cigar, exhaling a pungent tobacco cloud before he looked at the apartment door before him. This was where the trail ended, and the Witchlight Lantern was glowing as bright as the sun as he stood there.

It didn't look like the place a superhero should have been living, but then again he also didn't look the part of a man who spent his life combating the powers of the occult and supernatural, so he supposed appearances were far from everything. Coming this far from home hadn't been his choice, but The Master had asked it of him, and he couldn't refuse his teacher. From what he'd seen from the reports from Germany, he could see why he'd been sent. A being with as much power as this one could be a force for great good in the world, or great evil if the worst were to come. The Master wanted to know the content of this woman's heart. Hopefully he hadn't brought the bag of salt in his pocket for nothing.

And so the necromancer knocked on the door, a quick, hard thump that would be sure that any inside would hear it. He didn't know what this young woman's reaction to a towering, broad bull of a man in a dark suit would be like, but he was sincerely hoping that it wouldn't be violent. It would be embarrassing to have to punch out the woman he'd been asked to interview because he looked like a thug. He sighed and stubbed out his cigar, setting it inside his coat and relaxing his shoulders to look as non-threatening as possible.

Ba Sing Se

@McHaggis So out of curiosity, boss, were my humble brewery master to have a place in this world of ours, what kind of influence would you find acceptable? How many of those...'public relations'employees might he have on the street?

Also, I'm finding searching for some Avatar-esc art older folks...challenging to say the least.

Ba Sing Se

My curiousity is peaked :) Perhaps there's room for a humble brewery master who certainly doesn't command a criminal army, and who most certainly doesn't secretly serve the Dai Li in exchange for leniency in his business concerns. Certainly none of that. Those are just slanderous lies.

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

@Ceta de Cloyes

November 27th,
1:24 PM, ET
GCU Library, Gotham

The Fallen was stronger than any Clayton had seen in years, even as it's rotting limbs began to crumble away under the decaying influence of the mage's spells. Stumps of limbs were replaced by infernal fire that grew into ashen flesh, and the dead, glassy eyes became red, flaming pools full of contempt for all living things on the mortal plane. It batted away the swings of the mace, sweeping Clayton off his feet and booting the him across the floor hard enough to break ribs. Grunting and stumbling to his feet, the giant tried to life the mace he'd taken from a broken case, though his arms were stinging with exhaustion.

"Trying to spare your half-breed spawn your fate? Your gesture is useless. I will not kill you now, Clayton Toombs. I will find your son first. I will flay him before your eyes, cast his skinless corpse at your feet. After you've heard his dying screams, seen his life spill out in blood, you will have my permission to die." The voice was scratchy, hoarse, the demon still attempting to repair the stitched-together vocal cords. It brought up a surge of rage in Clayton, and he bared bloody teeth at the beast as he case another sickly green bolt of magical energy at the demon-golem's knees. It bellowed in return as the two met in the middle of the room, infernal magics repairing the damage as quickly as the necromancer's could decay flesh and bone. Steel met bone as the mace slammed into a tree trunk sized arm, holding the mage in place even a he tried to slam all of his weight into the weapon.

"You ain't taking Tommy, demon! You're goin' back to whatever hell The Presence threw your sorry ass in!" Clayton roared in the monster's face, kicking out at a knee and earning a bellowing cry from the demon as it buckled. He swung his mace upward, catching the beast in the chest and sending it stumbling back, leaving a distance between the monster and the mage.

And then Tommy was there, the Silver Nail in hand as the two stared down at each other. Both looked sharply in the direction of the Anodite teenager, the demons's burning eyes widening as it realized what the boy was carrying. Even missing the demon's head, it sent the stitched-together body trembling with pain and fear as the spirit inside recoiled from the magical device. Desperation filled it's corpse-like face as it saw the nail land between it and Clayton. Without thinking it lunged for the nail, wanting nothing more than to get it away from the magi who would surely know it's power and how to send it back to the torments it had left behind.

It never came close as corpses slammed into the demon-golem from all angles, the security guards gnashing and sinking broken teeth into flesh, and even the severed head of the would-be summoner flying, screaming at her construct with green magical fire billowing from it's mouth as it burned the beast's face. The presence of the Silver Nail was draining the demon's strength as Clayton's necromancy had drained it's body's, and now with the zombies of its victims swarming it, it was open to the killing blow. Clayton swept up the nail a roar slammed it down into the demon's heart. There was no final bellow, no cursing the mage's mortal wounding of it's physical body, just a shudder as the demon's spirit began to slip away, dragged back to the plane it had been trapped in for untold eons.

Before it left, however, it had one final message, the twisted, melting face turning to face Hex.

"Anodite...no idea of your fate...your true nature...it will be your father's end."

And then it was gone, the lifeless golem collapsing into a mangled pile of limbs.

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

1:23 AM, GCU Library, Burnley, Gotham, November 27th.

@Ceta de Cloyes

"Tommy, run!" Clayton Toombs roared as he brought the mace down onto the flesh golem's lumpy, rotting shoulder, the creature barely seeming to notice the crushing blow as bone shattered under the weight of the steel head. The monster's twisted, mutilated lips pulled back in a snarl as it almost effortlessly backhanded the necromancer across the room, with the big man slamming into a bookshelf that was almost overflowing with occult tomes, which fell around him with dull thuds drowned out by the commotion filling the library. Gritting his teeth, he stared up at the monster as it lumbered towards him, fists beginning to smoke and crackle with unholy fire as it grinned at him. He snarled right back and hurled a bolt of negative energy at the golem, trying to sap the strength from the necrotic muscles. It staggered for a moment, roaring with pain as rotting muscles were drained, but surged back up as the spirit within called on it's own power to drive it on.

It had been even worse than he'd imagined. The surge in the ley lines had taken what would should have been a mindless beast akin to Frankenstein's monster and turned it into a monster like he hadn't seen in ages. Clayton was still guessing as to what the hell had happened a few weeks prior, but ever since it seemed as though everything magical had increased in strength three-fold. It had allowed the would-be necromancer to create a body far stronger than she had ever hoped for. When he'd seen her head twenty feet from her body, he figured that she was not aware of how enticing a body like that was to the Fallen, and with the strengthening of the ley lines, so too had come a weakening of the veils between planes.

So Clayton Toombs and his son had found themselves battling a goddamn seven foot tall flesh golem with a demon spirit inside, and all the infernal power that came with it. An unlucky night to say the least, especially since all four of the library guards were dead and strewn across the room. The mage grunted and hefted the mace again, trying to figure some way of damaging the thing in a way the Fallen couldn't just patch up.

"Get the Silver Nail!" He barked at Tommy, charging forward and ducking under a massive, flame-covered fist, bringing the mace down into the back of the golem's knee. "Trunk of the car, bring it and ram it straight up this fucker's ass!"

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

@Ceta de Cloyes
6:30 AM, Burnley, Gotham

It was fairly obvious that Clayton didn't buy that it was 'nothing' or just the runes that Tommy experimented with, if the slight frown on the big man's lips was any indication. He looked down at at his son for a long moment, then, with a nod he gave the boy's shoulder a light squeeze before he reached across the table to pull his own plate over.

"Tell me when you're ready. You're getting near to being a man now, you can fight your own battles. A man knows when to ask for help though, alright? Ain't any shame asking for advice." He resumed his breakfast, carving off a good chunk of pancake and chewing busily. Tommy was still young, but his talent with magic was already impressive, and even The Master had been impressed with his skill at spellbinding. They'd both agreed that he would go on to do great things for the world. That said, Tommy was still a teenager, and had a lot of growing to do before he was ready to start playing the supernatural detective like his father and the rest of The Master's students on his own.

"This weekend, probably. Bodies going missing from the morgue again. Probably some kid at GCU with a grudge trying to make a flesh golem." Early on in his career, Clayton had come to know and loathe Gotham City University as the source of just under half of his late-night strolls. The campus boasted the largest collection of occult works in the United States, at least on the mortal plane of it, and while most of the student body dismissed it as hocus pocus, there were always three or four kids obsessed with it, and it almost always came down to settling grudge with other student.

Think your boyfriend or girlfriend was cheating on you? Send a big hex their way. Your sociology teacher taking their anger out on your grades because you dared to have a different opinion from them? Send a ghost to go torment them at home. This would have normally been harmless, the sort of thing that could easily be explained away by rational people and which Clayton could solve with a stern talking-to with the dumb kid who'd gone screwing around with magic. The problem with GCU, though, was that the students always seemed to insist on using the really big books, the ones way too advance for casual readers, where one wrong word would either result in the spell having absolutely no effect or summoning something hilariously beyond their control.

That was when Clayton had to take more drastic steps.

"Still early, so I doubt they'll have made much progress. I'll let you do most of the fun stuff when we find them." Clayton said with a smirk, knowing Tommy would love the sound of that.

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

6:27 AM, Burnely, Gotham

"The boxing managers are stampeding over eachother to get a piece of Hayes. Betting Barenziah is gonna be having a coniption fit that'll last all week." Clayton said, smiling over his paper as he watched his son take his seat. The boy had taken after his mother, but he could see little bits of himself in Tommy. "Fae and the Vampires are going at it again too. And the parental section is wondering when you're finally going to ask Anna out already." He flashed a smirk at Tommy at that, noticing how his son had reacted to checking his phone's messages. "She's a nice girl, Tommy. I've seen the eyes she makes at you."

The smile faded a moment later as he looked at his son closer. He almost felt it more than he saw it, the lingering touch of something haunting on his boy's mind. It wasn't the first time he'd seen it either. He set his paper down, his breakfask forgotten.

"You had the dreams again?" It was a question, but his tone said made it sound like a statement, thick arms folded before the man as he faced Tommy. "Your mother said that sorta thing might come sooner or later. Christ knows I had some weird dreams when I found out I was a necromancer. Wish were here to tell you more."

The big man rose then, moving to the empty seat beside his son, a baseball-mitt sized paw resting on the teenager's shoulder. "You need to talk about it?"

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

@Ceta de Cloyes

6:25 AM, Burnley, Gotham City

"Tommy! Come on down and get your breakfast!" Clayton Toombs shouted, turning over the slabs of bacon sizzling in in the pan, more rest on a plate along with scrambled eyes and a steak for himself. In the Toombs house, it has always been the hulking bull of a man that had been the breakfast cook, a task which he enjoyed to no end as his family gather around the table, bonding over the hearty meals he favored. Now it was just Tommy and him. He did his best for the boy, to teach him about manhood and about his odd heritage. He could still see Elena's eyes whenever he looked at Tommy.

The dull ache of her loss in his heart never grew easier to bare. But he did it for his son, and that was enough. He slapped the last of the bacon onto the plate and carried it all over to the table, taking his usual seat and unfolding the newspaper, one of the last that still delivered in this part of Gotham, and the headlines were about as he expected. The sports column was all about Hayes' incredible upset of the previous champ, with all the speculation that went along with such an event. Aside there was all the usual news one could expect out of Gotham. Missing persons, a new murder that would more than likely never be solved, and a spike in gang activity that was sure spurred on by the Fae's ongoing turf war with the Vampires. He made a mental note to pay both parties a visit.

"C'mon on, Tommy! It'll get cold soon!"

Heroes Reborn - A DCAU Roleplay (Always open!)

Aye.