Ch17

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. Beware sexual content and stuff like that. Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

Christmas time has come to Oscura city. The fresh, long anticipated snowfall, which was absent during Christmas Eve, rains down on the city and greets the holidays. Most people are at home right now, opening presents and sharing good times with family and friends while lovers exchange sweet moments under mistletoe.

"So why the hell am I crawling through a sewer with you people!?" Charlotte cries as we all wander through the smelly tunnels lining the underbelly of Oscura city.

"I told you." Romulus explains for the thirteenth time. "Red X said this was the easiest way to get close to the enemy without using up too much power or giving away our position."

"So it's your fault!" She knocks me with her elbow and I flail my arms to avoid being knocked into the sewer water.

"Come on Charlotte! Stop it!" I try to keep from falling as she attempts to push me in. "That water's not sanitary! Have mercy here!"

"You're going to owe me some new shampoo! It's going to take something heavy-duty to get this stench out!" She almost has me off balance.

"I can do one better." I tell her with a cheerful smile under my helmet. "I'll just wash you off mysel-Please stop trying to push me in."

"I'll drown you, ya bloody pervert!" She tries even harder to get me in.

"Have a little mercy on the guy." Johnny picks Charlotte up and without her hands clenching my throat I loose balance and almost fall in. luckily I extend one of my shuriken and prop myself up in time.

"Thanks Johnny." I say as he picks me up away from the sewer water. Straightening up my cape I begin to explain. "How many times do I have to explain. Due to the complex and intricate sewer system of Oscura, you can make it to any point in the city undetected by simply travelling underground. It's not well known nowadays but a long time ago the sewers where once an underground railroad used to transport and sometimes be a home for immigrants and criminals who couldn't live among the other people at the time. It was like an ancient criminals guild which worked to save peoples lives and hep give people a second chance at life. A whole bunch of it was sealed off when it was transformed into our modern sewage system. I found it one day while I was researching the landscape of the city."

"Do you even know where we're going? And how can you tell where the enemy will be?" Charlotte asks.

"Because I destroyed the Depraved hideout in the slums and we cleared out the Rose Avenue church the day before yesterday." I explain it to her again. "The only one left-"

"Is where we're heading right now!" Romulus interrupts me. "It's the only place they have left to run too! It's a docking port I think."

"So, what is our plan of attack again?" Yvette asks.

"Are you two serious!?" Romulus and I both ask at the same time. "We already went over this at the apartment! It's not that complicated!"

"To be honest I'm lost on it too." El Dorado speaks up.

"Me too." Johnny and Pandora raise their hands.

"Sorry." Mary says with a shamed look on her face. "I feel dumb."

"It's not even complicated." I grumble before regaining my energy and pumping my fist into the air. "Fine! Then I'll explain my master plan once more! To understand our plan you need to know how xenothium infection works. We all know that a person who is infected with or high on xenothium related drugs or radiation gains super powers. Well, there are levels of power and infections. The further a person is infected the more powerful their powers become but the higher the risk of death as a result. The first level is the basic does which takes up ninety percent of the enemy army. This is when a person is just taking the drugs for a sudden power boost and the effects are usually temporary. The powers manifested from this are almost always a simple increase in basic human characteristics such as super strength and speed or enhanced senses. In comparison to us, people with either superpowers, advanced technology or martial arts mastery to such a high degree, they're ants. Simply put, they will swarm us and try to take us down with overwhelming numbers but any one of us could easily take them down."

"They're just like pawns in chess. The bare minimum." Romulus backs my explanation up with a quick one of his own.

"The second level is when a person under the influence gains a super power outside of these. It could be a new power entirely, like flight, or just a continuation of one of their older powers. For instance a guy man develop far greater super strength than he had before and that will be his power. In this stage all their older powers from stage one are lost unless they are involved in the new mutation. In stage three this power is usually given a massive boost and takes on a physical form. That guy from around chapter one or two who lead that clown group to assassinate me was an example of this. His manifestation gave him a lot of defence but it turned his body to stone. Some people may develop compound eyes or unnatural skin colours. Stage three doesn't always manifest though. Some people will just skip ahead but continue with the power boost, even gaining new powers alongside their old ones. People in these two stages are a little more trouble since their powers are less predictable but they're overall abilities don't reach far past your everyday metahuman."

"They're pretty much the same as stage one, just different abilities, so none of us should have any trouble."

"The fourth is when they gain an incredible boost in overall power. This is a stage most people die before reaching. At this stage the xenothium particles have lined their cellular structure and taken permanent residence. At this point if you had the base mutations from before they will take full form and your body will become that of a monster. You gain full access to your abilities but many people loose their minds in the process. Animal senses which would involve enhanced canines and hair growth would be able to develop to a full body wolf transformation. A person like that guy I was talking about would have his entire body become stone and loose all mobility. If you're lucky enough to continue living on after this stage manifests then you will probably loose your mind. Those who don't end up with incredibly versatile abilities, such as a person who in stage three could create fire ball entering this stage and having control over heat in general. There is a twenty four percent chance of making it to this stage and living, a twelve percent chance of loosing your mind during the transformation and a ten percent chance of making it through with your mind and life in tact."

"That's what I had before Alex's cure." Romulus tells them.

"I have it too." Yvette tells us. "My ability over electricity is at the point where I qualify as a fourth level."

"That's right." Romulus congratulates her on her perceptiveness. "In fact, many of you have reached a level of ability where you qualify for this. In other words level four is our general power level. Mr. Pandora, Johnny Rancid, Baby Doll, Charlotte and Hotwire. Because of your skills or super powers you have the ability to go toe to toe with level fours."

"The next stage is where El Dorado and Romulus are set." I continue explaining. "It is also the last recorded level I've seen. Anyone who's come close to beyond this has died. This is when the infected person gains full control over their powers which at this point have reached their pinnacle. The beasts who lost control before regain their consciousness or simply become something of ultimate beasts. Those who retained control find that their power is enhanced to its limits. Control over fire can mean control over the powers of the sun itself. Regeneration at this point could mean ni-immortality. That Agent guy from before was around this level, though he wasn't much of a match for me since his powers where something I was used to."

"In other words; Justice League's top five. Anyone at this level could easily take on one or two of the top Justice League members, regardless of their battle experience. If they had super strength and speed they could match Superman and the Flash. If they had energy control they could take down a Green Lantern."

"And you two fall under this?" Charlotte asks us. "Are you monsters or something?"

"Something like that." Romulus chuckles. "After taking Alex's cure I underwent another mutation which pushed me to a much higher level of power than before. Now I qualify for fifth level abilities."

"No wonder you guys have been able to take on the Depraved yourselves." Charlotte smiles.

"What about Alex?" Mary asks.

"Perceptive." Romulus smiles back at her. "You caught on to our little secret. You see Alex here, by his skill alone, is easily a match for the fifth level at its highest. That means that he himself is stronger than the highest level of Xenothium transformation."

"So, you're saying he's stronger than the Justice League?" Johnny asks with a disappointed look. "That's just like you."

"Moving on." I decide to continue. "That was just a little lesson on the levels of xenothium infections. As for our plan it involves which of those levels we'll be facing. It's clear that the main boss will be at least at level five. He needs that power to control all those underneath him. But after consulting with Romulus and comparing his knowledge with the average level of those assassins who came after us in the past we figured the average level of a Depraved soldier was somewhere around stage two and three. He should have a few stage four's around but they would be used as generals or if they'd lost their minds, war beasts. Even though I say that, most who have lost their minds might have been killed for safety reasons. Either way, keeping that in mind we should have much more firepower in our little group than they do. The thing is that even though surviving level four is uncommon it is not unheard of. With concentrated and monitored doses a level four can be attained. The margin of failure is so high I'd have to concentrate to get it right."

"So what you're saying is that you could do it?" Charlotte asks me.

"Naturally." I smirk confidently as my genius is once again revealed. "That's how I cured Romulus. By mixing a few wolf related agents with a couple of my own chemical concoctions and purified xenothium I pushed his infection to level five since that was necessary to rewrite his DNA so it wouldn't become mush. In short, to cure him of the xenothium poisoning I had to push it further with my own pure xenothium and let his regenerative abilities take care of the rest. But anyway, if he does have level four's waiting for us they will be problematic. That's why we need to cut his forces down with a surprise attack and organize ourselves into groups. Now that you understand that I can tell you about my plan." I pause for a period of silence to build the drama. "Since Romulus and I are by far the most powerful of our groups we will run in the centre and you people will take care of the small fries as we move further into the base. As we go in further there will no doubt be higher levels of enemies. If we are to meet up with any of these who would cause our plan to slow down or allow the enemy more time to regroup from our attack then we will leave an appropriate member behind to take care of them then rendezvous with us further on. Eventually Romulus and I will face against Crispin who I'm sure will not be that hard to defeat with us if he is a level five."

"So your idea is a head on attack?" Charlotte grumbles. "And if anything goes wrong you're using us a shield so you don't have to waste your time?"

"That's one way of putting it." Romulus grins awkwardly. "Even if t does make me and Red X look bad it's still the best plan we could come up with using such a small number of people."

Actually, that's not true. I could think up a thousand more plans which don't involve this one, but each of them would require my using lethal force in front of Charlotte and having a repeat of the Agent incident is not something I would like to do right now. The problem is that the data used to formulate this plan is all speculative. If we are wrong about the enemies base power level or even their numbers we could be looking at a complete failure. I'd say our chances for victory in this situation are about seventy percent. The rest of it is left aside for error. The biggest error I can see would be Crispin. A level five has an incredible range of power. He could be manipulating these followers through a special power he gained but from what I know about him from out last encounter he enjoys letting people work for him of their own freewill. He thinks he's opening their eyes. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to just take over a person's mind and control them, so that leaves the animal tactic of the strongest being the leader. That would mean his strength should at least rival Romulus at his peak right now. If I have Romulus by my side he shouldn't be a problem. If everything goes according to my plan the the success rate increases by ten percent. If it doesn't it could drop to near zero. This could end up being really fun.

We make our way to the sewer hatch closest to the base and make our way up a nearby building. When we reach the roof we scope out the situation.

The final base is a club owned by Crispin himself and set up on the outskirts of town. It's a ways from the city so no one will hear our battle. He chose this place for that reason. The Depraved are a disease. A disease which shows it's symptoms right away is easily identified and cured before it can kill off the person it has infected. Out here the disease is well hidden and shouldn't show signs of its presence until it is too late. Crispin's seemingly laid back attitude is hiding a tactical mind. But as things are now he has the place set up like a fortress. Every kind of person your could find in Oscura, from street punks to grown human trash, are swarming the area around Crispin's final base. It almost looks like half the city is there waiting for us. All of them have to be high on xenothium drugs or long time users who've retained permanent effects. He's built himself a little army.

"Crowd control." Romulus looks back at El Dorado and Johnny. "I think we should send in Johnny to take down the gatekeepers."

"Send El Dorado." I stop him from letting Johnny go down there. "Johnny would be overwhelmed by the numbers and from what you've told me about El Dorado he should be able to handle this."

Johnny feels like he should object but lets El Dorado take his place anyway.

"Even though we're switching Johnny for El Dorado the plan is still the same. Keep moving no matter what. We don't stop until we get to the head and slit its throat." Romulus reminds us. "These people aren't trained soldiers or anything. They're just kids and adults who've lost their way. They wont know what to do without Crispin giving them orders."

El Dorado stands up and slams his fists together. "My friends. Let us kick some a**." He leaps from the top of the building and falls towards the crowd. He lands with grace but not subtlety. As soon as he hits the ground he is attacked with a flurry of energy based attacks and fireballs. The countless enemies swarm him and an explosion engulfs his body. Everything is quiet for a second as the smoke clear but El Dorado is not in the centre of the devastation like he should be. In an instant his scarlet cape appear as if out of nowhere and wraps around several Depraved members only to teleport them into the sky and toss them away so they either pass out or are too injured from the fall to continue fighting. One of the members lights his arm on fire and attacks using his pyro abilities but El Dorado grabs the arm, splintering the bones under his incredible grip and tosses him away, ducking under the next ones punch and slamming his own fist into him so hard that it cracks the man's metallic skin. Another one tries to fire a laser at him while a beast like man attacks from behind. El Dorado takes the blast into his cape and unleashes it on the beat man.

"No one knows how to fight in this country." El Dorado sighs. "Perhaps it would have been more fun if I where to come alone, yes? But then I would not have had fun with my new friends." He swings off of one guys neck and his feet collides with another two and he uses one mans crystal body to reflect another laser blast at its user. "I hope the other will have more fun than I am."

As El Dorado causes a riot out front none of the enemies notice that the rest of us have already snuck in.

"With him out there we can move on." I push everyone on ahead.

Two muscly men stand and guard the main entrance to the inner clubroom.

Charlotte and Yvette walk up to them as if it where nothing and smile at them flirtatiously.

"Excuse me." Charlotte bats her eyes. "We're lost. Would you mind helping us out a little?"

"We're here to see Crispin." Yvette puts a finger to her lips and a small spark fires off from them. "We wont be any trouble."

Crispin's club is as it usually is, filled to its corners with sweat and blood. Bodies sway and grins as glowing orange xenothium runs down the throats and through the veins of all who dare enter this hellish scene. As these demons dance to the rhythm of the chaos they create depiction of hellfire and death are portrayed on the walls and the room fills with the howls of the lost souls who take refuge here. His own personal hell.

The music is interrupted as the smoke covered bodies of the guards are thrown like rag dolls through the club doors. They crush a few partying Depraved as they land hard on the sweat covered floor.

"Some men." Yvette sighs. "Bat your eyes once and they turn into les animaux. Trop Mauvais."

The Depraved turn their attentions to the two girls. Teeth gnash and widened eyes close in as the steam covered bodies of these demons close in their prey.

"I think they want to play." Yvette licks her sparking lips.

"Why don't we let the boys have some of the action." Charlotte steps back as Johnny and Pandora walk into the crowd.

Pandora unleashes millions of energy boxes from his hands and they collide with the Depraved members as Johnny's fists crush the rest.

"So these are levels one and two?" Johnny asks. "They're nothing."

"But in a group like this they feel like they're something." Pandora sighs as he uses his boxes to clear up the unconscious or incredibly wounded bodies into another room and lock them away. "Just look at this filth. What the hell where they doing here?"

"Any form of sin imaginable I'm afraid." Romulus smells the air. "And it seems we're not alone yet."

"Perceptive as always." A blonde man claps as he watches us from above. He finishes off a glass filled with some sort of cocktail drink and sets it down on the table beside him. "Anthony. Have you returned to us only to die?"

The man stands up and floats down to us. His eyes are sharp and pale green. A sick yellowish green which holds no feeling or warmth to it. He has piercing all over his ears and rings covering his fingers. His white coat is covered in dangling tassels and the bottom of his shoes are metal.

"Phillip Magnum." Romulus informs us without taking his eyes away from the enemy. "He liked to be called Ferromagnum. He was one of the Depraved members who made sure I was where I had to be when I couldn't control my powers."

"And now you've come home to me." Ferromagnum smiles with all the charm of an aristocrat. "But I'm afraid this will not be a happy reunion."

"No, it wont." Romulus gets ready but Johnny stops him.

"Remember the plan. We need you and X to stay out of the fights until the end."

Yvette steps forward and looks at Ferromagnum with a confident eyebrow cocked. She spins around to face us and flashes a peace sign. "I'll take care of this baiseur myself. You guys go on ahead."

"You sure?" Mary asks.

"That's the plan isn't it?" Yvette asks. "He's a higher level than the others so I take care of him on my own and regroup with you later."

"Good luck." Romulus and the rest of us start to move on.

We break through a wall Romulus knows is a secret entryway to a subterranean base hidden under this one.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Hotwire behind?" Mary calls up to Romulus.

"Don't sell her short." Romulus calls back. "She's a level three on the infections list and she chooses her battle well. She wouldn't have bothered to volunteer to stay behind if she didn't think she could win."

"I dunno." Charlotte adds in. "She seems a little hot headed to me."

"Trust Romulus." I tell them. "This is his team member we're talking about. He should know her weaknesses better than us."

"It's easy for you to say." Romulus smiles at me. "You can tell what she was thinking can't you?"

"I make it my business to know what goes through the minds of women." I grin confidently under my helmet. "It's just another reason why I'm awesome."

Back outside El Dorado has pretty much cleared away the low level watchmen and gets ready to head in.

"I should catch up to the others." He roles his arms to work out the kinks in his muscles.

Just as he's about to go inside he has to dive into his cape to avoid being crushed by the falling body of a woman from the sky. When she hits the ground it explode like it was hit with the impact of a comet. The woman stands up when El Dorado reappears from his teleportation. If I knew a babe with slap-happies that big I'd've thought up a plan where I was the one staying out front. Seriously, that chicks melons are the size of party balloons. And somehow she squeezed them into a halter top.

"It seems my reunion will have to wait." El Dorado gets ready for a fight.

Preview Time!

Alex: "Well, we've infiltrated the base and started the last stand. Hey, why's the next episode called chapter 17 too?"

Charlotte: "Because the final battle is going to be pretty long HumanX decided to split it up into sections. This one was just the intro so people will know where everyone stands."

Alex: "That's all great but why does El Dorado get to fight the basoomas girl! I WANT TOO!"

Johnny: "I'm sure it's for the best."

Alex: "Hear me HumanX! If I don't bonk some bitties soon I will explode!" Trips and falls into Charlotte's boobs. "Not what I was looking for."

Charlotte: "Get off."

Romulus: "Is this really what you guys waste your time with?"

Charlotte: "This is supposed to be a preview of the next chapter but we actually just end up talking about stupid things."

Romulus: "If that's all then I guess I can do it. In the next chapter sparks fly as Yvette unleashes her full potential. El Dorado meets a challenge he cannot overcome and the rest of our team falls into a dangerous trap. Next Red X Oscura chapter 17, in the case of Hotwire and El Dorado."

Johnny: "Wow. You where abel to wrap it up without wasting time on stupid comments. I'm impressed."

Alex: "I want cha chas."

Ch16

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. Beware sexual content and stuff like that. Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

"Santa wo shinjite ita kodmo de sugosu ivu wa" I merrily sing as I walk over to the fridge and grab out a bottle of milk tea. "Papa to mama no ai ni mo kizukanaide Hashaida purezento."

"What anime's that from?" Johnny asks me, taking a break from his video games and leaning back on the couch to see me.

"It's Kiyoku Tadashii Christmas from Ranma 1/2." I take a big chug of the milk tea and smile. "Thought I'd buy myself an early Christmas present with a Ranma CD or two and the song got stuck in my head."

Johnny stares at me with an awkward expression.

"What?" I ask him, moving the fluffy white ball of the santa hat I'm wearing out of my face.

"You've just been pretty chipper these past few days. Did they announce an english release of To Love Ru?"

"No, but that would be awesome." I toss the empty milk tea bottle out and wipe my lips. "When I woke up today I just felt a little lighter than normal."

"Well, come back down to earth. You're freaking me out."

"Cut him some slack." Mary tells Johnny as she walks in from another room. "Both Alex and Charlotte where just kidnapped so it's easy to understand how they could feel relieved after escaping. Plus, isn't it normal to feel a little bit happy on Christmas eve?"

"It's just another day." Johnny groans and scratches his head.

"Does someone need a true meaning of Christmas special?" I poke Johnny's cheek. "You should be careful or else you'll get a visit from three spirits."

"The both of you are idiots." Johnny smacks my hand away. "And what's with those stupid outfits?"

"Oh, this?" Mary looks down at the adorable red christmas dress she's wearing. It has a little bow on the front with a bell and holly tied into it and the trim is all white. The whole thing comes together with the red bow tied in her hair. "Alex made me wear this." She sighs. "He said it was part of the Christmas spirit for the loli character to dress up cute."

"You sick ba***rd." Johnny looks at me like a criminal.

"But just look at it." I point at her in my defence. "It's so cute. Don't you just want to eat her up?"

"You're making it sound worse." They both tell me.

"But it's moe." I curl up in a corner, my Christmas spirit crushed by the Scrooge couple. "I just wanted everyone to have a Merry Christmas. Is that so wrong?"

"Liar." Johnny tosses and empty beer can at my head. "You just wanted Mary to cosplay. When are you going to learn that she's not your doll."

When he looks over at me I'm gone and already taking a hundred pictures of Mary's cute outfit. "Now look up and say Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." She smiles.

"If you do what he says he's not going to stop. Whatever." Johnny gets up and grabs some eggnog and apple cider from the fridge. When he flops them on the coffee table and cracks one open he holds it up for me to see. "There. I'm in the Christmas spirit, now stop that before I call the police."

"Did you get anything for Christmas when you where in the Red Claw organization?" Mary asks me.

"The first year I got three hundred soldiers to train from Natalya."

"Oh." She looks concerned. "What about the year after that?"

"I got Natalya."

"You deck her halls?" Johnny asks.

"Let's just say I was especially good that year."

"You two are gross." Mary tells us. "It's Christmas eve. Could you think of something other than getting laid?"

"Does not compute!" I hold my head like I'm malfunctioning. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Who broke the jerk?" Charlotte asks as she walks in the door.

"Must replenish hentai cells!" I crawl to my room.

"Mary told him something a perv of his calibre should never hear." Johnny sighs. "Where'd you go anyway? Isn't school out for holidays?"

"My school runs a program which is a lot like school but it provides lessons for people who want to study even over breaks. The hours are shorter and it's come and go as you please but the professors and students are working there because they want to so it makes studying easier."

"So that's why you've been going to school despite Christmas being so close." Mary realizes. "I thought that was weird."

"Do you even get a break?" Johnny asks, stunned that there are people in the world who not only go to high school but lessons outside of it.

"As I said, it's come and go as you please, but it doesn't run on Christmas itself and it leaves half of summer vacation open." Charlotte drops her books on the counter and grabs a bottle of grape soda from the fridge. "The issue is that it's a lot more work than regular school if you do it and it's pretty unpopular so it might not stay around for much longer. I've made several large donations to the school and program, allowing it to stay open and we have a lot of people whose parents use it as an excuse to get them out of the house around the holidays. Since it's a private school for rich kids we also have a lot of people who are studying to take over big companies and large groups so their parents push for them to keep studying even on these breaks."

"That must be hard." Mary says, noticing how worn Charlotte looks as she gulps down the soda like an addict. "Are you going to be okay?"

"It's all part of keeping up the genius. My big beautiful brain need some stimulation to keep growing." She smirks. "I'm not letting Alex stay ahead of me for long. In our last fight I was made completely aware of my lack of fighting skill. I've gotten better since training with Alex but in the end I'm not that great of a fighter. I can't keep up with metas and my intelligence is only at human genius levels."

"Yeah. But you can't compare yourself to Alex." Johnny snickers. "The guy's a freak of nature. I'm surprised his brain hasn't exploded. On top of all that science and biology and alchemy, or whatever the hell he knows, he also has all that crazy anime stuff locked in his head. Don't know how he keeps it all straight."

"By the way he talks, he probably doesn't." Charlotte sighs.

"You like anime too don't you?" Mary asks.

"Yeah, but I'm into mech and some of the things Alex made me watch. It doesn't take a genius to understand that the robot who blew up lost the fight."

"But you still know how to assemble a flying bike equipped with enough gadgets to destroy Tsuname-fune without a sweat." Charlotte mentions.

"I really am the only one here who knows nothing about anime." Mary feels left out for a moment but then perks up. "What are you two planning on getting Alex tomorrow?"

"I got one of those hugging pillow things with the bishojo girls on them." Johnny says. "Figured that'd keep him in his room long enough for me to use the X Box."

"Gross." Mary brushes it off. "How about you Charlotte?"

"Ah-Kur-Ka…Christmas Present-t?" Charlotte drops to the floor. "I forgot."

"Oh…" Mary tries to find something to say. "It's not a big deal."

"But I wanted to buy everyone presents this year!" Charlotte starts crying. "What am I gonna do!?"

"I'm sure he forgot too." Mary tries to console her. "Alex isn't really that reliable with considering others feelings so it's possible that he might have just-"

"Oh, he got you something." Johnny laughs. "And it's real good too."

Charlotte starts crying again and Mary gives Johnny a sharp look. "It might just be something simple. It's not like he would go out and buy a big present with his own money, right?"

Johnny starts laughing more. "At first I didn't get how that little twerp got laid in the first place. I know he can act nice and he's pretty good looking but that many women was just too much, so I didn't believe him. That was before I saw this present. Now I know."

"He'll never let me live it down." Charlotte rocks back and forth. "My life is over."

"I-It's not that big a deal." Mary starts to freak out.

"What's not a big deal?" I ask, walking into the room as I zip up my coat.

"Nothing!" Charlotte stops Mary from telling.

"Okay." I go to put on my boots.

"Where are you going?" Johnny asks me.

"Just out for a bit. I need to go to the mall."

"On Christmas Eve?" Johnny wonders. "You forget to buy a present?"

"I'm just meeting someone."

That comes as a shock to everyone.

"Who would YOU be meeting?" Johnny looks at me with shock written all over his face. "You don't have any friends."

"Doesn't mean I don't socialize." I wave off his insult and open the door to leave.

"This is your chance." Mary whispers to Charlotte. "You can pick up a present while you're out with him."

"Wait." Charlotte stops me. "I'll go too."

"Yeah, sure." I'm about to close the door but it stops on a person's hand.

---

A man in a big black coat with a friendly grin walks into the room and waves. "Hey. What's up."

"Who are you?" I wonder but Charlotte points at him.

"Romulus?" She stares blankly. "How did you find us?"

"Wolves senses, remember." He points to his nose. "But I'm not alone."

Behind him a group of people push into the living room.

"Wow. Swanky." A blonde chick dressed entirely in white and blue looks around Charlotte apartment from beside Romulus.

A slightly chunky looking guy puts his hands in his pockets and stays silent.

A latin dude walks up behind Romulus and holds his hand out to me. "Greetings my friend." He smiles brightly. "It is a pleasure and thank you for inviting me and my comrades into your home."

"Make yourself at home." I greet them, deciding to just go along with the flow.

"Wait one freaking minute!" Charlotte bursts. "Who the hell are you people!?"

"Me miseret! I have forgotten to introduce myself." The latin man bows. "My name is Adamus. In my home I am also known as El Dorado. My friends areYvette Brawner who is known as Hotwire and Patrick Pandinski who is also called Mr Pandora." He swings an arm around Romulus. "You have already met Anthony. He has told many stories about you to us. It is a pleasure to meet the Red X he has spoken of so highly."

He shakes my arm with the power of a freaking bull. "Always a pleasure to meet a fan."

"Tony's told us plenty, but he seems to have forgotten to mention how cute you are." Yvette smiles as she moves closer to me. "Mmm."

"What I want to know is why you're all here." Charlotte interrupts her. "We're not exactly holding a Christmas party for ex super assassins."

"About that." Anthony gives us an awkward look. "That's why I'm here."

We all group around the coffee table and listen to what Anthony's been up too since we last saw him.

"After you cured me of my Xenothium poisoning I tried to go back to a normal life, but the guilt of what I'd become, even before the werewolf. How I felt about who I was had stayed with me. I realized that being humbled by the curse of my wolf side had changed something about me. I didn't want to be that selfish person who only cared about himself, so I gathered as much knowledge as I could about the Depraved. I tracked them down all over the world. Eventually my searching lead me to Mexico where I confronted their outposts and eventually ran them out."

"That was where we met." El Dorado raises his glass of egg nog with a cheerful smile. "We banned together and defeated all of the Depraved fimus out of my home. You see, I am someone who was also afflicted with Xenothium due to experiments they put me through. It gave me much power but I was dying. Anthony gave me a potion which stabilized my body and made me better."

"It was part of the same serum you made for me." Romulus tells me.

Yvette snuggles in closer to me, her big green eyes batting as she looks up at me. "You're a hero. Not only him. Your serum helped me too. I used to live in France but when I moved to Gotham I was picked up by some goons and put through electroshock crap charged with Xenothium power cores. I was really scared, but then Tony and Adamus came to free me."

"I was in the same facility." Mr Pandora tells us. "But I was put through radiation therapy to enhanced my own mental powers."

"Your serum saved us all. So, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be alive today." Yvette moves in closer to me, pressing her airbags up against my arm. "I've really wanted to meet you so I could thank you…personally."

"How old are you, by the way?" I ask, completely interested.

"Quinze." She winks playfully.

"Aw, crap. I always get the underaged groupies." I sigh.

"You always have us." Mary pats my shoulder to comfort me.

"I'm more likely to get arrested if I do anything to you." I mumble.

"Ca alors." Yvette smirks. "Did I make your little sister jealous?"

"I'm not his sister and I'm thirty." Mary grunts. "You should respect your elders, brat."

"What was that, enfants?" Yvette pushes up against me as I run the number fifteen through my head to keep myself behaved. "Then you shouldn't be so clingy."

"I'm clingy?" Mary asks. "You're the one pressing those half formed milk sacks into him. Some people just don't know a thing about seduction."

"You really have no right to talk about that." I tell her.

"Shut it." She tells me. "We're talking."

"I'd like to share the information I've gathered with you." Romulus offers, getting back to topic and avoiding the continuation of Mary and Yvette's fight. "The only thing I ask is that you hear me out before making your decisions."

"Then shoot." I tell him.

"As it turns out the Depraved is not one organization with one all powerful ruler as I once thought, but in fact it is made of multiple layers and factions. There are the every day people who work for the Depraved as common thugs and use the Xenothium drugs to gain super human abilities for a short while and then there are the second class who are long time users of the drugs. They have survived the effects of Xenothium and have gained stronger abilities the longer they survive with it."

"We know all this already." Johnny interrupts. "Then there are the business groups who avoid Xenothium all together to keep up an appearance, the scientists who work on Xenothium purification and the beasts which result from overdosing, which they keep for experimentation and defence of major facilities. Anyone could learn that much by working for them like I did."

"Yes." Romulus returns to the spotlight. "But what you don't know is that Crispin is not the only leader. There are multiple ones."

"Of course." I butt in. "To have an organization this big multiple head must be used to keep track and make certain that no bugs crawl into the works. In other words, it has to have a leadership system, and not only that, each leader must have some way of keeping control over those under him."

"Exactly." Romulus tells us, knowing I'd figured out this much. "All I know so far is that Crispin is the leader of Oscura and he is at the top of the chain alongside several others. Those ones I have not been able to find the identities of. But I have figured out where Crispin's base is and that due to your last encounter he has only a hand full of maybe ten to fifteen hundred people, give or take."

"It's that creepy club down on Rose ave." I point out. "It's the only base left around here occupied by the Depraved since I cleaned out both the church and the slums yesterday. The only place he has left to hide is in the business district, but it would be too easy to find him and he's better off hiding in plain sight with his army assembled than being on his own with only a suit and tie to guard him."

"Clever as always." Romulus tries to resist the urge to clap. "I should have known you'd already be on this. What I really wanted to say was that we are a special team I've brought together to take down the Depraved before they can use Xenothium to hurt anyone else."

"We're going to crush each head until they disband." Yvette tells me.

"We came here to do just that and attack Crispin while the iron's hot." Romulus stands up in a heroic pose. "We will become allies of justice and take down the evil of the Depraved to prevent them from reaching their ultimate goal of sending the world into chaos. We are the freedom fighters who will protect this earth and those in it from Crispin and the other heads. We have banned together for this cause and will soon make this dream of a safe world a reality. Will you join us in our fight?"

"Naw." I reject them outright.

"B-But why?" Romulus asks me, almost falling over from the blunt rejection. "With your power and brains we could easily crush them."

"Because I don't wanna." I tell him. "Look, I just got back from two exasperating battle and three days of confinement with a hottie soldier girl I couldn't touche and a chubby anti-socialist who hated my cute nicknames. I'm just getting used to living the way I am now and I don't want to change it now."

I get up and swing my coat back on. "I just remembered, I have a date to go on. Feel free to stick around though. I don't mind you using my apartment as your home base."

"It's my apartment." Charlotte chases after me. "And wait up." She turns to apologize to everyone. "I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly but the invitation to use this as your base is for real." The she leaves.

"Didn't think he'd reject ya." Johnny snickers. "Thought the kid'd love a chance ta break some skulls."

Romulus sits down and smiles a deep somber smile. "He's changed a lot hasn't he?"

"You noticed?" Johnny asks. "I guess you would. They say you really get to know a person when you've fought with them in a life or death battle. Or maybe it's your animal senses."

"No." Romulus tells him. "In human form I have no power. I just notice he's different. Did anything happen?"

"Don't ask me. The only person who could tell ya is Charlotte. He was like that when he came home with her last night."

"No way!" Yvette stands up with an angered grimace. "You mean those two are dating!?"

"Eh, no." Johnny looks up at her surprised.

"But it's possible they have feelings for each other?"

"I guess."

"That does it! I'm fallowing them!" She grabs her coat and boots and storms to the door.

"Wait a minute!" Mary stops her. "You can't just spy on them."

"And what if that hussy with the overstuffed boobs puts a move on him!? I just met my steamy dreamboat and I'm not letting him go so easily!"

"Are you five!?" Mary asks. "You can't fall in love so easily."

"Haven't you ever head of love at first sight?"

"Have you ever heard of a mental institution?"

"Will you both shut up?" Johnny asks them.

"But they do raise a point." El Dorado butts in. "A man and a woman alone on the holy night of Christmas Eve, surrounded by the light and glimmer of the holidays. It is easy to loos oneself in the moment as your heart begins to race. The man takes the woman in his arms and pulls her close. As the snowflakes caress their cheeks the lovers share a passionate kiss under the mistletoe. Ah, a beautiful holiday romance."

"…What?" Johnny has no idea how to respond to that.

"The likelihood of Alex putting a move on Charlotte is-" Mary starts.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Johnny stops her. "If we put Alex's changes into the mix and agree that Charlotte was or was involved with the cause of his change then we could easily see Alex having developed feelings for her."

"Okay, but it's Alex." Mary tries to bring up a point.

"Which is exactly why we must worry." Johnny notes. "Not much is known about Alex's true self but we know that he is a pervert who likes big breasts and anime. Now, if we assume that the events none of us know anything about had opened his eyes to our well endowed Charlotte who also has a bit of an anime thing we could see something starting. Also, Charlotte has spent two years before now looking for him before we all met. There has to be a little something there."

"They hate each other."

"Do they? Or are they simply falling into the category of tsundere. Starting out hostile and eventually becoming loving. Alex has opening admitted to liking those types in anime as well as real life. If we put this together with the gilt Charlotte feels for not getting him a present, the pull of Christmas Eve and Alex's overall perviness we get a recipe for disaster."

"Disaster?"

"Alex may get a chance to play Santa," Johnny's face goes evil as he grabs his drink and brings it to his lips. "And stuff her stocking. If you get my meaning."

A shock runs through both Mary and Yvette.

"N-N-N-N-N-N-No way." Mary stands in place, completely petrified. "He's gonna…no way."

"I can't let this happen!" Yvette's hands spark with electricity. "There's no way I'm loosing my newfound romance before it can even begin!"

"I have a suggestion!" El Dorado stands up enthusiastically. "Let us fallow them and act as protectors!"

"You're just butting in." Romulus sighs. "This guy's a major sucker for romance and crap. He's addicted to TV dramas and stuff like that."

"Now is not the tie to draw attention to my hobbies." El Dorado pushes both Yvette and Mary out the door. "We must hurry! The steamy love triangle is about to hit its climax! We must observe so that no one is harmed."

"Who could get harmed in-" The door slams before Romulus can finish his sentence.

"And that's how you get a Merry Christmas." Johnny grabs the remote and flicks on the TV, his plan complete.

"All that just for the remote?" Romulus asks him.

"If I didn't do that I'd end up having to sit here while Mary and Charlotte cry over some sappy Hugh Grant Christmas special about a guy grieving over a dead cat or something." Johnny tells him with a satisfied grin.

---

The bright Christmas decorations they've had up months in advance spread their multi coloured radiance forth as Charlotte and I walk down the snow covered streets of down town. The heat from people moving around the streets, going about their last minute Christmas Eve preparations, brings a breeze of warm air and a feeling as if it may be Summer again sooner than expected. Then again, after the blizzard from back then we've had no snowfall. That could be the cause of this smouldering heat.

The left over snow from days ago sloshes under our feet as I notice Charlotte's eyes darting through window after window.

"You forget to buy someone a present?" I ask her.

"Why would you say that?" Charlotte decides to change the subject. "Maybe I should be asking you who this mystery girl is."

"When did I say it was a girl?" I smirk confidently, allowing her attempt at subject swapping to pass. "I could be meeting a friend from college or a relative."

"Are you?"

"No."

"Then who is it?"

"A friend."

"So, a friend who isn't from college and is not a relative…I'm still trying to get over the fact that you have friends." She gives me a bratty look. "Is it a she?"

"Yes."

"Is she pretty?"

"Nymphtastic. Why?"

"Just wondering…What the hell does nymphtastic mean?"

"Alright query queen." I've had a little too much of her questions. Time for some of my own. "Riddle me this. Why are you here today? Meeting up with Donnie for a secret romantic getaway? Don't tell me you're going to leave us all alone on Christmas so the two of you can snuggle under the mistletoe."

"For the last time, his name is Donald and we are not dating." She thugs on my ear, completely annoyed.

"Then why are you here?"

"I-" She can't think of any lie to tell me so she comes out with it. "I forgot to buy someone a present and now-"

"Good luck with that." I snicker at her misfortunes. "Christmas is the number one shopping day around here if you haven't noticed. I remember trying to buy myself a candy bar on Christmas Eve the first year I moved here and I had to wait in line for like, six hours." I feel a vibration in my pant! So I take out my cell phone and answer it. "Hy-ellow?"

From behind a trash can two sets of eyes watch Charlotte and I carefully.

"Ah. To be young and in love." El Dorado sighs happily. "Magnifico!"

"I knew it." Yvette bites the sleeve of her jacket as an aura of fury surrounds her body. "That little coquine is definitely trying to take my love away from me."

Mary watches from where she's standing, trying not to look like she's involved with the odd looking couple crouching by the trash can. She steps back when sparks start flying from Yvette's body. "You guys look like idiots. This is so immature. Alex is just meeting a friend and Charlotte is just out shopping."

"Enfant Stupide." Yvette stands up and makes a spark covered fist. "Those where clearly lies to deceive us!"

"Huh?" Mary feels like just leaving them and going home.

"How can you be so blind!?" Yvette points towards Charlotte and I as we're walking away. "Telling us that they coincidentally have plans at the same time is just a well orchestrated plan by that sneaky blonde witch! They leave the house together and when they know we're not around they go out and have a date while we get left out! C'est une conspiration!"

"Anyone ever tell you, you're nuts?" Mary asks.

"No, my small friend." El Dorado tries to convince her. "This is a common occurrence among secret couples. I have seen it in my favourite television program Love my Dearly…I think that is the translation."

"Is that an anime?" Mary asks, thinking that will fill in the blanks about why these two act so weird.

"It is not. But it is the greatest television program in the world." El Dorado smiles. "But the issue at hand is our real live drama which begins right now. You see, there is a way of knowing if what Yvette has said is true."

"The fact is that if they do have two separate plans then they have to leave each other at some point. We fallow them and if they don't split up we have our proof."

I put my phone back in my pocket and sigh. "She cancelled on me."

"You get dumped?" Charlotte asks.

"The person I'm supposed to meet had to cancel because of business." I toss my arms behind my head and think. "What am I gonna do now?"

Charlotte gets a terrible feeling and starts to walk off.

"I got an idea." I grab her collar from behind. "Why don't I hang out with you for a bit."

"Eh…" She can't even think of a way out of it.

"You don't want me around?" I ask with my 100% fake but 100% cute please face. I want you to get a good idea of what Charlotte is up against. Think of taking the finer points of both puppies, kittens, human babies, all manner of adorable woodland creatures and combine them into one being. Now combined them with the power of the moe force and let stew in happiness and rainbows for about twenty minutes on the night of a full moon. Anyone who sees my face while I use this technique will literally kick that creature aside if I ask. Few have survived this frightening technique.

"O-Okay." Charlotte drops, utterly defeated by my Kawairashi-sa no shinsen (this means cuteness gaze by the way).

"You see?" Yvette asks. "Isn't this where they're supposed to go their separate ways?"

"You're right." Mary watches with them. "The meeting place is to the left but they're going straight on."

"To be young and in love!" El Dorado stands up and flexes his massive muscles. "And a secret love is the most alluring of them all!"

"If you're going to try and spy on someone wouldn't using a little more subtlety be a better plan?" Mary pushes on. "Never mind. Let's keep going."

---

Charlotte sits across from me in a tinsel covered restaurant. An upbeat Christmas melody plays in the background and around us couples and families talk causally about their yearly news.

Charlotte looks across the table at me with a disappointed stare.

"This is where you where going to take her?" She asks me. "I feel sorry for the poor girl. If it where me, nothing but the finest restaurant would do."

"Unlike you, the girl I was going to meet isn't picky." I take a huge chomp out of the burger I ordered and eye the massive float with whipped cream I've been waiting for. "She's also easy going and pretty calm minded…So, you're exact opposite."

"Why aren't you saying her name?"

"Because I know it's bugging you." I smirk with a charming but bratty smile.

"Are you trying to flirt with me?" She asks, suspiciously. "You've been eerily nice to everyone today. And you haven't made a pass at a single one of the overstressed chicks we've passed walking around today."

"That's insulting. If I was flirting you'd be upside down with your pants around your ankles right now."

"Charming." She sighs and smiles, glad everything is alright. "But I guess it's good to see that you're still yourself. I thought that there might be some awkwardness between us after last night."

"Like I'm gonna let a little mental breakdown and attempted murder get between us." I tell her, making her blush. "But even I'm still surprised things ended up the way they did. I didn't think I'd end up promising not to kill people unless necessary."

"You scared me for a bit back there." She admits. "I've never seen you so angry."

"It's been an issue I've had since I was a kid. Since I'm so idealistic about things I have a hard time with things I consider injustices."

"You mind warning me before I end up stepping on a land mine?"

"You probably can't. My ideals about rape are mostly prejudice against men. If a girl rapes a girl I don't really care."

"…"

"Also, if a girl rapes an adult male it's just funny."

"…"

"But for some reason if a girl or child is raped on a show or anime I can't get over it."

"You have some messed up ideology. And what kind of anime have you been watching?"

"I know. But it all depends on your idea of what right ad wrong is."

"You lost me."

"What is right and wrong?" I jump into lecture mode. "To some people, breaking into a store and taking their stuff is wrong but downloading a series online is okay. Both of these are stealing and both of them have negative consequences. The only difference is the level of acceptance in modern culture. Some people say that if they aren't hurting anyone or causing people a problem then it's okay to do whatever they want. The ends justify the means and so on. Religious people believe that going against their deity or god is the only evil. Others believe in necessary evil, such as war and think that if they can relate what they're doing to a higher cause then they can be as cruel or merciless as they want. In my opinion war is just an excuse for mass murder and it only starts when our government is too stupid to keep itself out of trouble. Speaking of which there are people who believe that patriotism gives them the right to everything. These people all have their own ideas of right and wrong and so do I. My ideals are my version of right and wrong and they just don't match modern society. I wont hold it against the police if they try to catch me for the things I do because they are simply fallowing their ideals."

"That's a pretty selfish way of looking at it." Charlotte stirs the coffee she has out in front of her. "If we all think like that then the system doesn't work. Unless we all start from equal footing then it's unfair for others and causes problems like bugs in computer software."

"That's what I'm saying. The system only works if there are no bugs. But since the human mind, due to its nature and the nature of the system itself, is something which falls under the category of bug then human's simply don't work in society. Of course there are some who do, such as the rich and the highly intellectual who are capable of working the system to their own advantage. They can be considered hackers."

"Those would be people like you and me. Someone who has beauty, brains or money."

"Exactly. People like us have a free ticket. The rich get schooling and job opportunities before al others and the smart are capable of manipulating the rich into giving them money (by legal means or otherwise), and the beautiful simply have people wanting to do things for them. Why do you think ads for starving children all have cute kids on them instead of ugly ones."

"That makes sense." Charlotte raises her spoon along with a point. "But didn't you say before that the beautiful have a harder time than the ugly?"

"I wouldn't use ugly but those with moderate facial features."

"Well, aren't you all conscientious all of a sudden." She glares. "Trying to make me look bad?"

"What I mean is that it's more people who have particularly good looks who encounter this problem. It's the question "Does my partner love me for me and not how I look". This is an issue for the well off in the looks department which shouldn't be a big deal for those without good looks."

"Do you have that problem."

"No. Bit there's always room for error. Because I'm smarter than the people around me I can see what they see in me and react accordingly. But for a sweet teenage girl who happens to be a few centimetres bigger than her classmates in certain areas and is accompanied by awesome looks, it can be hard to tell which guys like her because they like who she is instead of how she looks."

"I'm not sure it's that simple. Good looking people always seem in control."

"Could you honestly say with one hundred percent of your mind that a guy you're going out with would be dating you for you and there's no way he wants your body more than who you are? I give you a hard time but you are a babe and I know that there are guys who, just like I do with regular people, pretend to be the nice guys so they can get what they want and get out."

She thinks it over and realizes that what I'm saying makes sense.

"Aside from looks you also have money. Even if the guy doesn't love you he could easily pretend with your face and body and since you have the money and status to back it up, it's almost too good of a deal."

"How come your compliments sound like insults?" She asks me.

"I'm not insulting you. I'm just saying that it's entirely possible for someone to pretend to love you simply to get at your money, looks and genius."

"I get what you're saying." She takes a sip of her coffee before continuing. "But I think that the average person would be a little more honest than that."

I smirk. "Do you even know what the average person is or are you simply basing that on everyday encounters with strangers? Maybe you're still holding onto that Sesame Street fantasy that all people are generally good."

"But didn't you just say that people try to hold onto a belief system? Wouldn't these same people believe that doing something like that is wrong?"

"And that my dear," I raise a finger. "is the bug in the system."

Mary, Yvette and El Dorado watch us from another table, hidden by potted plants.

"This is it!" Yvette sparks with jealousy. "The legendary secret love dinner. They snuck out to enjoy a candle lit dinner at a restaurant."

"Kind of a lame place for a romantic dinner." Mary tells her. "Also, it's early in the morning and there are no candles on that table."

"Amor my dear is something which can even make a cheap dinner at a fast food restaurant feel like a five star reservation." El Dorado sighs. "What we have here is unmistakably the frolicking of young lovers."

"Looks more like a regular conversation to me."

"I wouldn't expect a child to know about love." Yvette chuckles.

"I'm old enough to be your mother, brat." Mary boosts herself up to see better. "I still think they're just hanging out."

"Then why make up fake plans and escape to this place?" Yvette asks.

Mary has nothing to say to that.

"So beauty can be a double edged sword. Helping you when you need something from someone and being a hinderance when trying to be close to someone."

"Exactly." I smile, finally getting it through to her. "You're not as dumb as you look Blondie."

"My hair is dyed." She runs her hand through it with a confident smile. "I'm actually a brunette."

"Me too." I tell her. "But of course, I'm much better at dying it than you are. The way I did it looks natural."

"What's wrong with how I did it?" She asks, looking at her fools gold locks.

I reach out and run my fingers through some of her hair, holding it up to show her. "Right here you have damage from the chemicals which shouldn't be there. You should use less or you'll end up with harsh hair and loose your colour all together."

"Look!" Yvette nearly gives away her position, pointing out at us. "He's touching her hair! That's totally flirting!"

"No way." Mary looks at us in shock. "If it was her boobs or butt I'd say it was just him acting normal but something like this is too tame for him to be messing around. This might actually be…"

"Look!" Yvette tells Mary. "He's giving her a Christmas present!"

"So, if I use this brand it'll work better with my type of hair?" Charlotte looks at the bottle.

"Yeah. Since I made it out of natural stuff with as little harmful additives as possible it'll give your hair a more born with it kind of look. I use it to change appearance when I need too. It's nice too since it makes my hair smell good."

"I was wondering why your hair smelled like strawberries. I just thought…Did you say you made this?!" She just now realizes. "That's amazing!"

"I kill, like, a hundred super powered killers and cure a werewolf but cosmetics make me amazing?" I ask with a grumble.

"Can you make me one that smells like peaches?"

"No." I refuse. "I only make cosmetics which smell like watermelon or strawberries. No inferior fruits allowed."

"You even look own on fruit…" Charlotte sighs but looks at the bottle. "But you really are amazing."

"What was that?" I ask her but get a frightened jolt as a reaction.

"Nothing!" She shoves the bottle into her bag.

I look at her and smile. "You know something."

"What?"

"I think you'd look better as a brunette anyway."

"Really?" She grabs a piece of her hair and looks at it.

"I've never really had that much of a thing for blondes. I'm more of a dark colour person."

"I can tell." She snickers. "You're so weird today."

"What do you mean?" I ask her.

"Compliments, random gifts, taking me out for no reason and your general mood. It's like you're…I don't know…uncomfortable. Like you're trying to make a good impression. Maybe that's not it. You seem like you're not in control like you usually are. More like a normal person."

I wonder about what she said for a moment before chuckling at the thought of it.

"Whatever." She says as she brings her cup up to her lips. "I like this you a lot too."

"Ah, so the big confession has finally arrived." I joke. "Is this the part where you confess your true feelings to me?"

"Now there's the regular you." She giggles and flicks up some of the whipped cream on my float, dabbing it onto my nose. "A know it all pain in the a**."

"I guess I just came to a decision." I tell her.

"What decision?"

A warm smile takes to my face. "That I like you. And that you're a special person to me."

She blushes with a face full of coffee. "Don't say stuff like that just to embarrass me."

"I'm being honest."

"That in itself is suspicious!" She stands up. "I'm going to the bathroom."

---

It's true that not only Charlotte, but Mary and Johnny have all taken very important roles in my life. I don't know why it comes as a shock to me. I didn't see this coming. Maybe I was just too content where I was. Johnny's the kind of person I've always liked in manga. He reminds me of Jack Rakan from Negima, or Jane from that show Firefly (not an anime but still awesome). I like Mary too. She's honest and kind even if she isn't that confident. She knows her limits and works within her boundaries. I like to dress her up and she goes along with it even though I know it annoys her. I guess that makes her self sacrificing. She's the opposite of Charlotte who is your average rich brat. She nags, she's selfish and needy. She complains and gets everything she wants. I guess she's kind of like a little sister. She'll never give an inch and no matter what she wants she'll get it. She's kind of like me in that regard. MAybe that's why I like her so much. She's confident on the outside and insecure on the inside, but she doesn't let her insecurity keep her from taking what she wants. When did I become the kind of guy who hangs around with these people? When did I go from a deadly killer to a guy who bends his ideals for one scrawny fake blonde with a bad attitude?

As I rest my head between my arms on the restaurant table I can't help but laugh softly as I think about what I've become.

I don't really look forward to Christmas, but now I feel like I really want to celebrate it with them. Why have these people…people I would normally view as worms in comparison to my intellect…become such powerful forces in my life? I've always looked down on people. My dad, mom, the kids in school and the teachers. When I was a kid the Asylum was like a paradise. The entire world outside felt like a binding trap. Like I was being suppressed. Maybe that's just something geniuses go through. But inside that place I found a playground. I could spend hours trading laughs with the Joker and Professor Crane was an inspiration with the subject of fear. Harley was always fun too. I really loved it there. When my dad went nuts and turned into the Black Mask I felt a bit of relief. As if I was thinking, "Good for you dad. You've finally become what you wanted to be"…This is so annoying. How can someone like me, who can know how a person's mind works after only minutes of knowing them, not understand my own mind? I guess it really did begin with Charlotte. She gave me a choice. I could let her fall or stay where I was and not ever know what could come of us joining up together. It was curiosity that really got me. I was so interested as to why this girl would go so far and have so much faith in me, a person she didn't know. But know I know she had no plan. She was just doing what ever she wanted like usual. Whatever reason it was that made me reach out for her hand, it doesn't really matter now. All I know is as of last night I'd choose her over my system. She's more important to me than my own morals.

I know all that but I still have a question. So, what happens now? Do I continue on this road which will eventually tether me down to these people or do I leave and try again with someone who I don't feel a connection too? I left the Red Claw organization because I didn't agree with what they where doing. I didn't want to use terrorism to make the world continue as is, so I left. Being the king of the world isn't as fun as those Saturday morning cartoon villains think. But I'm just rambling on. I don't have a choice in this matter. Congratulations Charlotte. You're the second person in this world who could get under my skin, pass all my defences and find the real me…and after all that make me want to be your friend. Somewhere along the line you became important to me, and I'm not going to let you go. From now on we're friends. And for some reason I'm okay with that.

"May I sit down?" A man asks as he already plops down in the seat across from me.

"So you're Crispin." I say as I look up at him.

---

"I heard my boy gave you quite a bit of trouble last night." Crispin smiles as his hand reaches over the table for a shake.

"It was no trouble at all." I tell him with my fake smile. "He went through so much trouble to make it easy for me. I felt bad."

"That sharp tongue. I heard about it but hearing it in person. I've been waiting for this." He tells me and reaches out for my float. "Do you mind?"

"Just leave me half. I really like the floats here." I tell him. "So, what brings you to see little old me?"

"Just a proposal." He tells me after taking a big slurp of my float. "You left my Agent in pretty bad shape but didn't finish him off for some reason. I'd also like to know why."

"I only kill who I feel like killing, but what's your proposal?" I try to skip to the point.

"I'm sorry." He apologizes with a debonaire feel of refinement about him. The man has a way of talking and gestures which suggest that he is polite and laid back. He seems like the kind of man who has life under his thumb because he has no cares in the world, but he's nice and the kind of person you'd want as a friend. To most people he seems like that but I can feel the venom on his tongue. He is definitely a cruel person. The laid back smile and cold cut warmth is the same as my own. He's not as good as I am, but it's similar. He is a cruel, sadistic and disturbed man. I know for certain that he is someone to take very seriously. "I didn't mean to interrupt your date."

"She's just a friend." I tell him.

"If I had friends like her…" He laughs. "But seriously, I want to ask something of you."

"Ask away." I kick my feet up on the table and cross them. My eyes train on his.

"I don't mean to be rude but I'd like you to stay out of our business form now on." He tells me. "You see, vigilante heroes tend to cause problems for people like us. I know we've had our differences but if you are willing to look the other way on matters of the Depraved then we are willing to forget your existence entirely."

"Sounds good." I tell him. "I wasn't really planning on getting in your way particularly. I just do what I want. If I see your people committing a crime I don't like, or if I'm just bored I stop them."

"I knew I'd like you." He tells me. "You're free. You'd be a perfect follower of Shekari."

"At least that what I would have said three days ago." I tell him as my kind smile seems to take on a cruel, cold hatred. "But your people tried to hurt someone important to me. It'll be hard to overlook that. I'm a pretty bad sport when it comes to things like that."

"You have to admit, you've caused me quite a bit of grief." He chuckles and rubs the back of his neck. "I admit that I wouldn't have done things the way Agent did, but you could understand."

"I understand completely. You're trying to run a business."

"Not a business." He tells me. "A family. The followers of Shekari, the god of destruction."

"You lost me there."

"Anytime I can inform others of my master is a pleasure to me. My lord Shekari is a great demonic god who will bring about the destruction of the earth. He comes to me through xenothium induced visions and tells me his will. He is the one who decides who lives and who gains power. He will one day bring his rule to the earth, using the Depraved as his messengers, and all will know his way of life."

"Which is?"

"Destruction. Mayhem. Unbridled passion. There will be no room for structures and systems. No countries or races or conflicting wills. Only destruction and carnal chaos. That it true freedom. That is the way of Shekari."

"Sounds like a load of s**t." I tell him with an uncharacteristic grin. "You've got to admit your god sounds more like a demon. That's what I hate about the mythological gods and these new religions which come out of nowhere. They where just a bunch of super powered pricks with longevity. Wouldn't it be better to fallow a deity who doesn't want to spread hate and malice? That's why I like stuff like the ten commandments. That way you can tell who's a real follower and who's just using the guise of a religion to get their own way. Even if your god exists if he's evil isn't it best not to believe in him? I'm sorry. I'm moving to a difficult subject."

"Not at all." Crispin tells me. "Your opinions are your own. In the end all shall see the truth. My Depraved shall bring the world to chaos and ruin." He gets up to leave.

"Now, you almost convinced me." I sigh and grab my float. "I don't care if you believe in your little hallucination or atheism or some sort of religion. Hell, you could be a jetai for all I care. But if you put the world into chaos then that means a lot of people are going to get hurt. That means people I like might get hurt. In that case I need to take you down before that happens. But that's not a decision I can make on my own. I have some obligations now."

"I overestimated you." He looks back at me with pitiful eyes. "I thought you where above human ties."

"Sticks and stones. Whatever limitations I've given myself are my business alone."

He looks at his watch and bows before leaving. "Then whatever path you choose I'll be waiting. I'll take your absence on the battlefield as the sign of our treaty and your presence as a declaration of war against my lord Shekari."

I grab up my float and go to take a bite but drop the spoon back into the cup and let it clank against the table. "B****d." I groan. "He ate it all. I'm going to have to get him back for that."

Charlotte comes back from the bathroom a little bit later and plops back down in her seat.

"What's up with you?" She asks me.

"I just had a conversation with someone I want to hurt." I inform her. "Crispin decided to show up with a stupid deal. I'm not sure what to do with that right now."

"What was the deal?"

"He pretty much told me to stay out of his business and he wont come after us." I'm pretty unsure about my next move. No amount of intelligence can make up for a lack of information. If it where me alone I wouldn't even have let him leave the table alive. I would kill him quickly and silently, before he could lift a finger against me. The problem isn't my own safety however. "So, what do you think I should do?"

She tilts her head and gives me a concerned look. "Isn't it obvious? We can't let this guy get away with what he's doing. A lot of people get hurt because of the Depraved. You said yourself that Xenothium is dangerous."

"And what about you?" I ask. "If you don't care about your own safety then what about Johnny and Mary. I'll be fine but with you gu-"

I'm cut off by the feeling of her fingers flicking my forehead.

"You are one stupid genius." She shakes her head like she's disappointed in me. "Considering how these evil organizations work, they probably have something like global conquest planned."

"They want to send the world into chaos, it seems."

"You see? Bad. There's no way we can live our lives normally like that anyway. In the end, allowing evil to continue screws us no matter what deal we make with them." She shrugs the discussion off and decides to move straight to her point. "But in the end the decision's up to you. I have no intension of persuading you to do anything. Just make up your mind and the rest of us will make up our own."

"Then I think we should go home. We've been wandering around town all day. It's getting pretty late." I get up and prepare to leave.

"Holy crap." She just now notices the time. "You're right."

As we're leaving she giggles and I can't help but ask.

"What's up?"

"Nothing really." She smiles awkwardly. "It's just that we've never really talked alone like this before. I didn't even notice the time pass. It was nice."

"Yeah?" I have to agree. This has been a pretty enjoyable day. "But we're not exactly alone."

I toss a shuriken into a group of potted plants. Mary, Yvette and El Dorado fall back from the shock, revealing their presence.

"H-Hey." Mary says squeamishly. "What a coincidence."

"It seems we where found out." El Dorado laughs. "How long did it take you to find out?"

"I knew the whole time." I bend down to be on eye level with them. "You all suck a spying."

"I didn't even notice." Charlotte sighs in disappointment. "Man, I suck."

---

When we get back to the apartment we clear up the misunderstanding Yvette and the others had about me and Charlotte. I decided not to tell the rest about my conversation with Crispin. Johnny would just tell me he doesn't care and Mary would decide to fight and protect people from danger.

The rest of the day goes on and Romulus' group stays the night. He stays up late making battle plans.

"You know they'll see that coming." I tell him, dressed up in my pyjama's with little kittens on them. Just so everyone knows, I love kittens. "You're hitting all the major points but spreading yourself too thin. By the end you'll all be too exhausted to fight."

"What would you suggest?" He asks me without any hint of annoyance, only honest willingness to learn.

"For one thing you've left me out of the equation. That's the difference between victory and death."

"Aren't you confident."

"You should be too. With me at your side, you're invincible."

"Then should I take this as you officially joining the team?"

"No way in hell." I turn him down instantly and with no reservation. "This is just a temporary alliance since it'll be easier to take out our common enemy together. Once Crispin is gone I'll go back to my regular life."

"That's cool." Romulus holds up his hand. "Then to our alliance."

"Right." I shake his hand and the final battle is set.

Back in Charlotte's room she shoots straight up in bed. "Aw crap! I forgot to buy the present!"

Preview Time!

El Dorado: "In the next chapter! Blood reaches its boiling point as the final stage comes into play and the combined forces of justice meet the jaws of evil! Can victory prevail!? Will evil triumph!?"

Romulus: "Basically, what he's saying is that the final battle starts in the next chapter, Red X Oscura. Team Arkham Advance, Beware my Superior Mind."

Alex: "Why are you guys doing Preview Time?"

Ch15

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. Beware sexual content and stuff like that.(And Ponies) Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

The Agent stands at the end of his massive church hideaway and looks down at his watch expectantly.

"It's been thirty four minutes since communication with our holding facility went down." He informs Charlotte, who is chained up near his feet. "It should take our guest of honour about ten minutes if he breezes through my guards."

"So, in ten minutes you're going to die." Charlotte crosses her legs and smirks as if she was getting ready to enjoy a show. "If you get on your knees and beg me for forgiveness I may be persuaded to call him off. You just need to become my obedient servant for a few years and clean my house, dishes, mow my lawn and a couple other chores I'm just too important to be bothered with."

"Those who put such faith in their companions show such sweet expressions when their loved ones fail them. Your overconfidence is your weakness and I will enjoy watching it crumble."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

The technopath who faced up against Charlotte walks around outside of the church building, looking through Charlotte computer systems in the armour he stole from her.

"This thing is amazing, man." He tells the optics user who faced Mary. "I'm completely invincible in this thing."

"That's what Jerry thought before he ended up a pile of liquid metal." The optics user kicks an empty beer can on the ground.

"Are you still on about that? He was a pain in the butt and that's when he was sober. The jerk needed to get whacked at some point."

"Next time I see that Rancid f**ker it'll be the last time anyone sees him. And what about this Red X crap? Is it a group or something? Has to be some government organization to get so many of us out here."

"It's one guy."

"What?"

"He's supposed to be some stealth based ninja whack job. Super genius too."

"Are you sure we'll even be able to find him? Wait. I see something. OH SHI-" The court yard goes up in flames as a rocket detonates in the middle of it. I launch a grapple and slide down into the centre of the blast, reloading my rocket launcher on the way down. "Who the fu-" The optics guy starts but I grab a gun from my holster and start firing into the crowd.

"Is this the guy!?" The optics Depraved member fires his blasts at each of my bullets which come his way.

"I thought he was supposed to be smart. Coming here like this is suicide." The technopath grabs some shuriken from Charlotte's belt and tosses them at me while my back is turned.

Before the shuriken can hit me I use my Bangong Fang She to disappear. I show up at one edge and fire off my second, and last, rocket. The blast takes out a good half of them. I toss the launcher away since I'm out of ammo for it and grab two pistols from either side of my body and cross them over my chest.

"Get him!" The technopath calls out. The whole court yard fills with Depraved members. They charge like a title wave towards me. Their eyes are blood shot like those of inhuman creatures of the dark and Xenothium fills their bodies, enhancing their strength and speed.

I hold out both of my guns and fire a rain of bullets into the wave. Bodies hit the floor one after another. They get close and I run out of bullets in these two guns.

Dropping the empty guns I grab a grapple out of my pocket and fire it into the crowd, impaling a few of my enemies as it goes. The grapple fires out the other side too and the both of them dig into a couple of rotting trees. I press the button on the grapple and the wire tightens at extreme speed, ripping the trees from their roots and pulling them towards each other. tons of Depraved members are crushed under the trees before they crash into each other.

I hop on top of the collapsed trees and weave my body between the enemies bullets. Half way through a spin I grab a few grenades from my pocket and toss them into the crowd.

Feeling I should retain some ammo I grab a long wire from my pocket. It has a blade on one end and a heavy weight on the other. I swing it around my body, wrapping the wire around one Depraved member and tossing him away while the knife cuts through another throat and the weight swings across, crushing anyone in its path.

"How is he not dead yet!?" The technopath calls out in frustration. "It's only one guy!"

I leap into the air and let the knife cut through in front of me, using only my right hand to control it. With my left I take out a knife. Several Depraved drop dead as I land on the ground. I leap towards another using Bangong Fang She and cut down one Depraved with my knife and another is crushed by the weight on my wire. Before their allies can retaliate I've jumped into the air and brought the knife down on one of them, disappearing into Bangong Fang She and cutting down two more before reappearing. I burst back into snake strike and come out of it to spin kick one guys face. When I drop to the ground I spin and let the wire wrap around some other guys necks, cutting into them.

I herd the last of the Depraved into a group and run in at them. Some of them scream and others don't have the time.

I look over to the technopath and the optics user. Somehow they slipped my notice. The optics user fires a golden energy blast at me. I dodge to the side but when it turns to attack me again I leap back and grab some shuriken I stole from the holding cell. I toss them but he blasts them out of the sky. What he didn't see what that the shuriken where a distraction and I had used Bangong Fang She to run under them and make it close enough to attack. He doesn't have time to look down but he feels my fist dig into his stomach and break through his skin. I pull my fist out and grab him by the neck, leaping over his shoulder and spinning his head around to face his back, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

"Where's the Agent?" I ask the technopath who answers with a blast from Charlotte's gauntlets and escaping inside the church.

I fallow him inside and he laughs as the corridor fills with Depraved snipers. It looks like about three or four hundred.

"Welcome to hell!" The technopath cackles. "We're gonna show you what happens to those who defy the Depraved!"

As the red dots come up to my chest I grab a smoke bomb from my belt.

"That suit you're wearing was made by the blonde teenager, right?" I ask him.

"Yeah." The technopath sneers. "And it makes me invincible!"

"Three hundred and forty seven."

"What?"

"Weaknesses. Every armour has them." I grab the knife from my pocket too. "That one has three hundred and forty seven. This one is two ninety six."

I chuck the knife and its blade sinks into a sliver sized hole in the Metalla plated armour surrounding his neck. The blade cuts his throat and he falls lifeless on the ground.

Before the snipers can take their shots I drop the smoke bomb which covers me as I put my attack into action.

The Agent listens to the gun fir go dead and sighs. "Look like your saviour has arrived."

The doors open and I come sliding into the room on the back of one of the dead Depraved. I pluck a sword out of his back and sheathe it at my side.

"Welcome!" The Agent greets me like a guest he's been waiting a long time to meet. "The famous Alex Arkham. At least famous amongst those who have lived to see his power. I trust my people treated you well."

I don't answer him.

"And I heard you where talkative." The Agent looks disappointed. "But well mannered or not you are still here just on time."

I drop the knife in my hand and grab out a couple of fully loaded guns.

"Straight to business?" He asks me. "Don't you want to talk back and forth? Banter a little before we go straight to the blood and gore? I've been waiting so long for this."

"I'd rather jut kill you." I get ready to pull the trigger but he pulls a gun on me too.

"I see. A shame. You see, I've been lonely here waiting for you and even though the little miss is a big talker she just keeps going on and on about you."

"I do not." Charlotte cuts in.

"As you can see, she's safe and sound." The Agent points towards her. "No need to rush."

I fire at him and he steps out of the way before the bullet hits. "In that case maybe we should just skip to the main event. Prepare yourself."

The agent and I both walk in a circle around each other, sizing up our skills. He's cocky and arrogant, just like me, but he definitely has the skill to back it up. If I have to go by his stance and hand positions alone I'd have to say he's a gun fu expert. He's well trained too. The circle continues with the both of us keeping our two guns poised to attack. We grip our handles and in an instant I am gone from site.

I reappear in front of the Agent, pressing my gun up against his chin. He smiles under his black mask and drops back out of the way before I can pull the trigger. His gun comes up from under his arm and I disappear again. When I reappear I at the other end of the church with a bleeding arm. He reopened the wound Natalya gave me during our fight? Ba***rd!

"I was watching your fight with Red Claw." The Agent locks onto my position. "That was your Bangong Mang She. Your favourite technique. You utilize a combination of intense physical training and ki energy to move into a high speed dash, giving you the illusion of invisibility and a ghost like omnipresence. I studied it well."

The Agent twirls his guns on his fingers and takes a stance with one gun over his head and the other at his hip. I recognize his skills for what they are. A guy like this may actually make me work for his corpse.

"And your skill is called Gun Fu, or the Bullet Ballet." I look over my options as we speak. "Impressive yet futile. I've already trained under the best in gun based techniques. They used to be my favourite weapon but I felt I needed something that required skill to use."

"Then allow me to test your old skill against my current mastery." The guns twirl again and he fires one me. I use Bangong Mang She to dodge the bullet and move in. His bullets bounce off the walls like rubber bouncing balls. I have to pull out of my attack to avoid being shot.

"You should know this technique. By using these special bullet one can attack multiple times with one shot. It's a good way to save amo." He brags. It's not only that. A true master of this technique would have to be able to predict the way the bullets bounce and how the enemy moves. The slightest mistake in judgment and he could be the one with a hole in his forehead. To use this against someone who knows his style, he must be confident.

The Agent fires at the far wall and the floor, each bullet bouncing off and shredding through the air, towards me. Time to figure out just how much of a master he is. I block one of the bouncing bullets with my gun so that it hits against the roof and attacks him from behind. He points his gun behind him and shoots the bullet so that it bounces away from him. The bullets ricochet and I'm forced to choose which two of the four bullets coming at me I should block.

I fire two shots from my guns, sending two of the Agent's bullets away from me. The other two graze my left leg and right cheek before colliding with the other two and flying out the stain glass windows.

"Impressive." The Agent claps his guns together. "But if that's the damage you've gotten from only four of my bullets how are you going to take the next forty."

So, each of his guns holds twenty two bullets. Good.

I move into Bangong Mang She and avoid he next few round. He gets bored of it and places his left gun in its holster, grabbing another gun from his jacket and firing.

I avoid the attack but notice it's a smoke grenade, not a bullet. I'm blinded but I don't need eyes to see. The Agent comes in through the smoke and I knock his poised gun away from me before it can put a bullet through my head. He's already switched his left hand gun back to the bouncing bullets and. Tries to bring that one up. I push it back down with the side of the gun in my palm and try to attack him but he does the same. By the time our little dance is concluded the smoke has cleared. He goes in for a shot before I can knock him back but my Bangong Mang She gets me away from him in time.

It's not just gun related martial arts he knows. He clearly has training which he's putting to good use in blocking me.

He swings his guns and arms like a samurai swinging his katana.

The Agent runs in firing at my feet. I jump over it and shoot at his head. He blocks the attack with the side of his gun and before I can attack him he grabs my right arm and spins around, elbowing my face before I can attack in kind. Reeling from the attack I cannot block the spinning kick which fallows. I don't fall, but instead regain my balance and skid across the floor on my heels.

We rush at each other, both of us firing but each of our bullets are shot out of the air. I notice his guns are made out of a much harder metal than the bullets. That's why we're able to deflect each others attacks without damaging them.

I run in at him, tossing my one empty gun away and rushing in. He fires at me and I deflect it out the window.

"And that makes forty two." I tell him without the usual emotion found in my voice second before victory. He drops his guns and brings out his grenade launching one. I knock it out of his hand and pin him against the wall. He returns the favour by knocking my gun away from me and kicking me in the stomach. Both guns are too far to be useful to us.

We stare at each other. Our breath turns to fog against the cold winter air leaking in from the old decrepit windows. Blood drips down both our faces. An incredibly strong wind breaks through the weakened glass and fills the area between us with snow. We remain unaffected by the sudden blizzard and run through it at each other. I pull the katana from the sheath on my hip and he brings out a retractable pole mechanism with blades at either tip from his pocket.

He hits my sword with such power that it knocks me back and I run along the tops of the pews. He chases after me and tries to swing his sword around to cut off my head. I duck under at the end of the row and turn around blocking his attack as he jumps down. He attacks again, this time I am forced to block it and drop down on my back, spinning my legs up to kick him away and jumping back up to my feet.

The Agent and I exchange bow after blow. I nearly slice open his cheek but have to setting for the cheek of his mask. He spins around and cuts the wound in my arm deeper.

He pushes his blade up against mine. It comes closer to my face as he over powers me. His strength isn't human. But then again, I'm not exactly a normal human either. I drop back, letting his own force push him past me and reveal his back. He turns around to slash me but I jump over it and bring my sword up, cutting right through his mask and trailing blood behind me. When I bring the sword down he lets go of his weapon and stops mine with both hands clapped against the sides. He spins the blade and knocks me to the ground.

I get up with Bangong Mang She but when he comes at me I slap the stick out of his hand and toss my own weapon away.

"Enough of this." I tell him.

"Done already?" He asks me. "Why the sudden seriousness?"

"Why did you do it? Why did you do that to Charlotte?" I ask him.

"Why do you care? I guess she is important to you."

"Just answer my question."

"How else am I supposed to make you feel desperation?" His dark maniacal smile is clear, even through the torn mask on his face. "I knew you'd be desperate to get here after that video and I knew it would tear you up to know that you could do nothing to stop it. That's all there is to it. I love watching the desperation and despair in a humans eyes, especially before they die. Because I am a demon of Shekari, the god of Xenothium! He has chosen me to be his messengers second in command. The Depraved are his army and we are his people."

"Why her?"

"Because you feel for her. I don't know what you two are to each other but I knew if it was her it would hurt you."

"I see." I raise my arms and take a Tiaoyue De Hozi De Juedou stance.

"Your duel of the leaping monkey? Why bore me?"

I take a deep breath and get ready to attack.

My body disappear into Bangong Fang She and I come back behind him, flipping up into a kick which knocks him forwards. Before he can hit the ground I move to his side and punch him back up to my eye level, spinning again and kicking him so hard he flies into a wall on the other side of the cathedral.

"Then that's all there is to it." My lips crease into a large bloodthirsty smile. "I'm going to enjoy killing you."

The Agent stands up, his suit ripped to hell but his body is left with no damage. He rips away the black mask and his jacket, throwing them to the ground.

"My powers are maximum!" His arms catch on fire with blackened flames and he cackles as the dark flames burst from his mouth like the lava of a volcano. "I am a living demon! An immortal! I am immune to disease and physical harm! Nothing can kill me!"

"Just shut up and let me kill you." I rush in at him and he grabs my arm, bringing his knee up into my stomach.

"I can rip you in half with my bare hands!" His fist slams against the side of my face. "I'm faster, stronger and I am invincible!" He grabs my head and slams his other hand into my stomach at full force. "And you are just an insect to me!"

"I'm sick of this." I grab the wrist of the hand on my head and flip out of his grip. He tries to grab me but I duck under his arm and hop onto his back.

"Did you know," I talk into his ear. "Why I named myself Red X?"

"It's because of the way you kill people, by carving an X into their chests."

"Good answer, and on the surface it may seem true, but every idea comes from an inspiration. This was mine." He tries to move but I reach my hands up to his chest, crossing my arms in an X formation. He can't reach me from where I am behind him. My heels dig into his knees and they stop moving. "The third animal: Tie Xiong Zhao, the Claws of the Iron Bear!"

My fingers dig into sections of his chest all at the same time and his entire body stops moving.

"I can't move! What's happening!?" The Agent cries out.

"The Claws of the Iron Bear isn't like Bangong Mang She which grants me super speed or Tiaoyue De Houzi De Juedou the greatest form of hand to hand combat." He tries to move but his muscles work against him and he falls completely under my power. "This one is a series of pressure points. Believe it or not, they might be the strongest of the three."

"So, you stopped my arms." He laughs, allowing his fire to spew from his mouth. "You can't stop the flames of Shekari!"

"Are you sure?" I dig my fingers in deeper and the flames stop. "I told you this may be my most powerful technique. That's because unlike enhanced speed and a combat style this one effects the opponents body and not mine. In the case of super-humans I can even take away your powers, or turn them against you."

"My master Shekari would never turn the flames of his fury against a loyal servant!"

"We'll see. Oh, and by the way," I get the points just right and my fingers begin to glow with the dark crimson of fresh blood. "This is the real reason I became the Blood Red X."

My fingers rip down the Agent's chest like the claws of a bear. His blood sprays forth in a crimson cloud and the scar that is left behind is a blood red X.

The Agent breaths in as the inhuman amount of pain rips into him and he falls to his knees.

"No!" He revert to human form and gasps. "I-I'm alive?"

I lift him off the ground and spin kick him with enough force to kill most people. He hits the wall in the centre of the church just bellow the cross. I pin him to it, using blind serpent to nail my arm into his throat before his limp body could fall. "I'll be taking care of that now."

He pushes me off of him and runs for the door but I appear in front of him and he stops in his tracks.

"I've sealed your powers and increased the amount of pain you feel with each attack." I spin around and kick him so hard he falls on the ground. "This is only one of the abilities of tie Xiong Zhao. I could also make your blood feel as if it where on fire or maybe I could cause your spine to bend backwards until it breaks. Real Fist of the North Star-ish. That reminds me, I can make your head explode too."

"Mercy." He begs me, sweat and blood dripping from his face and down his chest.

"No." I look down with a sadistic blood covered grin and he tries to punch me. I grab his hand in mine and crush it with sheer force.

I return his punch, bringing up my fist and slamming it like a comet into his face. He flies the full length of the cathedral. His body slams against the cross the the front and he fall. Before his feet touch the ground I am in front of him and bring my fists into his face one after the other in an X formation. Blood slashes against the walls as my fist pound into his soft flesh.

"Die! Die! Die! Die!" I tell him with every punch as my grin widens more and more. I no longer even look human. I've found that place again. The dark place inside me where I become something else. I've finally returned. Once again I'm the bloody Red X.

Charlotte finally unlocks her shackles and runs up to us. She grabs my arm and tries to make me stop.

"Alex, don't-" My arm comes back on her, knocking her away and I continue beating on the Agent.

"I'm never going to stop! This feeling! I'm finally alive again!" My fist keep pounding into his face as incredible amounts of blood splash against the wall. I hit him twice more, completing the X formation and kick him in the stomach before letting him fall.

"Alex." Charlotte watches me. The gleam in my eyes. The absolute joy. The hunger and the passion. This is only the second time she's seen me like this, but this time is way worse than Romulus. This time I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him and thoroughly enjoy it.

"I mangled to hold on to a few of these." I tell the Agent, pulling him up by the hair and holding up a couple of X shuriken in the other hand. "Lucky me."

I grab his arm and place one shuriken on his arms. it wraps around them and fastness them together. The next one I stab into the wall behind him and hang his captured arms on, keeping him from falling to the ground. A single point on the final one extends like a dagger.

The Agent tries to resist but his body is broken and tired. His mind is barely keeping hold.

I slap him cross the face to wake him up. "You don't want to fall asleep at the best part, do you?"

I place the extended edge of the X against his right shoulder. The blade digs into his shoulder and he screams in agony. I drag the blade slowly down on an angle to his left hip.

"Does it hurt?" I ask him. "Agent. I asked you if it hurt."

"It hurts." He answers, tears dripping from his eyes.

"Do you feel helpless?" I put the blade to hi other shoulder and he cringes. "I asked you question."

"Yes! I feel helpless! You win okay!? Just let me go!"

"That's not what I want you to say." I push the blade into his shoulder and begin to cut down the the opposite hip, crating an X of blood on his chest. "I want you to say you're sorry. Then I want you to beg for forgiveness."

"I will! anything you want!"

"Then I want you to ask me to kill you." I carve the X deeper into his chest.

"Please don't kill me." He begs. "I don't want to die."

"We all die sometime. I'm just gong to make sure that your death is incredibly painful." I raise the blade and get ready to carve into him again.

"Stop!" My arm freezes in the air at the sound of Charlotte's voice.

I look at her. She's crying bitterly and her teeth are clenched. Her big tear stained eyes glare into me with intense anger.

"That's enough. He's done." She tells me.

"He's not done until I'm done with him." I tell her back.

"That video was a fake! He used one of his stupid goons as a stand in for me! Don't tell me you where too blinded by anger to see that!"

"I don't care!" I snap and toss a fourth shuriken at her. It nearly cuts her face but streams by without hurting her. "I don't care if it was real or not! I hate it! I'm going to kill him because I want to! Because he made me see something like that! I hate rape and the people who do it! I'm going to kill every single one of them! I don't care if it isn't real! I'm going to kill him because I want to!" Smack!

My eyes blink twice before my mind fully comprehends that Charlotte just slapped me across the face. I look up at her tear covered face. She hits me again. This time her attack is much less powerful. She punches me in the chest over and over.

"You idiot. Idiot…idiot." She stops hitting me and I go to grab her shoulder but she backs away from me and reaches her arm back. I really feel this punch. It hits me so hard my head turns with it. "You selfish, overindulged, morbid, psychopathic, ignorant, emotionless jacka**!"

She takes a few breaths after that yell.

Before I can speak she holds up a finger to stop me. "You used me." She says. "You didn't come here to save me and you didn't beat him up to get back at him for hurting me. You just came her so you could feed your own selfish need to beat people up. Do you even care about me at all, or am I really just someone you can use to pass the time with just like everyone else?"

"Charlotte. I-" I begin to talk but she cuts me off.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear you talk anymore! You're listening to me now." She grabs me by the shirt and pulls me down to her eye level. "When my parents died I really thought their killer would kill me too. I don't know if it was you who saved me or not but after my parents died I never really got close to anyone. I was always quiet and would keep people at a distance. I was never with anyone and I never wanted to be. I just wanted to be alone. That was before I found you."

"Since I saw you on the train I knew who you where." I tell her. "I remember hearing your scream and finding your parents freshly dead on the floor. I saw the man who killed them trying to kill you. You told Mary that you came home after your parents died but that wasn't true. The corpses where too fresh. You watched them die, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what I did to the man who killed your parents? I hooked him on a rope and dragged him around town on my bike until he died. I kill people. It's what I do."

"That's not what this is about!" She interrupts me again. "I don't care about what you did before! I started looking for you after that night because I idolized you, but after meeting you I felt like you where…I don't know. You where my friend, I guess. We became so close and I was able to share sides of myself with you I couldn't with other people. Then we met Mary and Johnny and it felt…right. I don't know. It's just." She clenches her fists and comes out with it. "Even if I know nothing about you you're my only real friend and I'm afraid that if I watch you do this I'll never be able to look at you the same way again."

"Charlotte."

"And maybe I thought you just might feel something like that for me too." She wipes her tears away and looks up at me with a bitter smile. "But I guess I was wrong. There's no deeper meaning to anything you do. You don't have any feelings aside from your own selfish anger. I'm not saying it's your fault. I knew this could be the outcome of trying to find you. I'm just saying that I made a mistake in making the choice to look for you. I'm sorry to have wasted so much of your time."

I scratch the back of my head with blood stained finger tips and sigh. "You're talking like this is over. I still haven't killed him you know."

She watches me and wonders what I'm going to do with this sudden change in personality.

"You see. You did it again." I tell her. "You've provided me with another impossible choice. Like when you gave me the choice to save you but I'd have to become partners with you or let you fall to your death and I'd have my freedom. You really need to grow up, you spoiled rich brat."

"What the hell are you-!?" She starts but I place a bloody finger against her lips.

"After all this time you really don't know anything about me do you?" I pull the shuriken holding the Agent to the wall out and let him hit the floor. "I'll admit I got a little carried away but as you should know I don't run by any moral code or law. I kill who I want to and help who I want to. That means I can let this guy walk if I choose."

"But you just said."

My arm slams into the wall behind her as my face comes within inches of hers. "This is what I'm saying now."

"O-Okay." She's completely stunned.

"I understand your distress about this situation and how you could have misunderstood me, but by asking me to go against my natural course of killing people I don't like you are asking for more than just a business deal. If I'm going to be changing how I live for you then that means we are involved in some sort of relationship."

"Relationship?" Charlotte looks concerned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure yet." I push my fist into my head. "I've never been in this situation before…I'm saying that I'm willing to give up killing people for you. That's not it….Stupid brain! I can solve impossible equations in my head, pinpoint the slightest error in any chemical solution and beat a Kryptonian computer at checkers but I can't string together this stupid sentence. Here it is!" I point my finger at Charlotte, making her tense up. "It's a new contract!"

"What have you been smoking?"

"I'm super serious." I stand triumphantly. "The problem is that I've been working for you this whole time under the contract that I only need to let you watch my random happenings but that doesn't account for situations like this. So we need a new set of rules."

"?"

"From now on I promise not to kill people in front of you. I'll respect your opinion on the subject and listen when you have a complaint about my methods."

"Are you…trying to negotiate?" Charlotte asks.

"It's the only way for us to turn our relationship from business to friendship. We need to agree on ground rules. That way you wont have to go through an ordeal like this again. Though it was mostly your fault for coming here in the first place, stupid."

"Alright then." Charlotte smirks, everything that happened seeming to fade away. "In that case you have to stop being so selfish. AND you have to tell me before coming to my school. You're also not allowed to make fun of the people I hang out with. Also, you have to stop calling me names and treat me like a human being. In fact, from now on you must address me as Charlotte-sama."

"Using a Japanese honorific to get under my skin in a typical tsundere fashion? No wonder I don't want to leave. But I can't agree to these conditions because it would be more like master and servant than friends."

"I can't believe we're actually negotiating a friendship."

"This is my final offer." I declare. "From now on things go back to the way they have been so far, except that I no longer kill people unless necessary and…" I look away because I can't stop the blush from coming onto my face. "I'l treat you as a friend."

"Are you blushing?" Charlotte asks me as she leans in for a closer look. "You're embarrassed! Mr. Cool, always in control of himself, never letting anyone know how he really feels is blushing."

"Shut up." I tell her.

"You're so cute." She taunts, grabbing my cheek. "Little Alex's cheeks are burning up."

"Let's just go home." I push ahead of her. "This place is feeling a little corpsie."

"Did you really have to kill everyone?"

"They attacked me first. You should be grateful I even came here to get you." I tell her as we leave the church.

"That's funny." She just now realizes. "If you really just came to kill the Agent then why didn't you go home and gear up? You could have made it home in time and tracked him down whenever but instead you rushed into danger without any armour or weapons."

"I didn't need them."

"This was a also a good time for you to try out some new gadgets you've never used before." She smirks like a mischievous cat about to pounce. "Could it be that you rushed out to find me because you where worried? Maybe you thought the next tape would be real."

"Like they could find anyone to do something like that to a dog like you."

"Excuse me?! Who do you think is paying for your food and living expenses?"

"I meant to talk to you about that." I tell her. "I reopened a bank account I've kept secret and I'll be paying you for room and food from now on. In exchange I retain the right to make fun of you and your preppy school friends."

"That's right!" She suddenly remembers. "I'm still angry with you!"

"…" I think about it. "Why?"

"Because of what you did at school!"

"Oh yeah. Your little boyfriend with the overprotective hovering."

"Don't call him that and he's not overprotective! He's just nice!"

"Whatever." I remember the fight clearly. I just wanted to bug her. As I think back on the things that happened I take a deep breath and decide on something. "Anata wa kawaiidesu."

"What was that?" Charlotte asks me.

"Nothing." I push past her and continue on.

"What did you say!?" She chases after me. "Tell me!"

After we've left the church another person enter to clean up the corpses. He walks up to where I left the Agent, still alive, and looks down at his broken body.

"Master Crispin." The Agent looks up and smiles.

"I don't know who to me more disappointed in." Crispin grabs a gun out of his jacket. "You for not putting up a better fight, or Red X for not finishing you off. May Shekari have mercy on your pathetic soul." He points the gun down at the Agent and pulls the trigger.

Preview Time!

Johnny: "Oh. They're back already."

Mary: Crying in happiness.

Alex: "What have you guys been doing this whole time?"

Johnny: "We've been trying to find where they hid you."

Alex: "You sure you weren't planning on leaving us with the Depraved?"

Mary: "We would never do that! I was really worried!"

Alex: "Right."

Charlotte: "Stop being a jerk. We know you guys where going to come get us."

Johnny: "I dunno. I might have gone back for Charlotte but Alex may have had to go it on his own."

Alex: "As celebration of my escape from the enemy I will now announce the next chapter!"

Charlotte: "Next on Red X Oscura: WIth the Agent dead there is only one person left who knows Alex's identity. An old friend brings news of disaster and alliances are formed. As bloody days give way to a snowy Christmas eve what path will Alex take in hi new life? Next chapter, Assemble Christmas Eve Alliance."

Alex: "..."

Ch14

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. (Remember: When writing chapter 15 over your only draft of chapter 14, rename it before hitting the save button) Beware sexual content and stuff like that. Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

Charlotte paces back and forth in the living room of our apartment.

"Where is he?" She grumbles. "He's been gone three days now."

"Now now." Johnny slumps over the back of the couch. "He's probably out stalking some rare item from some anime he likes."

"For three days?" Charlotte looks at him like he's an idiot.

"Alright. How about a mistress?"

"What?" The image burns into Charlotte's mind and her teeth grind together. "Like he could get…hmmm. It's possible."

"I don't think Alex would stay out this long without telling us where he is, even if it was because he is with a woman." Mary says as she looks out the window worriedly.

"He might. Let's ask the dotting housewife." He looks at Charlotte who give him a death glare.

"I hope you don't mean me." She snarls but Johnny nods in confirmation. "I'm just worried because we had a fight."

"It's called a lovers spat." Johnny snickers.

"It's called shut your hairy face before I shave your beard off in your sleep."

"Shutting up now."

Charlotte continues pacing around, growing more and more volatile while Mary keeps looking out the window on the verge of tears.

"Come on. How much trouble could he be in?" Johnny laughs it off.

Three days ago. My eyes start to open slowly and I look around myself. I'm apparently being held in some sort of guarded facility…again. This little room is equipped with armoured walls, a water cooler and two tables.

One of the tables has a few of my shuriken on it, being kept for examination, and the other has a bunch of kinky looking mechanical things with pointy edges and stuff that makes me wonder what kind of videos these guys watch in their spare time…oh, hey I have that one in my room.

My armour is gone completely and replaced with a white t shirt and black pant. The stench of stale air lets me know that my helmet is gone.

Two guards are standing in front of me. One male and one female. The male looks to be a lower class officer, probably a newbie, but the female looks solid. She appears a little too driven towards her job.

As for why I'm not currently busting out of here my arms and legs are both being held by this cool hi tech thing. There are two semi circle pads. One bolted to the floor and the other to the roof. My arms are held inside of a glowing opening in the semi circle on the roof and my ankles are held the same way by the one on the floor. It appears to be an electrically powered system which holds me in place with small energy constructs. It's a system which could hold users of superhuman strength in place. I see they wanted to be prepared for me to have super powers. Funny.

A door opens and a man walks into the room. He's dressed properly and has a stern face. He's an open book, a workaholic with a military fetish.

"Are you the apartment manger?" I ask him. "I have a few complaints about my room. I specifically asked for a room with a view of the ocean and I wanted a traditional bondage session, not this new age techno glowing stuff."

"Welcome to the Depraved holding cell number three." He tells me.

"Holding cell?" I ask. "I must've gotten lost. I was looking for the lobby. I guess you'll just have to let me go so I can find my group."

The military guy grabs a pole from the kinky toys table and flips a switch on it. The end splits open and starts to spark electricity. "I would like to asks you a few questions about your allies."

"You can never make me talk." I pretend to be one of those soldiers who where caught behind enemy lines in one of those cheesy war movies. I hate war movies.

He pokes me with the electric stick and a violent charge of electricity blazes through my body, causing every cell to scream.

"Alright. I'll talk." I tell him. "I'm a part of a secret organization called Nerv. Nerv has created three biomechanical mechas called Evas. They are our only defence against the Angels."

He zaps me again for faking an answer. "Cross Academy is secretly housing vampires and having them pose as night class students."

Another zap. "Across is a secret organization planning to conquer the world, though considering their success rate I doubt that they are of any threat."

The zaps and anime references continue on and on for three days.

Back in the present, Charlotte's still pacing around the room waiting for any sign of where I could be.

"Just relax." Johnny tells her. "He'll come home eventually."

He looks across the couch at Mary who's rocking back and forth in the corner.

"You need to relax too." He sighs.

"He doesn't usually stay out this long." Mary mumbles. "Maybe he got hit by a truck."

"Then I'd feel sorry for the truck." Johnny sets down his beer on the table. "If you're going to make such a big deal about this then I'll go check out the places he usually hangs around."

"I've already checked every store in Oscura that carries manga." Charlotte stops him.

"And he hasn't been to any of the public libraries." Mary adds in.

Johnny flops back into his seat and grabs his beer. "Idiot doesn't know how lucky he is."

The front door slides open and everyone looks towards it.

"Hey. Is Alex here?" Natalya walks in dressed in her casual clothes and swinging a bag full of random beers inside it. "I came to play."

"For some reason I'm starting to hope he died in the blizzard." Charlotte groans when she sees Natalya. "Who are you and how did you get in here?"

"The door was unlocked." Natalya drops her bag of beers on the coffee table and grabs one out. "As for who I am, I'm his old teacher Natalya. A pleasure."

"His teacher, eh?" Charlotte's eye twitches. "No wonder he's so good at martial arts."

"Oh no. He was good before I came around." Natalya looks around the room. "Where is he anyway?"

"He's been missing for three days." Mary tells her, nearly in tears. "We think he might've been kidnapped."

"You are freaking kidding me." Johnny grumbles and tosses his head back. "There is no way a guy like Alex could be kidnapped."

"Well…" Natalya scratches her cheek. "If he's been missing for three days then…"

She tells them the entire story about our fight and how it ended up.

"…If he collapsed after that then he'd be easy to kidnap." She smiles and takes a big gulp of a random beer. "It was probably the Depraved guy Crispin who hired me."

"Those weird assassin people have Alex!?" Mary asks in tears. "What happened? What are they going to do to him?"

"Well," Natalya finishes her fourth beer and grabs another from her bag. Looking up with a bright smile she pops the cap off the bottle. "He's most likely dead. Do you have any chips?"

"I'm starting to see were Alex gets his morbid side." Charlotte sighs under her breath.

"He's dead." Mary starts bawling like a child.

Johnny looks quietly at the coffee table. "Idiot. That's it!" He stands up and pumps a fist into the air. "Let's kill those b*****ds!"

"Right!" Mary recovers and goes to get some guns. "Let's get revenge for Alex!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" They two idiots chant.

"So, what really happened to him?" Charlotte asks Natalya.

Natalya looks up at her with a sly smile. "Sharp girl. I can see why he would put so much of his focus on you." She places her beer down on the table and folds her arms. "My former employer, Crispin, is an eccentric and secretly sadistic man. He likes the theatrical as well. Knowing him he's kept Alex alive to kill him in person."

"So he's alive?" Mary asks, hope restored.

"There's a sixty four percent chance." Natalya confirms.

"Do you know where they would hold him?" Charlotte asks.

"It would be a mute point." Natalya crosses her legs and looks through the bag for a specific beer. "If he doesn't want to be there he'd have gotten out already. Unless there is a reason for him to not want to come back."

Charlotte looks down when she realizes that Natalya's talking about our fight.

"I'm joking." Natalya pats Charlotte on the shoulder. "That boy is many things but he's not a coward. Besides, the way he was running after you…" She chuckles as Charlotte's cheeks start to burn red.

"He ran after me?" She asks.

"I haven't seen him look that desperate in a long time." Natalya looks back with misty eyes. "I'm a little jealous."

Charlotte's minds swirls with hundreds of feelings and thoughts. She bites her lower lip and her trademark defiant glare sparks up, complimented by a mischievous smile. "Where is he?"

"There are three holding facilities he could be held in." Natalya draws up a map. "There's the home base which is a night club owned by Crispin himself. There's a seclusive old building in the slums with a heavily armoured basement. Then there is the base of Crispin's second in command, the Agent. It's a church on Rose Avenue. I'll leave finding him to you."

"Where are you going?" Johnny asks as Natalya gathers up her stuff.

"I have to return to business in Metropolis, but don't worry. I'll be back again." She walks over to Johnny and slides a hand under his shirt, pulling out one of her beers. "And I'll be taking this with me."

Johnny blushes in shame.

"You have problems." Charlotte tells him.

The male guard I've named Teddy scratches his neck and stares at his watch with a smile. Teddy has few joys in life since he's started working here. His life has been a hard and mundane one full of yawntastic twists and turns like dropping his double stalked sub way sandwich on the way to work. These days of simplicity have moved him to become a rebel, I think about it as he scratches his polyester covered butt cheeks and runs a chunky finger across his nose. He is a warrior of suburbia. A man whose constant battle against the man who controls his pay checks had led him down a trail paved with blood and paper work. At least that's how I've imagined his life would be. It's been really boring down here so I made names and back stories for the people who wont tell me them. Teddy's actually a regular business clerk who has two kids and a wife who doesn't know about how he has to work for the Depraved since the company he worked for cut his salary. How do I know all this you ask? Let's find out.

"So, I was thinking." I run some hero ideas past Teddy. "My catch phrase of battle cry could be this…Ahem "I love pudding!". You see? Because then the bad guys would be all like, "what does pudding have to do with a bank robbe-" and then I'd punch him in the nuts."

Teddy ignores me and continues on.

"Break time already Teddy?" I ask him with a friendly smile.

"Yeah." He looks back at me bored of my constant talking and grabs his coat. "Not that listening to you go on and on about Light Yachima and L isn't riveting."

"Sarcasm hurts Teddy." I pout. "And it's Light Yagami. You're not a good listener are you Teddy?"

"I've told you to stop using that name."

"But it makes you sound like a big teddy bear. Don't you want to sound fluffy?"

"I don't want to sound fluffy."

"I do." He looks back at me with this killer look and sighs.

"I'll be back in a bit." He waves as he walks out the door.

"Poor Teddy." I sigh. "He seems annoyed by something. Maybe he's got haemorrhoids."

The female guard turns to look at me.

"What's wrong Melissa?" I ask her.

"It's nothing." She tells me with a warm smile. In front of the others this woman doesn't smile. She's devoted herself completely to her job. "It's just that everything you've told me makes so much sense but I can't help feeling something is wrong."

"That's natural. You're going against the orders of your superior by talking to me like this. You even told e about Teddy's home life. Are you feeling guilty because of that?" I look down at her from my holding place, looking more like a compassionate father looking down on his troubled daughter.

"Yes." She says shyly.

"Don't worry. You haven't done anything wrong. Both talking to me and falling in love with your captain are not the smartest things but they are not in any way wrong."

"Then why do I feel like this?"

"You've fallen for a man who's heart is protected by a steel gate. A gate you may never to be able to break through. You're out of your element."

"Talking to you these past three days. It's like everything is so clear."

"You're missing the big picture." When I tell her this she looks up and waits for me to give her the answer.

"What is the big picture?"

"You're the only one who can figure that out."

"You've been so great to me. So warm and safe. I feel like I can tell you anything."

"Knowledge is power you know. You could be selling your soul to the devil."

"You're far from the devil. I've never felt this close to anyone."

"Why don't we talk about your feelings for captain hard a**?"

She giggles and our session of counselling begins.

Charlotte's attack will be on the Rose Avenue Church. She thought it might be the best place to look for me. She's wrong but bless her stupid blonde head for trying.

Charlotte decided to put on a Red X costume she's made for herself in case of emergencies and join the attack. It's only her Johnny and Mary against the Depraved. They join up on a roof top overlooking the church.

"What's the plan?" Johnny asks.

"What plan?" Charlotte grabs a few exploding X's and gets ready to trow them.

"Are you nuts?" Johnny grabs her hand before she can toss them. "They'll be all over us."

"We're out numbered." Mary looks down at a group of people heading into the church. "Doesn't look like a plan's gonna help much."

"We need a super genius."

"I'm a genius too." Charlotte gets mad and grabs some more exploding X's from her belt and tosses them. "Once we have Alex he can think up a plan."

The bombs explode and the three of them jump into it.

"We are so stupid right now!" Johnny calls to Mary.

"I know." She calls back. "But try to have fun with it."

The three of them do pretty well in taking out the guards who come flowing out of the church like water from a stream. Johnny takes down maybe thirty of forty of them while Mary's rubber bullets knock a good fifty out. Charlotte pushes in furthest due to the training I've given her and the protection of the suit. Eventually Charlotte almost reaches the front entrance of the church.

The doors swing open before she can get to it and a man walks out from the shadows.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He bows. The man is dressed in a black suit and tie with a white undershirt. His face is covered in a black mask which fits to his face like skin. "I am known as the Agent."

"Where's Red X?" Charlotte jumps up to take him down in one punch but before she can get to him she is knocked back by what seems like an invisible force and falls on her back.

"He is safe. I wouldn't kill any of you until my master gets back. He's been expecting you for quite some time and I'd hate to break up a set." His mask curves over smiling lips. "But I'm afraid I can't have you disgracing my unholy church of Shekari. You will all have to be captured or killed."

"Try it!" Johnny calls up to him.

"I leave them to you." The Agent snaps his fingers and three Depraved members come out from behind him. "My arch demons."

"For Shekari!" The three call out and run to fight the others.

"All others are forbidden from fighting. Go back inside." The Agent called to the horde of Depraved and they step back.

Charlotte is attacked by a man with long orange hair and freckles covering his face. He grabs her by the arm and tosses her into a pile of dirt by the church.

Mary leaps out of the way before another man fires golden concussive beams from his eyes. The beams nearly hit her but her Metalla armour protects her.

The one going after Johnny is a scrawny looking kid with eyes like a killers.

The fights begin.

Johnny walks up to the scrawny kid and reaches his crowbar up into the air.

"Sorry about this bro. I really don't want ta pick on a small guy." His bar crashes against the mans ribs and knocks him back on a pile of steel bars.

"Oh, you don't nee to worry about me." The kid starts to get up but as he does he places a hand on the steel bars, absorbing their properties as his body changes colour to match. "I'm just getting started."

The boy attacks with amazing speed. Closing the gap between himself and Johnny in seconds. Johnny smacks the kid across the face but he just turns back to him and smiles. The kid bunches his fist and lands a good strike across Johnny's face. Spilling my friends blood on the ground.

"Not so easy to pick on me now is it?" The boy grabs Johnny by the shirt and goes in for another punch.

The attack hits Johnny hard and he drops to the ground. The boy sits on him and pounds on Johnny's chest with the force of steel behind each fist.

"How's that!?" The boy cackles.

"Tickles a bit." Johnny looks up with his maniac eyes and a large menacing smile.

Johnny grabs the boy by the leg and swings him, tossing the metallic maniac into the wall of the church.

"This is impossible!" The boy screams out and runs in at Johnny. He attacks with a right which Johnny steps away from and the same happens with his attack from the left.Johnny palms his crowbar and brings it up, nailing the kid in the stomach.

The kid falls down on the ground.

"Why!?"

"Guess you're just not made of strong enough stuff." Johnny taps the crowbar on his shoulder, stomping on the kids back and laughing. "Aw man, this is great. I didn't get to do much in the past few chapters so I thought I'd end up just being a side character but it's worth it if I get to be the bad a** who knocks his opponent out before the others. If I'm the one who saves that brat X then I may end up with bigger parts in the future. This is great! GYAHAHAHA!"

"Son of a…UGHA!" The boy reaches out and grabs Johnny's Metalla boots, absorbing their properties into himself.

"Awwww…F**k nuggets." Johhny sighs before being thrown off the boy.

"This is amazing! I'm invincible!" The boy cries out in joy. "This metal is unlike anything I've ever absorbed!"

"Why me?" Johnny grumbles as he kneels in the corner and draws circles in the sand with his finger. "I want to be the hero for once."

Mary dodges the blasts of her laser eyed attacker. She hides behind some bushes but the optics user laughs as he calls out for her.

"You can't hide you know!" He looks around and his eyes change colour from gold to black. "I can see everything. Nothing can escape the demon lord Shekari's sight and I am blessed by with that same power by my unholy master!"

"What is this idiot talking about?" Mary whispers. "I understand religion but worshipping demons is just stupid."

Mary's attacker finds her with his X ray eyes and they switch back to gold.

"Found you!" He calls and fires twin beams.

Mary dives forwards, barely escaping the blasts but she's unable to dodge the next ones. Instead of trying to escape Mary blocks the attack with the Metalla armouring on her pistols.

"Alright kid." Mary aims at him, gaining a bit more confidence. "Let's get this over with."

Mary lets out a flurry of rubber bullets which come down like rain on the optics user. He looks up and turns his head, blasting each of the bullets into melted rubber with heat vision. The melted rubber falls on him, burning his skin.

"Stupid mistake." He clenches his teeth and uses his X ray vision to fallow Mary as she tries to escape through the bushes.

Mary leaps out from the bushes and fires at the optics user, nailing him in the chest. Each of those bullets gives the impact of a smack from Johnny's crowbar, but they are not deadly.

The optics user's eyes change to orange and he blast heat vision from them. Mary dodges to the side but the beams change corse and fallow her. Unprepared she throws her coat up over her face. The heat vision deteriorates on the surface of her Metalla lined coat.

"I'm going to have to thank Charlotte for this thing." Mary smiles.

"This is ridiculous." The optics user gnashes his teeth as he lets loose an intense heat blast. "I can't believe it's taking this long to kill a child."

Mary holds up her sleeve and it absorbs the blast. "I am not a child." She fires off seven bullets in a line.

The optics user fires a straight blast at the bullets, destroying them all but not noticing that Mary had used them as a distraction so she could get closer and reload her guns at the same time.

Mary's uses the enemies knee as a boost and jumps up over his shoulder, hooking one arm around his neck and landing on his back. She places the gun in her free arm to his temple.

"These bullets may be rubber but at this range it will go right through your head." She tells him. "Are you ready to be killed by a "kid"? Or do you want to surrender?"

The optics user only smiles and Mary realizes what he's up to. She lets go of his neck and drops down in time before one of his heat vision blasts he's been keeping circling the area can take off her head.

"That armour your wearing covers most of your child like body, except your head." The optics users smile widens as his tongue runs across the outline of his lips. "Now that I have my target."

His eyes let out a collection of blasts which fly off in every direction.

"You wont be able to escape." He laughs.

Charlotte blocks one attack after another and finally flips her enemy of his feet.

"Dude. You suck." She giggles from behind the protective barrier of the suit. "I don't even need to use any of my gadgets. All these hi tech computer systems are just going to waste."

"Then you wont mind if I borrow them." The man reaches out, grabbing Charlotte's helmet and before she can react the screens inside of it short out.

"What the? He's a technopath?" Charlotte feels the heater inside the suit turn on and grow stronger within seconds. Before it can cook her she tears the helmet off and tosses it away. The computer systems in her gauntlets go haywire as well so she throws them off. The boots and belt are next and she is left with a powered down armoured torso and legs. "There. Without the belt to power the suit and all the individual parts like the gauntlets and boots you can't…Why do I still feel like burning?"

"I believe your suit has an alternative power source inside the chest piece." The boy laughs as Charlotte drops the heated platting.

"You jerk!" She roars at the technopath. "I spent all that time working on cool new gadgets and systems for my Red X suit and the only time I get to use it you turn the d**n thing into a sauna! Now I gotta fight in my bra!"

"Does that have a heater?" He eyes her with a grin.

"Great." Charlotte gripes. "I've gotta fight one pervert to save another."

She takes up a stance I taught her and dives in. The technopath calls Charlotte's own gauntlets over to himself and activates the laser blasts from the palms. She barely has time to dodge.

"This is so not fair." Charlotte kicks the next attack out of the air using her Metalla pants, the only bit of her armour left.

Johnny takes three straight punches to the face before falling down on the cold dirt. He's been taking this beating for quite some time now and his face is covered in blood.

"How does it feel?" The scrawny metal absorber picks Johnny up by the collar of his shirt.

"Honestly?" Johnny smirks. "Not as bad as when I scratched the idiots Yu Yu Hakusho DVD's. Really thought I was gonna die that time."

The metal boy punches him again. This time Johnny can barely move. His arms are cut up and swollen and his vision is hazy.

"You should probably know that this isn't where your friend is hidden." The metal boy chuckles as he reaches back for another punch. "We're keeping him somewhere else. Too bad."

"Thanks for the info." Johnny hooks his legs around the boys arm before he could connect the punch and flips him. "Then that means I can't waste my time on a brat like you."

Johnny reaches into his jacket and pulls out a group of what looks like fire crackers. He lights a few of them and points them towards the metal boy who is just now getting to his feet. The fire crackers take off and the boy begins to run. He doesn't make it and disappears in a blast of light and colour.

Johnny turns to leave but the boy walks out from the wreckage. "This metal I took is much better than I'd expected."

Johnny just stands and watches with an unimpressed look on his face. "Whatever bro."

"Acting confident wont win here." The boy reaches out but his hand freezes up on him. His face twists into a look of terror as his fingers begin to melt away. "What is this!?"

"You didn't know?" Johnny pulls a cigarette out of his pocket and puts it in his mouth. "The buddy of mine you got locked up told me something about intense heat speeding up unstable molecules and something about Xenothium particles expanding. I dunno. Something about you midi-chlorians." He light the cigarette and starts walking away. "Anyway, your chakras misaligned or something, speeding up your cellular deterioration and now you're soup. See ya."

"You can't leave me like this!" The boy calls out. "STOP!"

Mary tries her best but none of her bullets make it through the heat blasts her opponent keeps sending after her. He's much taller and with longer legs so he has an advantage in speed too. This is the first time since joining up with our group that she's felt the real burden of her condition in combat.

The Optics user controls his attacks from a distance, not allowing Mary to come close enough to take him out with her inferior firepower.

Charlotte runs from a cloud of her own bombs being launched by gauntlets of her own making.

"This is humiliating." She spins around and grabs one of the bombs out of the air, throwing it back before it can explode. "Each of those things has a twenty second count until they blow. That's plenty of time for me to throw them back if he tosses them from a close area but from far away is completely different. I have to keep ahead of them but this is just too freaking annoying!"

Charlotte' turns around and tosses a hidden blade from a compartment on her thigh and it cuts across the technopath's cheek.

"You little!" He moves in to attack her but she dodges and kicks him. The kick is met with a stream of electric current throughout her entire body.

"He's got the static electricity systems running." She realizes that any contact means she'll be hurting herself but she also knows she's out of options. "You have no idea who you're messing with."

Her hits come down with incredible strength and precision but each one takes a horrible tole. The electric currents flow through her with each contact she makes with the enemy. Not only that but he's wearing her invincible Metalla armour.

Charlotte drops low and knocks him off his feet with a spinning kick. She locks his arms in place and keeps him steady in a complex wrestling hold.

"Be careful." She tells him. "I built this armour and I know exactly how it will turn out if you activate any of its features right now. The X cutters will decapitate you. The roller blades will crack your head against a wall. The lasers are all pointing towards your legs and anything else would just blow you up, leaving me unharmed behind you, or be absolutely useless."

"And what about the electric circuits?" He asks.

"Oh crap." The electricity courses through her, setting her hair on end and burning into her muscles.

Charlotte holds on as long as she can but looses consciousness in the end.

The technopath gets ready top impale her on his X cutters but the Agent calls out to him. "That's enough. I want them alive for the sacrifice."

Mary struggles to get away from the heat vision but her body is already covered in burns despite her protection. She lifts up her gun to attack the overconfident enemy but when she pulls the trigger nothing comes out.

"I'm sure the boss wont miss one little kid." The enemies eyes light up and he fires a final blast at Mary.

She shuts her eyes and starts to cry. "Someone."

The blast is nullified against Johnny's coat and his massive fist comes up into the optics user's face.

"Johnny!" Mary is ecstatic but doesn't have time to celebrate because he scoops her up into his arm and runs off.

"Wait! Where are we going?" Mary asks trying to get free but unable to.

"Look around. This is a lost cause." He tells her. "We already know Alex isn't here and from what that Agent guy said I'm certain he's alive in one of the other holding places. They purposely put more guards here to draw us out."

"But what about Charlotte!?" Mary reaches for her gun. "We can't leave her!"

"If the Agent's gone through the trouble of luring us out then that means he's planning something he wants all of us for. He kept Alex alive for three days. It's not out of the question for him to keep Charlotte alive too. But the fact still remains that we're out numbered and out classed. We're not abandoning Charlotte. We're going to find Alex and then come back with a much more powerful team."

"We really are pretty weak without him." Mary looks down at her empty guns. "This sucks."

"I know." Johnny keeps running.

"Wake up." I feel a slap against my face and wake up, still locked away in the Depraved holding house.

"Toradora!" I yell out as I wake up. "Musta dozed off. What I miss?"

They roll in a TV.

"We gonna have movie night? Best kidnapping ever." I smirk.

They turn the video on and a guy in a black mask and a suit shows up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you mr. Arkham. Please don't be alarmed. Only the people in this room and my boss know your identity. We know how much these things mean to you hero types."

"Booooring." I yawn. "Let's watch the Familiar of Zero."

"For your information we are sending this video to you from the old Cathedral Blackstone on Rose Avenue." He's telling the truth. He's playing with me. Iihihihiinteresting. "And now to the point, earlier our operations where interrupted by a small group of your comrades. They trespassed on my people and where humiliatingly defeated. Oh don't worry. Two of them escaped. As for this one."

The camera shows Charlotte laying unconscious, tied up in the corner.

"This one is another story. I hope you will understand that we mean you no inconvenience in taking her hostage. We simply must eliminate every threat to our organization. To show you we feel no spite I've orchestrated a little show. I hope you enjoy it."

The camera angle changes so I can't see that well but Charlotte wakes up as several men walk into the room. I watch on silently as the men tear her clothes away as her screams for help are muffled by the tape over her mouth.

"I can't watch this s**t." Teddy walks out of the room.

"Are you okay with this?" Melissa asks me.

"Just fine." I tell her with a warm smile. "Since Teddy's out of the room now and can't hear us past the video, I wanted to talk to you about our sessions."

"Are you sure he wont hear us?"

"It's alright. This will be the most important session of all." My smile is sweet and bright but behind it lies a deep potent venom. "Let's talk about your happiness."

Charlotte regains consciousness inside of a massive cathedral. He weapons are gone and her arms are chained to a wall at the front of the cathedral as if she has been set up on display.

"Crap." She tries to wiggle out of the chains around her arms. "How do I get out of here?"

"There isn't really any way out." The Agent walks out from the shadows. "The only options you have are simply impossible to achieve. I hope you don't mind but I sent Red X a video to show him your safe. I would hate it if our honoured guest had to worry for the safety of his friends."

"What are you talking about?" Charlotte's in no mood for chatty company at the moment.

"How rude. I never introduced myself did I?" He bows politely. "I am the humble servant of Shekari, the mighty god of Xenothium and future ruler of this pathetic world. I welcome you to my small operation and thank you for playing the role of Red X's torment."

"His what?"

"I don't blame you for misunderstanding the situation. I myself had not even thought that today would work out so well." He smiles at her from under his mask. "You're little attack on my people worked out well for me. My boss wanted to kill Red X himself as a sacrifice to Shekari but he's out and wont get back until tomorrow. I was so bored, waiting and waiting. Now you've provided me with a little entertainment. I had no idea that one of Red X's partners was a woman, and such a cute one at that. Creating the video and sending it to him will cause such a deliciously wonderful despair."

"What video?" Charlotte's defiant eyes glare at the man as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a remote. When he presses the button a screen falls behind him and the video plays.

"As you can see it is a masterpiece. No man could watch his loved ones go through such realistic torment and not be thrown into despair. It gives me chills. Can you not appreciate the sheer exactly of causing another person to loose faith or feel pain? Of course you can't. Only those who have been chosen can truly understand."

Charlotte can't hold it in anymore and bursts out laughing. "You-kehaha-You're an idiot! You really think you can just-PUAHAHA!"

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because. You're an even bigger idiot than he is." She gives him a dark smile. "You have no idea what that guy can do when he's mad. Do you actually think that kidnapping me gained you some sort of emotional advantage over him? I'm not sure that idiot knows how to feel depressed or despair or whatever you called it."

"Are you saying even someone like me, the demon of Shekari, cannot cause this mere mortal pain?"

"There is nothing mere about that mortal." Charlotte leans back and relaxes. "All that stupid video did was tell him where to find you and when he does you're all going to die."

"There are over four hundred guards posted in his holding facility at any moment including my second in command as their captain. After that he would have to come here where seven hundred fully armed members of my Depraved squadron are stationed in the courtyard. Also, there are two hundred soldiers waiting just outside this door. After that if he is still alive he may prove to be worthy of fighting a demon like myself."

"If you're a demon than he's a-"

"Devil!" A frightened guard runs frantically through the halls of the Depraved holding facility moments before his screams are silenced forever. "She's been possessed by a devil!"

"Come in. Come in." The commander tosses his microphone on the ground and storms over to the ammunitions room. "Status report. What the hell is happening?"

"Sightings say it's one of ours." One of the only five Depraved members still alive reports to him. "We've lost groups nine and six as well."

"Then we're the only ones left." The commander grabs a gun from the ammunition counter and places it in his holster. "I want this son of a b***h dead before I hear another word from any of you."

The door behind him opens and a grenade roles in through the crack. The commander looks down at it in horror.

"Aw shi-" Boom!

When the commanders eyes clear and he can see through the rubble he finds the corpses of his subordinates surrounding him. He's the only one left. He tries to get up but at first thinks his arm is broken. He looks down and finds that the debris has trapped both his right arm and leg.

"Commander." Melissa walks in through the door.

"You're the traitor!?" He reaches for his gun but she shoots his hand and it falls limp on his chest before falling to his side lifelessly. "What did he offer you? Money?"

"He didn't offer me anything." She tells him sitting down on his hips and looking into his eyes. "I'm doing this myself."

"Why?"

"You where never this interested in me before." She smiles.

"Whatever he told you is a lie. He's trying to confuse you."

"I've never seen things so clearly." She holds her gun up to his chin and moves in closer. "No matter how much I tried or how far I got you would never see me as anything more than a subordinate. I tried to trick myself for so long. I joined this stupid group so I could get your attention but even though I rose higher and higher you kept ignoring me. You didn't even see me."

"He's manipulating you." The commander tries to reach for his gun with his trapped hand but it can't escape the debris. "He's using your emotions to make you turn against us."

Melissa giggles and places a kiss on the commanders cheek. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that. You've always been so cold to me, but now I know what I have to do."

She reaches down and grabs a second gun from her holster.

"This way we can be together forever."

"Don't do it." He tries to stop her but it's too late. She places the second gun to her head and the first to his and pulls the triggers.

"Got awful loud out there, eh Teddy?" I ask the only remaining guard when the fighting ends.

"Will you just shut up!?" He groans.

"If you don't want to talk about that then we could talk about your kids, Rachel and Bobby."

"How do you know I have kids?"

"Melissa told me."

"Right." He laughs. "That girls the tightest lipped person I know."

"If you're not gonna talk could you at least give me a glass of water? I'm dying here."

"Fine. Just stop talking." He walks over to the water cooler and pours some into a paper cup. He holds the cup to my lips and I take some.

"Thanks." I drop the water from my mouth into the glowing opening of the mechanical device holding my legs. It shorts out and I kick the cup out of his hands, splashing the remainder of the water into the opening keeping my hands hostage.

Teddy reaches for his gun but I grab him by the arm and slam him against the wall first. I pin him to the wall with my elbow an stick the gun to the back of his head.

"Please don't kill me!" He begs.

"I'm not gonna kill you Teddy, I can call you Teddy can't I?" I tell him. "But what I am going to do is give you a choice. You can either quit the Depraved and go home to your family or I pull this trigger the very next time I see you."

"Okay. I'll quit. Just leave me alone!" He cries.

"Fine." I take the gun from his head and open the door. "You may want to get out."

I walk up to the place the two lovers died and grab a gun from the commanders holster before placing the last pack of explosives in the room.

I open a window and wave at the two dead bodies before grappling to the next building and pressing a button on the trigger to the explosives I was placing around the building. It goes up in flames as I watch from the next building over.

"Now for the Agent."

Preview Time!

Johnny: "So, I guess it's just us."

Mary: "Guess so."

Red Claw: "I'm still here."

HumanX: "Me too."

Mary: "So, what are we gonna talk about?"

...

Johnny: "Maybe we should just do the preview."

Mary: "Alright. Next time on Red X Oscura, directed by the fury provided by the video, Alex makes his way to the Rose avenue church. Blood rains from the sky as deceit gives way to truth and Alex falls further into the darkness. WIthin the darkness of the Depraved Alex's true power shines through and what is the third way of the True Master which Alex has yet to reveal? Next chapter: Alex's Hatred, The True Form of the Bloody Red X."

Red Claw: "This reminds me of the old days."

Johnny: "Wasn't that just two years ago?"

Ch13

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. Beware sexual content and stuff like that. Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

Two suited figures stand at attention as they watch an interrogation take place behind protective glass. "He's quite exceptional. Both on the physical and mental preparation exams he scored in the top ninety percent. At only eighteen it's very impressive. He shows a good work effort too but he has cooperation problems. In short, he does not work well with others. There has also been shown a lack of respect towards authority figures as well as a tendency to ask unnecessary questions. Alongside that his record contain massive gaps spanning years of time and the entire record itself could be fabricated. It also appeared that he knew about our organization before working at Multigon."

"And you're telling me he was the only survivor?"

"Yes. It seems that the rest of his platoon has committed a joint suicide. A rather brutal one at that." The old man opens up a file containing pictures and notes about the incident. "Several of the victims had their bodies burnt, their eyes impaled and wrists slit. But the strangest thing is the large X shaped symbols carved into each one the his platoon members chests. The same symbol was carved into several of the male civilians who where involved in the attack."

"You called the deceased victims. Do you believe they where murdered instead of committing suicide?"

"My opinion doesn't matter. It is clear that someone would have had to torture these people as the pain of inflicting these wounds would have stopped them from committing these acts on themselves. Also, many of the dead where our own operatives. There was nothing in their files about instability in the mind nor anything that could suggest they would do something like this."

"But they did. And the only remaining factor is the one survivor. He's quite the enigma. I would like to talk with him myself."

Within minutes the operative who was to originally interrogate the accused is replaced by the person who was watching from behind the glass.

The room is completely white, leaving nothing to be hidden. There is nothing but a table and two chairs in this room. It has a damp smell and the air is still, lingering in the space between the padded roof and the steel floor. It's as if this room is another world completely. It is intimidating but not something that cannot be manipulated to either sides advantage.

Slouched in the chair on the far side of the table is an eighteen year old boy. Dyed black hair sits like a mop on his head and a thin white shirt is draped over his slim figure. He looks like nothing but a beaten child until the new interrogator sits down.

"Is it time for my phone call?" The boy asks, lifting his head up and dropping his shackled arms on the table. His head falls into the arms and he rests it between them. "Or is this the part where you try to kill me?"

"My name is Natalya." The woman tells me, opening a file filled with papers and placing them on the desk. She's beautiful to say the least. Her light blue eyes are nearly white as they travel along page after page of gruesome documentation and her hair is the black of night. One streak of hair is white and sets itself apart from the rest.

"Desmond Grant." The boy introduces himself.

Natalya looks at him for a moment then goes back to her interrogation. "Did you kill these men?" She holds out the pictures but without looking at them the boy smiles kindly at her.

"You smell nice."

"It's a pheromonal cocktail designed to make men more compliant to my questioning. Apparently you're immune."

"I'm not completely unaffected." The boy gives her a grin. "But back to your questions."

"If you're not going to tell me if you killed them or not then tell me how they died."

"How much do you know about the human mind?" The boy asks her.

"Quite a bit."

"Then you know that it is a powerful tool. Creative, logical and can even move a person past their limits. The old saying is "if you put your mind to it you can do anything". Now, if the human mind is powerful enough to push a person past their physical limits in order to save something close to then it stands to reason that it can also push a person to harm themselves past their limits."

"What did you do to those men?"

"I didn't really do anything. We had a little talk. As it turns out those people had quite a bit of guilt locked up inside of them. I just helped them to realize it."

"That guilt would be directed around the female prisoners who where found unharmed? They seemed to be afraid of you but a few of them felt they shouldn't be separated form you. A few have called you a saviour."

"Saviour's a little much. I spoke with a few generals and some captains before the incidents occurred and one after another people began to go bonkers. If you look at the history of what happens when a group of men have been given absolute power over any number of women you will see where they found the guilt needed to obtain such reactions."

When she adds the details of the woman's physical testing after the incident to his seemingly randomized ramblings she easily understands. "So, once you found out that the women where being abused by the soldiers you turned on them. And the way you did it was by using these talks?"

"Abused?" He chuckles as his head tilts to the side, moving the hair away from one of his eyes, so he can get a better view. "They raped the women they wanted and killed their husbands. The ones they didn't want and the ones who tried to resist where killed in front of the others…sometimes worse." His teeth cut down into his lower lip until it bleeds. He pauses momentarily to lick the blood away. "Some of them had children and others where young, very young. Those things you call soldiers didn't care about any of that. An animal can't understand how a human feels you see. A jackal doesn't think about the feelings of the human its about to devour."

"How did you kill them only by talking?"

"I told you I didn't kill them. They killed themselves."

"Those men had undergone intensive mental and physical training in order to become the best soldiers."

"Exactly." He rocks forwards and points at her with a smile, seemingly excited that she said that. "Soldiers. What mind is easier to manipulate then one that is normally being bent in all directions by every order given. It's like playing with play dough."

"How?"

"Once you know how the mind works a person will do what you want them to do, react how you want them to react and feel how you want them to feel. All you need to do is say the right thing at the right time and you can control anyone. There's no trick to it, just the study of the human mind. Consider it my greatest ability."

She picks up her papers. "You will be taken to a holding facility until further notice."

"Aw. I wanted you to stick around and play interrogator a bit more."

Before she leaves she turns to me and says "By the way, your pretend identity is a security risk. We would like to know your real name."

"You wont find anything past my childhood years of interest anyway."

She says nothing so the boy gives in. "It's Alex Arkham."

When the door closes Natalya turns to the guard.

"I want him to be put under my personal care."

In a splash of blood the untouched snow on the rooftop dying it deep red. I look across the roof at my old teacher with a smile.

"It's been a while." Red Claw faces me with her crimson painted lips edged into a smirk. "I see you've been well."

Blood streams down my arm from a cut in my left shoulder. I smile at her with no signs of compassion one would expect from seeing someone again after a long time. "It's been two years Natalya. What could Multigon want from me now? I thought I made it clear when I left that I wouldn't be coming back."

"Don't think so highly of yourself." She tells me, holding the blood covered knife she ripped through my shoulder with. "I don't have any time to chase down deserters. I am here on business."

"Assassination. And I'm the target? Kehehe. Sounds like fun."

"Don't act so confident." She tells me, tossing the knife so fast it nearly impales my forehead before I grab it by the handle. "It was far too easy for me to cut your arm. I would have never been able to cause such a deep wound on you so easily before. You've gotten weak. And why are you living with those people?"

"Oh, you know about Charlotte? I guess that explains why you're so eager to put a blade through me." I chuckle. "Why do women get so jealous when they see someone they used to love with another woman? Oh, such a hard life it is for us, the young and beautiful."

"You always surrounded yourself with the strong and powerful. Why would you drop so low?" Red Claw asks. "You've never shown an interest in socialization or friendships before."

"Are you worried about me?" I put on a fake happy voice. "That's so sweet."

"How long do you intend to continue this idiot act? I thought you may have grown in two years." She looks at me disappointedly. "But it seems that you have lost your edge while pursuing these idiotic games."

"You know I don't play idiotic games." I disappear from the ground in a cloud of snow and reappear behind her, reaching around and grabbing her left breast. "I play pervy ones." I chuckle. She sighs and goes to elbow me in the stomach but I fade into another flurry of movement and show up in front of her, reaching out for her right breast.

"How long do I have to endure this stupidity?" Red Claw sighs and slaps me across the cheek. I drop to the ground and dive between her legs, grabbing both her thighs from behind and using them as leverage to flip up over her head and avoid her backwards spinning kick. I land behind her again and grab her from behind, pressing two fingers to her stomach and another two against her rib cage under her right breast.

When Red Claw tries to turn and face me her legs give way and she feels a deep pain in her chest.

"I can't move." She cringes as she realizes what I've been doing. She gives a dark chuckle. "Pushing my pressure points under the guise of perverted groping. I can't believe I fell for that old tactic of yours."

"You've gained some weight." I tell her, holding up two fingers and backing towards the ledge of the roof. "You're thighs are getting a little pudgy, but at least your jigglers got bigger from the extra chub around your chest. Must be your age catching up to ya. Thirty-something's a drag, huh?" I step to the edge and drop off. "See ya in a bit."

It takes about twenty seconds for Red Claw to return her pressure points to normal and come back to find me. She does so soon enough since she only has to wait for me to return to her myself.

She leaps out of the way before my crimson shuriken can stab into her.

"You didn't come looking for me." I stand atop the building beside her, overlooking her by about twelve feet. I've dawned my Red X costume (try and guess where I've been hiding it...). "I'm hurt."

"You may be a pervert but you have never been a coward." She tells me, activating her clawed gauntlets and spinning around, firing a blast of energy from her palm. "I knew you'd come back."

I step to the side, allowing the blast to miss me by inches. It cuts through the air behind me with the precision of a tiger cutting through it prey. The moisture in the air behind it bends as heated vapour.

"Now that's new." I smirk under the mask.

"Now I see why your skills have rusted." Red Claw tells me as she charges both her gauntlets and holds her palms together. "That suit seems to be made of an incredible material which protects you from harm. You've become spoiled by that armour. But you should know that no suit can protect you from me."

I laugh and point a thumb to the X on my chest. "I'm not wearing it for protection. I'm wearing it to look bada**, because I am the whales balls and this suit just lets everyone who sees me know it. I want you to know it too because you are such a big part of my life and you should see what you helped to create."

A large group of criminals gather around a large round table, each one holding a card in their carefully though out plan. One thousand of England's wort criminals including Gentleman Ghost, King Snake and Sister Superior.

"Why are meeting like this?" King Snake asks those around him, brushing blonde hair from his face. "I'm supposed to be presumed dead right now. If I resurface, let alone with a group planning a complete terrorist attack against England-"

"My good sir, please control yourself." Gentleman Ghost holds out a hand to the overly worried man beside him. "We would not be meeting like this if the matter where not of great importance."

"As a matter of fact, they are." An unknown man hands out documents to those around the table. "We only have half of the codes needed to gain access to the nuclear missiles. Frederik Pennyworth gave in to the truth serum provided by Sister Superior's forces but we are currently looking for the person who possesses the second half of the code."

"Jolly good, as they say." Gentleman Ghost stands up and addresses the room. "Then we are looking at the glass as half full, are we not?"

"You stupid git." One out of the faceless group members groans. "If we don't have the second half of the code then we can't get the bloody missiles to even activate, let alone use them to hold England ransom."

"But you forget, my over excited friend." The Ghost tips his white top hat. "We needn't worry about the missiles."

"And why not?" Sister Superior asks.

"Simple, my dear." The hat tips up and where there is usually no face, the lips of a beautiful young woman reconstruct into a murderous smile. The Ghost's voice changes to match the lips. "Because your cover is already blown."

In a twist of her arm a gun falls out from her white sleeve. She fires at the man at the head of the table. The bullet punctures his heart, leaving him dead on the table.

The rest of the conglomerates reach for their guns but a small object crashes through the window and lands in the centre of the table, exploding and filling the room with gas. The woman drops her Gentleman Ghost costume to reveal herself to be Red Claw and begins firing at all of the enemies.

"Where are our bodyguards?!" One of the men calls out.

"There's no one out there! Everyone's dead!" Another calls towards him seconds before a bullet penetrates his skull.

Red Claw tosses three of the men across the room. Suddenly her eardrums tremble as a supersonic wave overtakes her and she clasps her hands to her ears instinctively.

Sister Superior shows herself as the attacker, having used her cyborg arm to send out supersonics and attack Red Claw from a distance. "I have you now foreigner bit-"

She's interrupted by a flying shuriken as it sinks into her arm, causing an increase in feedback and a section of it explodes, knocking her to the ground before she can finish off Claw.

"Sorry I'm late everyone." My body from two years ago crashes through the window and lands on the centre of the table, surrounded by scared business men with guns. I reach into my black jacket and pull out two hand guns, pointing them out to either side of me. The blood coloured X on my shirt waves like a flag on my chest. "I got turned around at Windsor castle somehow ended up on top of the London Eye. I hope you didn't miss me too much."

Two shots are fired but ricochet in an X formation through the room, repeating three times. Twelve of the gangsters drop dead and four of them drop their guns in fear.

"What are you doing!?" One of them asks one of the ones who fell.

"They're real…f**k, they're real." He quivers on the ground in fright.

Several of the would be terrorists send bullets shredding at both Red Claw and myself. With both grace and style we weave through the metallic rain like water around rocks. With each step another bullet is fired from our guns and another several of the terrorists fall.

"They're inhuman. I never though the Red Claw organization existed." The scared man from before crawls into a corner.

"Who are they!?" King Snake grabs the man off the ground.

"An organization which functions outside of the knowledge of any government. Other stories even say they control the governments of the world. They decide who lives and dies. No one's ever lived to talk about them as more than a fairytale. The leaders are Red Claw and her subordinate."

Within seconds half of the terrorists are dead.

"They're real. They're real." The man bites down on his own tongue, killing himself.

"Fool." King Snake drops the mans dead body on the ground. "Afraid of a rumour." Despite his words King Snake escapes in the riot.

"I've heard these stories." Sister Superior stands up to face us. "The fabled red Claw organization which controls the world behind the scenes and its unstoppable leader. I know of you too." She looks over to me. "The bloody red X. Named after the various X's you carve into your victims. If you really are the real deal then I admire you, but that will not prevent me from killing you."

"Come and try." I urge her on, eager for a battle that doesn't involve an instant win.

Her arms turn into blades and she comes at me. I hop back out of the way and flip into a double legged kick to her jaw. She tries to cut me from the side but I jump up onto her blade and flick her nose.

"Naw naw nana naw." I hop off the blade and she turns it into a gun, firing three blast of energy at me. I dodge them and pocket my guns. "I thought I might get a challenge. All we have is a cyborg with a biker lesbian haircut. She can't even fight. Killing Krillin would be harder."

I fade out of sight and reappear behind her grabbing a knife from my sleeve and slashing her from behind, leaving my patented X mark. She turns around and tries to attack me but I'm already half way through flipping over her head. When I land I knock her out.

Red Claw gets out her phone. "Get the erasers here. We have one survivor and we don't need her remembering us."

Back at the base I get a lecture along with a training session with my boss.

"You hold back." She lunges a metallic claw at me and I duck under it. "You let two of our targets live."

"Unnecessary kills." I jump over a lower kick she sends my way and block a punch after that. "They where both well known criminals so their disappearance could arouse questions."

"Not as many questions as King Snake will rise if he tells anyone about us. If people knew that Multigon is really a cover for the true ruling organization of the world-"

I block her spinning kick and cut her off with my explanation. "He's clearly undercover himself and was partaking in a major criminal meeting which itself had to be kept secret. He'd be an idiot if he thought that he could out us without outing himself. We just need to make sure he dies the next time he resurfaces."

"And what about Sister Superior?" She grabs my arm and flips me over her head.

I spin my body at the right angle to plant my feet on the ground before she can hurt me with her flip. I break my arm free and step back. "We cleared her mind and sent her out with no recollection of the meeting or the organization she was a part of. After that I did clear her computers of anything related to them which could trigger memories we did not have the power to erase."

"The point remains that you could have just killed them."

"I don't like doing that."

"You had no trouble with killing those men when you first came to my attention."

"I told you, I don't consider those who commit rape people." I try to land a punch against her chest, but its a cover so I can try to cop a squishy. "So I have no problem killing them."

"That's right." She sighs and slaps the hand away before I can reach her. "You twisted moral code. Is that one of those things you picked up in China?"

"Actually my master never wanted me to kill anyone. My deep seeded hatred is rooted in another part of my past." She ducks down and tries to sweep my feet with her leg but I jump over it again and come in at her with chops.

She backs away and weaves between them easily, grabbing my arm after the sixth attack and sending in a punch to my stomach. I turn out of the way in time but she turns me back around and my head squishes into her pai pai pillows and before I know it I'm thrown over her head, landing with mine flat against the ground.

"Ow, my nose. Why is it always the d**n nose with you?" I ask her, standing up with my hand against my throbbing face. "My pants moistening good looks are going to go right down the drain if you keep this up."

"You're still doing that X thing when you use multiple attacks in a row." Natalya puts a hand on her hip and sighs, a single drop of sweat dripping from her cheek. "It makes you predictable. If you think that you can really on your intelligence and mysterious Chinese skills alone you could easily rule a country or maybe even the world…if I let you. But if you want to be the best you need more. You need to close yourself off from this sense of morality you cling too. How can you destroy all the people threatening you if you're not capable of delivering the final blow?"

"I can kill if I need too. I just don't need too." She tosses me a towel.

"It's like listening to a drug addict telling me they can quit at any time."

"This isn't really about killing is it?"

"Fine. You want the whole thing at once?" She faces me.

"Oh, pretty please Natalya." I put on a fake excitement voice. "I do so love when you point out my flaws. My teenaged self esteem just rises into the sky, soaring like a bird on a mid summers breeze."

"You do things half-a**ed. You never put everything into it. In this business that could kill you. If you're always one step ahead someone else is one hundred steps ahead of you. You need to stop holding back and leaving all these loose ends for cheep thrills. I know that you've been holding your true potential down your entire life, whether it be to avoid the jealousy of your father or to simply entertain yourself by playing with lesser minds, you still hold back."

"So, what are we gonna do about that? how can I stretch myself if I don't have any challenges?"

Her red lips curve into her sadistic smile. "We find you some."

Back to modern day.

I slice at Claw with my X cutters and she avoids them easily.

"That metal in your costume is unbreakable, as far as Earth technology goes." She tells me, not even a sign of distress on her face. "But it's useless if you can't hit me." She takes up her signature stance and pushes past my rotating blades, pressing a hand against my stomach. "It can't even be used to defend you."

I jump back and clench my stomach. D**n. I forgot about her Wenrou Bangong De Fangshi, way of gentle strikes. It's also knows as the armour piercing palms. A technique which uses the vibrations in a palm strike to rupture a person's insides. It doesn't matter whether I'm wearing metal armour or paper. The vibrations go straight through and damage my insides, and she's a master of the technique.

I lick the blood from my lip which was wrenched up from my throat. Lucky for me the Wenrou Bangong De Fangshi takes a few shots to actually do fatal damage. It looks like she's planning on actually killing me. She never does anything half a**ed.

I toss four bombs into the sky and a red stream of light erupts from each of them, connecting in the middle and falling down on Claw like a spinning fan blade falling from the sky. She jumps through it, avoiding the spinning lasers and landing safely on the rooftop.

Red Claw thrusts her gauntlet forwards and wires attached to weights spring from it. I flip through the wires as they chase me down with a life about them which could be mistaken for their own will. One of them snags my arm and I get tossed across the roof. It lets me go just in time for me to grab the side of the roof.

Before I can get back up Claw slashes her gauntlets towards the roof, firing the beams from her fingernails. The ledge I'm hanging onto bursts and I fall to the ground. She leaps down into the alley way and tries to impale my head on her gauntlet. I role out of the way and kick up, knocking her back into the wall and giving myself the time I needed to get up and try to stab her with my X Cutters. She knocks it out of the way and lands a palm on my stomach.

I have to back up before she can get another strike but I don't have enough room and she gets me again. This time my stomach feels like it just exploded and I puke blood into my helmet. Knowing I'm blind Red Claw spin kicks me across the face and as I'm falling over, grabs my cape and uses me as a board to surf across the snowy ground. She hits me with more of her Wenrou Bangong De Fangshi as we go along.

I tear the helmet off my face because I can't be blind when I face her. I don't have much time after that because she immediately turns her attention to my fcae and spin kicks me again.

Red Claw backs me up against the wall and keeps trying to hit me with her gentle strikes. Since I can't let her touch my armour I block each attack with my cape.

"At least you haven't lost your creativity." She tells me.

Her gauntlet burns red and I move out of the way seconds before she puts her gauntlet right through the wall behind me. Her gauntlets are filled with muscle enhancing tech just like my costume. I have to guess from her jumps earlier that she also has them on her legs and spine too. No wonder she's been moving so fast.

I block one of her kicks, since gentle strikes can only be preformed through the palms of the hands, and throw my arms to the sides. The X on my chest glows brightly, sending out a beam and pushing her back into the opposite wall.

"And now you're using some strange energy too?" She asks me, unscathed. "So, I guess you finally solved your Xenothium problem when you went to collage." She sighs and grabs a hand full of bombs from her pocket. "Indestructible armour and limitless energy sources but I'm still standing here. I guess that means you've fallen further than I though." Her stern look melts into a bright sadistic smile. "I'll have to beat you twice as horrifically as punishment."

One shot to my face, the second two are to my stomach and the third flips me off my feet. I land hard on the ground and don't have the time to avoid the gentle strikes to my chest. My heart feels like it's going to pop.

As I lay flat on my back I look up at my old teacher.

"Natalya." I say to her. "This is real isn't it?"

"Yes." She tells me.

I smile and a small laugh escapes my throat. "This feels just lie when you where teaching me not to hold myself back."

"That was when I was teaching you the Wenrou Bangong De Fanshi. With your training in China you had so much more skill and power than I did but you never could kill women or kids. I didn't mind too much about the women because I got to torture them myself and kids where never a problem for Multigon, so you where pretty efficient even with that. But still, I tried so hard to get you motivated for missions. Eventually I figured out there was only one thing that could get you excited."

"What can I say? A ride on the mammary wagon's the best reward for an adolescent boy. Besides, the only the way to get me going was when I got my nickname, the bloody red X."

"If only you where like that all the time." She smiles.

"But that's what I'm trying to say." I smile up at her. "I'm actually in the middle of trying to find someone and can't waste anymore time. So from now on I'm going to fight you seriously."

"Finally."

My armour glows for a moment and a flash of red light in the shape of an X bursts from the alleyway.

The alleyway is filled with smoke and Natalya looks around trying to find me.

"Your Bangong Mang She, the strike of the blind serpent. One of your Chinese moves." Natalya closes her eyes. "A momentary burst of extreme speed resulting in the users body disappearing into a blur of movement, giving the illusion of invisibility. You used this the first time we fought seriously too."

She hears me coming and blocks my attack from behind. "The problem with the technique is that for the time you use it you're blinded by the rush of movement. Also, you can only travel in a straight line while using it, meaning you can't turn away from an enemy attack. To change direction you have to come out of the technique and start it again."

She grabs me by the cape and throws me to the ground. I point up and she looks in time to notice four of my shuriken stuck into the wall. They spark on and beams of light stretch from each of them, meeting together in an X formation. I charge my chest cannon and blast Natalya back into the crimson coloured X. She is zapped by the electric current flowing through it but refuses to give in.

I move into my Bangong Mang She and try to slash her stomach with my X cutters. She grabs my arm and goes for a hit to my stomach with her Wenrou Bangong De Fangshi. It's my blind serpent verses her gentle strikes.

I reach around her from behind and hook her neck in my arm, activating my roller blades inside me shoes and climbing the wall at high speed. I leap off the side of the wall and we reach around two stories up into the air. I repositions my arms across her chest, locking her arms out to the side and forcing our heads towards the ground. Seconds before we hit the rooftop she starts up her gauntlets and spike son wires fire from each one, stabbing into the walls of other nearby buildings and slowing our fall. When we stop falling, inches from the ground she kicks me off of her.

"Back to the rooftops again?" She asks me, grabbing out a gun from her belt and firing at me. I block my exposed face but the impact of the lasers hit me and I fall back. Before I can fall on my a** again my hand slams into the ground and my body rotates, pushing me back to my feet. My wrists and back bend into a primitive looking stance as I drop my body down and rest my entire weight on my knuckles. In a flash I move in for a punch to her throat, closing the distance between us instantly. She grabs my wrist before I can hit her and I grab her arm with my other hand, dropping to my back and tossing her almost off the building. She extends a spike from her gauntlet and digs it into the building before she can fall bet before she gets to her feet I hook her mid section between my legs and flip her again, this time forcing her head into the stone rooftop. I go in for a finishing attack but she pulls out her gun and I flip out of the way. I grab a bunch of shuriken out of my belt and throw them all at once. The bombs explode and give me the cover I need to try and cut her neck with my X cutters. She blocks me and her gauntlets palm opens up in front of my face.

"S**t!" I take the full force of the concussive blast dead on with no armour to protect me. I'm about to get up, my vision hazy and my body soar. All of Natalya's gentle strikes take their tole on my body. It feels like my insides are being mangled by Kenshiro. I try to move but the heel of Natalya's boot digs into my aching head.

"Why can't you see what I'm trying to do?" Natalya asks me. "It's been two years since you left Multigon and you haven't grow in the slightest. You still think that overwhelming power is all you need to survive, but for people like us we need to be heartless. You can't hold back. Never let anyone see your weakness. The second you let your guard down you die. You let that sweet little girl break down the wall of ice you took so long to create and now I'm going to have to kill you because you weren't strong enough to kill me first. Why can't you understand that when you let other in you loose your power." Tears begin to stream down her cheeks. "Even after telling me that you where going to fight seriously you still held back."

"Who said I was holding back? I was really fighting you seriously just now." I tell her as she pushed the heel deeper into my temple. "The fact is that I just can't beat you with those gauntlets of yours." A part of her gauntlet chips off. "So I had to wait" The power source begins to die down. "And plan." It's systems shut off and Natalya starts to realize what I've done. "And edge away at your nearly indestructible cherished weapon" The gauntlets break apart completely and its pieces fall to the ground. "Until it breaks completely."

"You sneaky little-" She is about to push her heel into my temple and kill me but I spin my body in to snow and kick her off.

I place both my hands against the ground and stop the spinning, kicking out and rising to my feet as I hop into my second stance. "Tiaoyue De Houzi De Juedou. otherwise known as the duel of the leaping monkey." I smirk like a monkey itself before rushing in at her with a lightning fast flurry of kicks and punches.

"Tiaoyue De Houzi De Juedou is a style of close and long range fighting involving extremely fast movements and a series of flips, spins and high end acrobatics. It's a style which emphasizes speed and agility in its teaching as well as a complex mind capable of thinking through steps far before executing them. Unlike Bangong Mang She it is not a single technique but a separate fighting style itself." Red Claw thinks over my movements and tries to counter them. The second she tries to attack my upper body I bend backwards and drop to my hands, kicking up with my feet and falling back into a backflip and grab a shuriken from my pocket right before landing back on my feet. I toss the shuriken which tear through Red Claws armoured clothes like paper.

Red Claw retaliates by pulling out her guns but I toss my shuriken at her again, impaling the gun and using the resulting explosion as cover to attack. Twisting my wrist to face upwards I slam my palm into her stomach, lifting her into the air before I drop my back onto the ground and kick her once with each leg. With that I spin on the ground and face the opposite way of her slamming my elbow into her stomach as I turn back around and place a bomb on her stomach. Her armour protects her from the explosion but she nearly falls off the side of the building. Before she can she takes out a grapple and fires it so it wraps around my neck, pulling me off the building with her. We both hit the ground hard and slowly get to our feet.

"Now I get it." She laughs as her white streak of hair is brushed from her face. "All those times you let me hit you before where so that you could weaken my gauntlets to the point that they broke off. You knew they had a tendency to overheat and all you needed to do was let me hit you with the right parts and it would eat itself right off my hand. I'm assuming you had a little something mixed in with one of those smoke bombs which caused the erosion effect to speed up. You knew that without my gauntlets I'd be weakened. I didn't account for your own weapons to be made out of a superior metal when I came to fight you either."

"I've always had a way of leaving women defenceless." I smirk cockily, knowing that the first part of the battle is won. "It's one of the side effects of being so adorable."

"But now it seems that you're belt is out of energy. I'm assuming that's your power source. And I'm out of weapons." She tells me, taking off her belt and dropping it on the ground. "We're both injured and tired as well. Looks like it's anyones game."

"Not exactly." I take off my own gauntlets and cape. With no Xenothium charge left they're dead weight. "I still have my the ability to move. And I still need to go find that idiot who stayed out in this blizzard."

"Then come at me." Natalya takes her stance as I take mine.

I disappear into Bangong Mang She and come in straight from the front to give her a high speed punch to the face. She sees me coming and dodges before I even notice. She slams her fist into my stomach and back flip kicks me in the face. When her feet hit the ground again she moves in with Wenrou Bangong De Fangshi but I step out of the way with a lower version of my blind serpent. She gets another hit on my face but I block her next one with my bare arms. The force of it against my weakened muscles sends a shooting pain through my entire upper body.

In the decisive moment I drop down with my back to the floor again, pushing up and slamming my two legs into Red Claw. She blocks it with her arms but I use them as a spring board to land behind her and try to knock her off her feet but she jumps over it and tries to stomp on me. Before she can I role out of the way and jump away from her next kick. We both reach back and our fists slam against each others faces.

The two of us stand completely still. The chilling breeze of the blizzard around us is unfelt my our burning muscles and panting breaths. Both of us look into each others eyes and Natalya smiles. "Looks like I was finally able to push you to your limits. Too bad I didn't get you to try your claws of the iron bear on my again."

"Maybe next time." I tell her. "After all, Multigon may get in the way of my new project."

"Project?"

"It's more Charlotte's idea than mine but I've decided I'll start here in Oscura." I smile warmly at my old teacher with a radiance she hasn't seen in me before. "I've already played a lot of roles but I think I'll give superhero a try."

She laughs at me. "Well, when that gets boring for you there's always a place at Multigon waiting." She smiles back at me as she looses consciousness and falls on the ground.

I turn to leave but think about it for a moment. Grabbing a marker and scribbling cat whiskers and a panda eye circle on her face.

"Now that that's done." I turn around to leave but the full force of the fight hits me and I fall flat against the snow. "D**n. I can't…stay…awa..ke."

As soon as I loose consciousness a man dressed in an expensive suit walks into the alleyway. He pulls a cell phone out of his pocket and lifts it to his ear.

"Crispin. We have him."

Charlotte looks out the large window overlooking the city and sighs as her fingers tap against a mug of hot chocolate. "Where is he?"

Preview Time!

Red Claw: "Hey. What's this I hear about Alex's voice actor being Matt Hill? Can fanfictions even have voice actors?"

Mary: "There was this thing a while ago to tell people what the main four characters voices sound like."

Red Claw: "Why Matt Hill?"

Charlotte: "I think it's because HumanX was watching the arc in Inuyasha with him as the bad guy and really wanted to find a voice actor so he chose him."

HumanX: "I didn't choose him because of lack of time. I chose him because he's good."

Red Claw: "He doesn't fit."

HumanX: "What!?" Total shock.

Red Claw: "I admit that he's good but his voice simply doesn't fit the character."

Charlotte: "I don't think you can change the writers decisions."

Red Claw: "The hell I can't. HumanX."

HumanX: "Yes!" Stands at attention.

Red Claw: "From now on Alex's voice actor is Sam Riegel. Understand?"

HumanX: "Yes. Just don't hurt me."

Charlotte: "Wasn't Sam Riegel Totaku on Ikkitousen."

Red Claw: "That's the role that convinced me."

Mary: "You're into anime too?"

Red Claw: "Kind of have to be if you want to say anything that will effect Alex at all."

Charlotte: "True."

Johnny: "I think everyone is forgetting what preview time is about."

Red Claw: "Called it. Lost behind enemy lines Alex is kept prisoner by the Depraved. Can a rescue mission have any chance at saving him? Old enemies resurface and stakes rise as alliances are formed. The next Red X Oscura, Alex Arkham Rescue Party invade the enemy base."

Ch12

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. Beware sexual content (Talking about naughty parts) and stuff like that. Readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

The sun barely breaches the drawn curtains of Charlotte's room as she taps away at her computer. She wipes her forehead with her sleeve.

"Why are you up so late?" My arms reach out from behind and grab her. "New design for the suit?"

"I was thinking we could put in some close combat gear since you said you didn't want to go with the gun idea. What do you have against those?" She asks me as she ignores my prank and continues to work.

"I don't have anything against them. It's not like I hate them."

"Another half a**es answer, huh?" She sighs and continues her work.

"Why aren't you paying attention to me?" I ask her as I grab her mug of coffee off her desk and take a sip only to spit it right back into the cup. "It's ice cold."

"It's iced coffee."

"Maybe in another life. When did you buy this?"

"Around lunch today."

"You mean yesterday. It's already 7:00 AM. Have you even taken a break?"

"Too busy."

"You're wearing glasses. That's a new look." I reach out and poke the side of them.

She swats my hand away.

"I need them to read sometimes."

"That's why you shouldn't spend all night looking at a computer screen."

I sit on her bed and bounce for a few moments before getting fed up and walking back up to her. I put my head on the back of her chair and hug her from behind again.

"I don't like when you ignore me." I tell her but she grabs my hands and takes them off of her shoulders.

"I'm not in mood for your jokes." She tries to brush me off but her chair whirls around and her face comes within inches of mine.

"What if I'm not joking?" I ask her, holding tight to the arms of her chair and not letting her spin it back around. "Why don't you take a little break and play with me?"

"I've got a lot of work to do." She tries to move her chair but it wont budge.

"Forget about it and come play with me." I grab her by the hand and pull her out of her chair. Before she can regain her control over her balance my leg moves out in front of hers and my free hand moves to her waist, spinning her like they would in a ball room dance and letting her fall on her bed, directly behind me. She blushes when she realizes I'm on top of her. "It's really rare for you to sleep over here. We might as well take advantage of it."

"What are you talking about?" She asks me with her regular defiant glare not looking so menacing hidden behind her glowing red cheeks.

"Consider this your punishment for ignoring me." My hand moves up to the top button of her cute bunny pyjamas and unhooks it.

"No!" She holds on to her shirt so I can't reach the other buttons but I grab both her wrists and hold them back against the blankets. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Just play with me for a little bit. If you don't like it then scream for help." I undo the next two buttons and stop there, opening her shirt so her collar bone is the only bare skin I can see. "That's not so bad, right?"

She tries to get angry at me but can hardly look at my face. "Just get it over with."

My lips press against her collar bone gently. She squirms at the sudden contact and I begin kissing her neck. My hair brushes against her ear as I move further up. I lift my head and move the hair from my face as I smile warmly down at her.

"What?" She asks me, wondering why I've stopped.

"It's nothing." I take her glasses off her face and place them on the table by her bed. "I'm just glad I met you."

Taking advantage of her not knowing what to say I place my lips against hers and-BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Charlotte sits straight up in bed and spins to turn off her alarm clock but slips when she hits it and smacks her head against the table as she falls face first on the ground.

"What the…" The memories of her dream come rushing back to her and she jumps to her feet. "Holy freaking crap! What the hell was that!?"

She runs to her bathroom and smears toothpaste on her brush, shoving it into her mouth to try and clean away the memory of the dream taste.

"Gross. Gross. So gross." She chants over and over until she grabs the cup from the side of her sink and rinses. She breathes nervously for a few moments before looking at herself in the mirror again. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

Somewhere else a man dressed in loose clothing, far too expensive to be as carelessly thrown together as he has done leans into a seat at the back of one of Oscura's more prestigious night clubs. Crispin enjoys the scenery of this place, after all he had it made to cover up many of his dealings behind closed door where all kinds of people walk in and out of. This time he has brought in someone he has never made a deal with before.

The club itself is decorated with more flashing lights than can be seen in the outside world. The walls are covered in grotesque paintings of demonic figures violating angelic representations and in the centre of it all a name written for all to see. The dancing is more a like a fierce battle of screaming demons. Their howls reaching out and rivalling the music which seems to scram along side them. The floor runs orange with Xenotope and drugs of all kinds. Naked bodies rub against one another and the stench of sweat and sex fills the enclosed corners.

"Well, isn't this a surprise." He smiles kindly and holds out a hand towards the woman sitting beside him. "You showed up in person."

"You own quite a club here." The woman does not motion to take his his hand.

"Unlike the stuffed shirts you may have already dealt with I prefer to think more freely." He holds his hand out towards the scene of animalistic carnage. "Dancing is a ritual, a form of tribute. And music provide a sense of freedom. That's what is most important in the world. Rituals and freedoms. Humans are, at the core, animals. We crave what we want so why do we not take it? That is the way of Shekari."

"I thought your god went by a different name." The woman looks out at the carnage but only chooses to look away.

"Until recently I was never able to learn my lords name but his messenger has sent it to me."

"His messenger?" The woman asks.

Crispin holds out a file of stone Xenothium. "Through this I can communicate with the messengers of my lord and learn his will."

"I'm not here for your fake religion." The woman gets ready to stand up.

"Then read this." Crispin tosses her a folder. She looks through it and sees all the information he has on me and the others inside.

"This is all you have?" She asks him.

"Yes. The one to look out for is Red X. He is a very hard person to kill. Honestly, I didn't want to send someone outside of my congregation to do this but I've had to rely on outside help before and the old man was insistent that you be the one to send." He looks at her for a moment before deciding to ask his question. "Do you have any ties to Red X?"

"Why would you believe that?" She asks him.

"Your names, the abilities you've shown when dealing with us, and the way you look at that picture. It seems like you know something about Red X that you're not telling us."

"I don't know anyone by that name." She leaves the folder on his table and leaves.

Charlotte has come out for breakfast and sits at her computer trying to get the thought of that dream out of her head. Johnny is still asleep and probably wont get up until noon but Mary is sitting across from Charlotte and eating a massive bowl of Captain Crunch. I woke up a long time ago and just got back from my morning work out. I notice that Charlotte is too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice me so I decide to play a joke on her.

"Just get it out of your head." She thinks to herself. "The dream him was nothing like him at all. There's nothing similar about them even if…There's just nothing similar about them."

"Hey Charlotte." I wrap my arms around her from behind just like in her dream and she dives forward out of shock, hitting her head against the coffee table. "Um…Was that my fault?"

Mary shrugs her shoulders and ignores us.

"What are you doing!?" Charlotte asks, spinning around and holding her computer in front of her like it's a shield.

"Just saying hi." I walk over to the fridge and grab out a tub of yogurt and a spoon from the drawer. I eat a lot of yogurt. "Hey, you're wearing glasses. That's a new look."

She realizes that she is wearing the ones she had on in her dream and snatches them off her face. She feels very uncomfortable with the fact that how I just said it is the same as how I said it in her dream.

"Are you gonna call me four eyes or something?" She asks and turns away.

"No. Though comical, calling people names is rude and I will not stand for it." I can't figure out why she's so edgy today. "What's the matter with you today?"

She refuses to say anything so I grab a tub of ice cream from the fridge and stick a spoon deep into it, wait a few minutes and quietly walk up behind her, sticking the spoon against her neck. The cold shocks her into standing up and almost dropping her lap top.

"What!?" She yells at me with wide, nervous eyes.

"I don't like when you ignore me." I scoop some ice cream into my mouth. Sweet, it's cookie dough!

"I'm not in the mood for your jokes." She suddenly notices that she's playing right into the role from her dream and remembers what happens next. I leave the spoon in my mouth and reach out for her. She closes her eyes and braces for something to happen but I just pat her shoulder.

"If you where just not feeling in the mood you could've just told me." I tell her and flop myself down on the couch. "No need to go crazy on me."

"I am not crazy." She mutters and sits down beside me.

"Seriously." I sigh and hook her neck under my arm, pulling her into me. "Whatever it is, I don't want to know, but you're such a spaz it makes me want to tease you."

She blushes into my arm. "Shut up."

Mary gives us both a smile but not discretely enough to evade my eyes.

"What are you smiling about?" I ask her.

"Just thinking about what a nice couple you two make." She hums as if it's nothing.

"Me with her/him!?" We say it at the same time. "Now way."

"I would never be caught dead dating some grubby looking looser like this." Charlotte points at me.

"If I even thought of going out with this little gorgon I'd turn to stone." I add in.

"You know, hate is closer to love than you might think." Mary tells us.

"I would rather make out with Johnny." I make a very clear point.

"Whatever you say." She smiles at us and goes back to what she was doing earlier.

"I'd never go out with you, you know." Charlotte tries to solidify the point.

"Neither would I." I agree. "Now, that chick who sits beside you in class. I'd split her like lumber and take her on a sweater puppy station ride."

"Do you have to be so vulgar all the time?" Charlotte sighs.

"Balls yes." I toss my arms behind my head and explain it to her like it's a fact of life. "You see. Everyone has a fault. My brain, body and all other things aside form my general personality are perfect. Therefore to equalize the universe I have to announce every time some cutie gives me a bromsky and describe what my animal instincts are directing me to do."

"You're just a dirty animal." She sighs. "If you'd stop trying to shag up everything female for a minute then maybe you could pass for alright looking but just to let you know, a bad personality can ruin a good face."

"You're not exactly the perfect dream girl." I tell her. "If a bad personality can ruin a good face then no wonder you're still single."

That snaps something inside her.

"So what if I'm still single!? And by the way, I've never seen you come home with a woman before!" She is sitting up straight and glaring at me with intense rage.

"At least I'm not a virgin."

Boom! Headshot! "Well, I…That doesn't matter! For all I know you could just be all talk! I can't imagine the dog who would sleep with you!"

"Not dog. Babe." I smirk. "She was russian actually, or German…I don't remember. Second was one of my juniors before I came here. Then I banged my way through collage and just haven't felt like doing it since I moved in."

"Wow." Mary says and I just notice she's still listening in to the conversation.

"Hmph. He's obviously lying." Charlotte tells her.

"Right. I don't need your approval." I smirk and decide to just let it go. "You're just a whiny little rich brat with no good qualities and a bad personality. The fact is that you are just undesirable. A complete zero on the cuteness scale."

As I say this she makes her way to the fridge and grabs onto it.

"You can't even cook or clean. You have no manners and your violent. If you where an anime character you might have some moe points but being a half gorilla woman with a bad temper in real life…that's just sad."

She lifts the fridge over her head and gets ready to throw it at me.

"And also…Holy crap." I look over at her as she struggles to keep the fridge up. The weight is getting to her and she suddenly gets why no one tries to throw fridges at people. "Are you okay?"

"F**king fantastic." The fridge nearly crushes her so I hop onto the counter and push it back into place.

"You are one stupid girl." I sigh. "Man, I really hate stubborn girl like you. You're like Akane but blonde and less attractive. So un-cute."

Looking back I think that was where I crossed a line. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary but if you keep chipping away at something even a mountain can be reduced to rubble.

Charlotte reaches back and goes to punch me. Since I've been training her she has quite a bunch of power behind it. I jump off the counter before she can hit me and get ready for a fight.

"Bring it on." I stand ready but she just stands there shaking. I start feeling uneasy. "Hey. Aren't you gonna attack me?"

"…I hate you." She grits her teeth and bunch her hands into fists as tears start to pour from her eyes. "Alex! You're such a jerk!" She grabs the nearest thing to her, which happens to be the coffee maker, and throws it at me, smacking me in the face and knocking me on my a**.

Charlotte runs out of the house and I'm left sitting on my butt with a bruise on my head and my clothes drenched with hot coffee.

"Holy crap sack." I wonder what is wrong with her. "The hell was that all about?"

"You're an idiot." Mary sighs. "I guess that's just young love. Or at least your version of it."

"What do you mean by that?" I ask her. "I was just teasing her like normal."

"Maybe something started her day off and you just pushed her over her limit." Mary puts a finger to her lip as she looks through the possibilities. "Maybe she just had enough of your constant insults. Maybe she finally realized that she doesn't have to take crap from you all the time. Or maybe she doesn't like that you called her un-cute."

"I've called her worse."

"Yes, but she was acting weird earlier so you should have been more considerate. For someone who claims to be an expert ladies man you are pretty dumb when it comes to girls feelings."

"I am not. I'm just being honest."

"?" Mary looks at me with a puzzled expression.

"I don't want to talk about it." I go to get ready for work.

Charlotte tries to focus on her work but her pencils keep snapping against her paper.

"Thatstupidjerkthatstupidjerkthatstupidjerk." She mumbles over and over again in her head.

"Hey Char, you okay?" Three of her female classmates surround her desk. "You look furious."

"R-Really?" She looks up nervously. "Nothing in particular. Just some problems at home."

The girl who sits beside her leans over. "It must've been something bad for you to freak out about it. You're so level headed."

"It's nothing, really." She tries to deny it.

"If it where anyone else I'd say boy trouble but you're such a closet case."

Charlotte freezes up for a moment which is so obvious to everyone around her.

"No way." One of them leans in close. "It is boy trouble. I never knew you had a boyfriend."

"Considering you he's probably really cute. Like a model or something." Another one of them nods.

"How old is he? Does he go to this school?" The third one asks her.

"Did he do something wrong?" The girl beside Charlotte asks.

"What doesn't he do wrong?" Charlotte sighs as she remembers this morning. "He's just a complete jerk. Some days I just want to strangle him."

"Thats…" Each of the girls looks worried. "Not good. Is he insensitive?"

"Incredibly insensitive. He's always calling me names and making fun of me. He says I'm flat and ugly and that he wouldn't be caught dead with me."

"Wow. Sounds like a mean guy."

"More like a total a** camel." Charlotte grumbles. "He absolutely infuriates me. He's an anime obsessed freak with a sadistic personality. He's violent and rude and acts like he's God's gift to the Earth. He makes fun of me, hurts my feeling, takes up all of my time and then has the nerve to make me buy him expensive imported candy and treats like I'm some sort of charity service. And the worst part is that despite his monkey sack of a personality and 2D fetish he's probably the single hottest guy I know and completely charming. How the hell do you turn complete a** hat behaviour into charming? Whenever he pushes me to the point I'm going to explode he always does something sweet or kind and I think "Hey, he's not such a bad guy", then he walks in on me in the shower and tells me I have something wrong with my body. He's so infuriating!"

She yanks on her own hair and nearly smacks her head off her desk.

"That sounds terrible." Girl 1 tells her.

"Why don't you just dump him?" Girl 2.

"I can't. I just wanted to get to know him for two years and when I finally find him it ends up like this." Charlotte sighs.

"You had a crush on him for two years and just recently started going out?" Girl 3 asks.

"No wonder you always turn down those poor guys who practically beg you to go out with them." Girl 2 says. "It's because you've been harbouring a crush on this guy, but he didn't turn out like you thought he would."

"Wait, a crush!?" Charlotte just now gets what they think the conversation is about. "It's not like I like him or anything. He's just a guy I know."

"A girl doesn't wait two years to get to know a guy she doesn't have a crush on." Girl 1 points out. "It's obvious that he's important to you."

"Well, I may have had a little crush two years ago." She admits. "But we only met once and I didn't even really know what he was like."

"So the guy you liked turned out to be a total wad after you confessed your love to him. I've been there." Girl 1 nods with her arms crossed.

"I'm not dating him." Charlotte keeps trying to deny it. "He works for me…I mean my family company. Besides, I'd never date someone like him. He's a total psycho."

"Psycho?" All four of the girls around her ask at the same time.

"Yeah. He keeps threatening to kill people up and gets into one fight after another." She explains.

"He's violent?" They all ask.

"And he goes off to fight girls too. He's such an idiot."

"He beats girls?!"

"Uh…" Charlotte looks up at four serious faces.

"You absolutely cannot allow that horrible guy to take of advantage of you like that." Girl 1 grabs her by the hands.

"If he even lays one finger on you, you should get him fired and call the police." Girl 2.

"He sounds dangerous, but also mysterious." Girl 3…

"Charlotte." The girl beside her puts a hand on her shoulder. "My family owns a few successful law firms so if you need legal help I can-"

"I think you're all getting the wrong idea." She tries to tell them but they push closer.

"A guy who hits his girlfriend should have his ball cut off and then a formal execution." Girl 1…I'm guessing she's a modern day amazon or something.

"He doesn't hit me!" Charlotte thinks back to training practice when I teach her how to get out of a grapple. "He just tosses me on the floor and wont let me get up until he's had his sick fun." Now she thinks back to my punishment game version of training. "He touches me wherever he wants even when it hurts and makes me do the most embarrassing things." Now it's when I was teaching her the art of escape. "He always ties the ropes too tight and they leave marks on my wrists and he always used chains which are too heavy." Her fist shakes on the table under her anger.

"Wow." Girl 1 looks at her with a mixture of concern and confusion. "You two have some…interesting tastes."

"He sounds like a wonderful guy." Girl 3 grabs Charlotte by the shoulders as she peers into her eyes with respect. "To have such an open and trusting relationship with each other proves that you really care."

"You definitely have the wrong idea." Charlotte tells her. "I just ask him to help me work out so he trains me since he's a martial artist."

"Oh…I thought…" Girl 1 is embarrassed. "Never mind."

"So he makes fun of your body and trains you when you work out. Is he a health nut?" Girl 2 asks.

"I guess you might be able to say that…except that he's always shoving his face full of some new foreign candy or stupid food."

"So, is he really fat then?" Girl 3 asks.

"Actually he's got pretty good body…" Charlotte looks up at several accusing smiles. "Not that I've been looking."

The bell rings and the conversation has to be resumed later. The girls have been drilling Charlotte with questions all day. The group of girls all leave for the school gates when the final bell rings.

"So he's good looking with a nice body and charming?" Girl 1 asks.

"Yes." Charlotte confirms.

"And he's also a geek with weird fetishes, violent, rude and inconsiderate?" Girl 3 asks with a little too much pep.

"Yeah." Charlotte confirms.

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" One of Charlotte's male classmates walks up to the group, smiling at Charlotte warmly. He brown hair which is neatly cut and keeps his clothes kept fairly well. His deep green eyes peer warmly through thin glasses.

"Don't interrupt, Don." Girl 3 tells him. "We're talking about Charlotte's boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Charlotte snaps on her. "He's just a guy I know. Leave it at that."

"Now that's pretty interesting." He smiles wider, but it's not the creepy wide smile I give when I'm thinking of something fun to do. His is more soft and kind like the smile I give to people when I want something from them expect that his is genuine.

"Please ignore my nosey childhood friend." Girl 1 pushes him out of the way and continues the conversation. "As I was saying there is only one thing left you can use against him. He's got looks and physical stuff down and that charming thing may be hard to get by but you still have one thing over him." Girl 1 smirks as she thinks up a weakness for me.

"What is that?" Charlotte asks her, a little interested.

"His brain." Girl 1 laughs. "No one like you described can be that smart so you can beat him in that. HAHAHAHA….Charlotte. Are you okay? You look depressed."

"su..r..eni..s." Charlotte mumbles.

"What?" Girl one asks.

"He's a genius." Charlotte groans.

"A genius?" Don says with an awkward yet kind tone. "He sounds interesting."

"I feel sorry for you." Girl 1 sighs. "It can be hard when the guy you like is perfect in almost every way. Makes you feel worse about yourself."

"You wouldn't be referring to me would you?" Don asks.

"As if."

"But he's still violent and obsessed with anime. You also said that he makes you feel bad." Charlotte looks up at girl 2 as she tells her what she thinks. "If being with him makes you feel bad then that's a bad thing."

"He's violent?" Don asks.

"It's not that I feel bad with him." Charlotte blushes. "He gets under my skin and touches every nerve I have but I've never felt bad about myself because of it. I've actually felt…Well, I may have felt bad about it but I didn't feel bad…No, that's not it. I like…I never…I don't know."

"How do you feel about him?" The girl who sits beside her asks.

"How do I feel about him…" Charlotte runs the question through her mind. "He's a jerk…But I lo…lo…"

All of the girls watch in anticipation as she tries to form the words.

"I lo..lo…"

Suddenly a small crowd of girls starts to form around the front gate. The girls are trying not to stand around too long but it's clear that they are watching someone.

I get off my new bike I had Johnny make and set my helmet on the seat. My eyes scan through the crowd. Charlotte sees me first and ducks behind Don.

"What are you doing?" Girl 1 asks.

"Nothing. Let's just go." Charlotte hides when my eyes look over in her direction.

"Oh, he's over there right now, isn't he?" Girl 1 asks, looking through the group. "No way. He can't be the guy on the motorcycle. He looks nothing like what I imagined."

"That's not him. I don't know that person." Charlotte tries to deny it but I call over to her.

"Hey Charlotte." I wave and walk over to her.

"Aw taint loaf." Charlotte steps out from behind Don and tries to smile.

"Hey, what's up?" I ask her with a bright smile.

"The hell are you doing here?" She asks me.

"I got the feeling you where mad at me and Johnny finished my new bike so I came to pick you up from school." I tell her, my eyes moving to each of the people around her, stopping at the boy. "You must be her friends. It's nice to meet you. My name's Alex." I reach a hand out to girl 1 first.

I smile at her as he hand is taken into mine and activate my charm mode. It kind of has a similar effect as Jessica's Huff Puff in Dragon Quest. I am so playing that again when I get home.

"I'm Michel Kristo." She swallows her drool before it can escape her mouth. "It's nice to meet you."

"My name is Hanna Montora." It's girl 2's turn.

"I-I-I-I-I-I." Girl 3 has a hard time getting started.

"You are?" I start for her.

"I am! I mean. My name's Kristine Preston." She finally gets it out.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Quickly! Divert the power of the sun into my mouth! My smile must now move to full effect!

And my next relaxed smile hits one two and three hearts in a row. Charlotte glares at me with a "they are off limits" look, which is too bad because we are dealing with quite a few hotties in a few years.

I look over at the two closest to Charlotte. One looking at me with a kindhearted smile and the other with a longing expression.

"This your boyfriend?" I ask Charlotte as I look over to the guy.

"I'm Donald Rinehold." He reaches out a hand politely and I shake it.

"Aren't you Charlotte's boyfriend?" Michel asks.

"?" I don't know what she's talking about.

"I never said he was my boyfriend!" Charlotte steps in.

Oh, I get it. A comical misunderstanding. I wish I knew the details. This would be so much fun to work with.

"He's not my boyfriend." Charlotte tries to explain. "He's just-"

"Her cousin." I interrupt her.

She looks back at me with a shocked look of intense hate and fear.

"Oh, that makes sense." Kristine thinks she gets what's going on.

"What makes sense?" Hanna asks Kristine so that no one else can hear.

"Charlotte has a thing for her cousin." Kyahahahaha! "It's a real live case of forbidden love. No wonder she didn't want to talk about it."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." The guy says with a bit more sincerity in his voice.

"Pleasure's mine Donnie." I put a hand on top of Charlotte's head and smile extra brightly just to tick her off. "Anyway, we should get home soon. I'm gonna make your favourite tonight."

"You two live together?" Hanna asks me.

"Yeah. Since Charlotte shouldn't be living alone at her age and I'm in town training for my job I'll be living with her for the rest of next year." I make up a fake explanation and pull it off without a hitch.

"It's mr.Arkham!" The final un-introduced girl speaks up.

"Oh s**t." Charlotte thinks. "I forgot that ever since he first came to your school she's had a total crush on him."

"You caught me." I say as if I was trying to hide it. "I was filling in because a friend asked me too. You sit beside Charlotte, right? Thanks for taking care of my dumb cousin for so long."

"It was…I don't mind. I mean. We're friends so…"

I put on a chuckle.

"I'd better get going." Donnie looks at his watch and grabs something out of his bag. "Here Charlotte. You where out of class yesterday because you where feeling ill, right?" That was because I needed her to pull off a jewel robbery. "It's supposed to be able to clear your sinuses when you breath in the steam."

It's a small pot with some packages of herbs in it.

"Cool." I say it so that Charlotte is the only one who knows what I really think.

"Thanks Donald." She says and takes the pot.

"You should be careful in winter. It's easy to catch a cold." He smiles at her warmly and walks off.

We are able to get away from Charlotte's friends despite my multiple hints at things to do which would set me up for awesome embarrassing her opportunities.

"You're friends are nice." I tell Charlotte as we fly through the road on my bike.

"I'm not speaking to you. Who knows what Kristine thinks is going on with us now." Charlotte grips her arms around my stomach for fear of falling off. "She's a total gossip. I'll be lucky if there's one person in school who doesn't know about this by tomorrow."

"Yeah, she seemed the type. Do all the girls at your school aside from you have cute faces but terrible personality flaws?" That earns me a punch to the gut from behind. "You shouldn't do that when people are driving. Freaking amazon."

"If it weren't for you being such an insensitive jerk then I wouldn't be in this predicament. Now I'm going to be known as the incestuous freak girl who's in love with her cousin."

"You could always go out with Donnie."

"Stop calling him that. His name is Donald, and he's just a nice guy. That's something you can only fake."

"I could outdo that wimpy looking kid any day."

"Is that jealousy I hear?" Charlotte smirks. "Are you threatened by him?"

"How could I be threatened by a guy who looks like he's never fought in his life. Is he going to use his herbs to poison me?"

"Go ahead and laugh, but he's the head boy of the student council as well as the head of the karate club, so he's got brains and muscles."

"High school karate verses high end assassination techniques. What a match up." I say sarcastically.

"You really are threatened by him. That's so cute." She pushes her finger against my helmet. "Are you afraid he's going to take me away? Poor baby."

"Yeah right." I laugh off her taunts. "Actually, I was going to say he's a pretty nice guy and you should totally go out with him."

"Say wha?"

"Yeah. I don't know what horrible accident caused his brain damage but he seems pretty into you and you should take advantage of that before he get the surgery he needs to know what a dog you are."

"So now I'm a dog too. First I'm flat then I'm mean and now I'm a dog. You really like to run your mouth."

"Just telling it like it is. I feel kind of sorry for Donnie, being stuck with a crush on you. Maybe I should send him a video or two of what you're really like."

"Do it and die."

"A little sensitive about this? Hehehe."

"Shut up. At least he's considerate."

"I know that. I'm just saying that he's a nice person. He's seems like a kind, sensitive guy with a lot going for him."

"Pull over."

"Hm?"

"Pull over right now!"

I pull over and set my bike up against a wall.

"What's up?" I ask her.

"Do you not think I know when you're making fun of someone?" She turns around and throws her helmet at my gut. "Donnie may be a naive guy but at least he's decent and kind."

"That's exactly what I said."

"Bulls**t. You've been taking jabs at him ever since you saw each other. He's a nice guy and he's sensitive may be what you're saying but what you're really doing is calling him stupid and trying to hard to make other people like him. I know how you operate."

"You know how I operate?" I smirk and let a small laugh escape my lips as the furious girl tries to stare me down. "What does that even mean?"

"You think you're so smart. You think that your fake smiles and pretend charms are impenetrable, but I can see right through you. By pretending to be nice to my friends you're really saying that they are stupid enough for you to manipulate. Every time you smile like that you're using people. Just like the first time we met. You spent the whole time on the train smiling at me like that while watching those guys in the back. You use it on everyone we meet and try to make them think you're a really nice guy while manipulating them into a position that is better for you."

"Like you're any better." I drop all acts I may have been using. "Just because it isn't a smile doesn't mean you don't do the exact same thing."

"What?" She recoils in surprise.

"Yeah. I act nice so I can get people to do what I want and yes, I do think I'm smarter than the people I trick but do you think that emo attitude you put on at school is something different?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's easy to tell that the kids in your class aren't used to you acting the way you do around me. From the moment I stepped into your classroom I could practically taste the uncomforted they had towards you acting out. Let me guess, you usually don't speak to anyone and sit in the corner. Those girls from before hang around you and the girl beside you, what was her name?"

"It's Shana."

"Like Shakugan no Shana? Whatever." I move on. "She's probably the first person from your class to try and get you to participate but you shy off because you don't have any interest in those things. From then on she drags you along with her overly hyper friends and integrate you into their group as the quiet one. But what they don't know is that this dark and gloomy Charlotte is really a facade designed by you after the death of your parents because you don't want people to know what you are really like. Isn't it a lot easier to have people do things for you when you're the quiet girl in the corner rather than the loudmouthed orphan?"

"It's not the same thing!"

"Right, because I do to get things and you do it to get pity." I scoff. "I can't complain because I still have my dad in jail but you can't see your parents again because they're dead and that gives you the right to juice pity from anyone who will fall for the fake sad girl look."

"That's not why." She say like a little kid being scolded.

"Not even just a little bit?" I ask her, knowing that she has a reason for hiding her true personality from people.

"Don't try to psycho analyze me." She looks up at me with tears starting to form in her reddening glaring eyes.

"You really couldn't give a d**n about those people. You only put up with them because you need to attend a school until a certain age and even though you have no wish to be near them they flock to you so you choose a personality which will turn some away and make it so you can easily manipulate others into leaving you alone when you feel like it. Just like me you really don't give a s**t about them."

"Is that what you think of us?" She asks me as the tears start to drop. "We're just something you have to deal with since you're low on money now. That's why you treat us like crap and keep your real feelings to yourself. If you even have any under all the lies and fakes. You treat everyone like toys and act as if you're somehow superior just because you're a genius! You think you're so smart but I think you're an idiot! You're just a jerk who's too afraid to let anyone get near you because you're afraid they'll leave!"

"So that's why." I smile, finally getting her answer. "You act the way you do because you're afraid anyone you get close to will leave."

"Shut up!" Charlotte's hand slaps against my cheek. "You don't know anything! Don't think you can just analyze me like I'm one of your patients!"

I put a hand to my sore cheek and sigh.

"Whatever. It doesn't even matter."

Charlotte's whole body tenses and she looks like she's about to hit me again but instead, her tears drop like waterfalls on the ground. "Yeah. I guess I don't matter at all to you. Why should I? I'm just some spoiled un-cute rich girl with a violent temper and no redeemable features. I really don't matter to you at all."

"Charlotte." I reach out to her but she slaps my hand away.

"Just leave me alone." She tells me and starts to walk away.

"Wait a second." I reach for her again but she smacks me again and runs off. She's gone now and I'm completely alone I feel the cheek she hit twice and lean against the wall beside me. "You don't matter, huh?" I look up at the cloud covered sky as I sink down and drop my butt into the snow bellow me. "What an idiot. If that where true my cheek would't hurt this bad."

I return home late into the evening and toss my coat on the couch beside Johnny.

"Hey. The news said we're looking at some pretty hard snowfall. Maybe some hail. They're sending out a warning for people to stay inside and not wander around for long." Johnny tells me. "It's gonna be the coldest night of the year. It is just three days from Christmas though. You okay?"

I look back at him with my regular smile. "Yeah, why?"

"You just look a little off." He cracks open a beer and starts to chug. "Cheeks a little red too. Where you crying?"

"No. Just hit myself off of something."

"Something fast enough to hit you? Was it the Flash?"

"I just fell." I keep side stepping his questions with these half a**ed answers as I grab a thing of hot chocolate powder from the fridge and pour it into my mario level up mushroom cup, add water and sit down on the couch.

"Do you think I manipulate you?" I ask him after a while of silence.

"Undeniably." He tells me bluntly.

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"First you tell me why you want to know, then I'll give you my sagely advice."

I'm pretty much forced into the agreement.

"I made Charlotte cry."

"Again?" He sighs in disappointment. "You've got to go easier on that girl. Hey, wait a minute. Did you try to put the moves on her or something?"

"Of course not. I was just acting like I usually do. I just met her school friends and was making fun of this one guy she knows."

"Because you're jealous."

"Because he's a dork." I am so not jealous. "Anyway, we got into a fight over it and she said I use my genius to manipulate you guys."

"Absolutely true." He puts his beer down on the table. "She pays for everything you have and I'm only here so you have someone to hang out with when she's not around to bug. Mary's only here so you can make pedo jokes without feeling bad since she's actually older than you."

"I didn't mean to-"

"Of course you did." He interrupts me. "You may not have meant anything by it but you never really intended on making friends with any of us. You where just planning on sticking around as long as you found entertainment in it."

"I'm sorry."

"It doesn't bother me at all." He smiles and pats me hard on the back. "You may have started out like that but since then I'd like to think we became closer and turned into friends. Even if it's just in my head or one of your tricks, I've had fun living here."

"How would you be able to tell that?" I ask him, feeling a little depressed. "Maybe I'm just manipulating you into thinking we're friends."

"Like I said, I had fun. Either way, it's my choice to believe what I believe." He picks his beer back up. "Besides, you don't smile at me like you used to. I think that bored far of look or that one you do when you're about to do something borderline evil are much more sincere."

Smile? Charlotte was talking about my fake smile earlier.

Mary walks into the room.

"Have you seen Charlotte anywhere?" She asks. "I need to ask her for a favour."

"She's not at home?" Johnny asks her.

"No. I just got off the phone with her house. I don't really know where else to call."

"There is nowhere else." I stand up and grab my coat and swing it on. "We're the only people she really knows. She doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Where are you going?" Johnny calls after me but I'm already gone.

I run out into the blizzard covered street, not knowing exactly what I'm doing.

"StupidIdiotStupiIdiotStupidIdiot." I run through the rising piles of snow as the temperature drops more and more. "The hell was she thinking, leaving home in this weather."

her crying face finds its way back into my mind.

"What am I doing?" I grab a grapple from my pocket and take to the sky. I always keep a few gadgets on me.

Charlotte sits in a corner of the entrance for the girls dormitory for some college. She watches the snow whip around outside the window and thinks back to our fight.

"Stupid jerk." She groans. "I guess I have to go home some time."

She finally stands up and grabs a phone from her pocket to call for a ride to the apartment.

When she gets back she opens the door and tosses her stuff on the ground so she can take a defiantly authoritative stance.

"Before you say anything, I meant everything I said before and will not apologize. But if you're willing to treat me better I can forgive you for what you said…"

Johnny looks over to her from the counter where he's eating a bowl of oatmeal. "I'm sorry." He says.

"Not you." Charlotte looks around. "Where's Alex?"

"Charlotte!" Mary jumps out and hooks herself onto Charlotte. Endless tears pour down her face. "I was so scared! I couldn't find you anywhere! Then Alex ran out and I thought something horrible happened!"

"Alex did what?" She asks, completely confused.

"When the spaz here told him she couldn't get in contact with you at home he grabbed his coat and booked it." Johnny tells her.

"I've never seen him so intense." Mary says. "Aside form that one time in the hall of mirrors but this seemed a little worse. I thought you died or something."

"He ran out in this?" Charlotte looks at the blizzard outside. "That idiot! Hope he doesn't catch cold."

"Worried about him now?" Johnny teases.

"I'd never worry about that vacuous jerk." She tells him off. "But it is pretty bad outside. Just about anything could happen."

I'm still running through the blizzard, feeling like the stupidest guy on earth. What do I do when I find her? I wont apologize. I didn't do anything wrong. So, why do I feel like this? Everything just keeps getting more and more complicated the longer I stay in that house.

With such reduced vision due to the snowfall and interference both by the sound of snow and by the lowered mobility which comes with it the two gun shots which attempt to take off my head should have hit their mark and made the snow under my feet look like cherry slushy. Luckily I'm me and not someone of lesser skill. I was able to hear the gunfire through the howling wind, which locks out most sound, and pull my head backwards in time to avoid it and duck into an alleyway.

The sniper has to be close. There's no way they could get a shot that accurate in this weather from too far away.

A grenade falls into the alleyway and I have to grapple up to the roof to avoid being caught in the explosion.

When I land on the rooftop I can see a crimson coat fluttering at the other side. I grab some shuriken and toss them at the figure. It dodges them and moves in towards me at full speed. I have almost no time but catch the sight of a glimmer from under the coat. I reach out and grab the shimmer before it can penetrate my chest.

The object I grasped turns out to be a clawed gauntlet and from that I know who I'm up against. Knowing I don't have time to stand around, I use the claw to pull myself up and flip over my attackers head as the attacker spins around and slashes with the other arm.

"It's been a while, Natalya." A part of my coat's shoulder rips open because of her last attack. "Or would you rather I call you Red Claw."

Preview Time!

Alex: "Alright! The last voice!"

Johnny: "We're finally done with this."

Mary: "So it's my turn then?"

Alex: "Yep. And you have a great voice chosen for you. This one didn't take any forethought for HumanX to choose her. He knew right away who he wanted."

HumanX: "That's right. You and Johnny had the easiest voices to choose. But I couldn't really go for bratty or in control since both where kind of dominated by Charlotte's personality so I got you a voice which I believe is perfect. She's a great voice actress who played Tenma Tskamato in one of my favourite anime series, School Rumble! She also plays Ringo in Air Gear and Asuna Kagurazaka in Negima. The voice actress is Luci Christian."

Alex: "And with that we're finally through the main voice cast. But if anyone has any suggestions for voices they think are better or for voices which they think would work for another character like the Master of Games, Punk Rocket or maybe someone who's already dead like the Kabuki Twins, just send a PM."

Mary: "I think it's time to announce the next chapter."

Charlotte: "I'll do it. As the gap between our beautiful heroin and the insensitive jacka**-"

Alex: "That's not what's written."

Charlotte: "Fine, I'll read it right. As the gap between Charlotte and Alex widens a figure from Alex's past emerges through the snow. Who is this strange woman out for blood and what is her relationship to Alex? The snow covered rooftops run red with blood as the indomitable genius meets his match. Next chapter, Red X verses Red Claw, Alex defeated."

Alex: "Wait, what?"

Ch11

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests and sexual content so readers discretion is advised. (Based on the true story of a boy and his dog)

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

The moon is high in the night sky, illuminating the streets of Oscura local zoo. A lone guard goes through his rounds, his guard dog on its leash by his side. The dog begins to growl and the guard pauses and looks towards where the dog is growling. A woman jogs past him and waves as she leaves. The guard whistles as he watches her run off. He ignore the dogs continues growls and continues his rounds. He hears a sound in the bushes and before he can respond a hand reaches out for him, tearing the front of his uniform off.

The man falls to the ground and looks up in terror at his attacker. He screams for help as a large clawed hand reaches up into the sky.

The claw is stopped in the air as a powerful hand grasps it. "Are you okay?" Johnny looks back at the guard as he holds off the enemy.

The guard can only nod his head up and down in fear.

"Good. Now get out of here." Johnny grabs the hair covered mid section of the enemy and tosses him over his head. When he gets a good look at the guy he notices something odd. "Either this guy is wearing a werewolf costume or he seriously needs a body wax."

Saliva drips from the open mouth of the person as his massive jaws drip with anticipation. His fur covered form moves into the moon light. He towers an entire head above Johnny, who is a much bigger guy than most, and his clawed hands reach out, tearing into Johnny's skin.

Johnny feels the claws rip into his chest. "This freak isn't playing around, and I don't have my crowbar or costume."

He dodges the wolf man's attack but is caught by the tail as it swings around and knocks him to the ground. The wolf tries to bite off his head but Johnny grabs its jaws and kicks it off of him.

"Where did you get your costume, buddy?" Johnny asks as he circles around the wolf man. "Halloween's tomorrow and I'd like to see if I can get something made for me."

The wolf man only howls and charges him. Johnny ducks to the side and grabs him by the chest, pulling him off of his feet and giving him a powerful suplex against the ground. The fierce enemy kicks Johnny's stomach and hops back to his feet, leaving Johnny turning in agony with his belly ripped by the claws.

The creature moves in on him and goes for the final blow. Johnny holds up a flash bomb and it goes off, scarring the wolf man away.

"Didn't think that would work." He says as his consciousness begins to fade. "Probably should've thrown it. I got a little burned here."

In a hospital a short distance away Charlotte and I rush through the doors.

"Is her hurt!?" Charlotte frantically bursts into the room. "Where is he?!"

"Relax." I tell her. "It's only a ripped open chest wound."

"Stomach actually." Johnny waves to us from his hospital bed. "I'll be lucky if that's the least of my worries. I may turn into a werewolf tonight."

"What?" Charlotte wonders as her overly concerned mood turns to her usual. "You where attacked by a werewolf?"

"Probably just a guy in a mask." Johnny waves it off.

I walk over to where his clothes are and find a few strands of hair. I look at the hair silently before putting it in my pocket.

Mary walks in through the door and looks at me and Charlotte disappointedly. "You two caused a lot of trouble, running through a hospital like that." She scolds us. "Do you have any idea how to compose yourselves?"

"I wasn't the one running." I inform her. "Charlotte was the one who grabbed me by the collar and dragged me here crying "Oh no! I hope he's okay! I secretly have a crush on Johnny and can't contain my flowing emotions!"."

"I do not." She punches me. "And you where worried too."

"I was not."

"Was too."

"Can you two stop being annoying in another person's hospital room?" Johnny tells us. "You can do your little routine somewhere else."

"And after we came all the way here to see you." Charlotte gets up and feigns feeling hurt.

"Some gratitude." I join her.

"I hope you get better soon." Mary says.

"I just need a few stitches and they're keeping me here for the night. I wont be able to do any cape stuff for a bit though."

"Just get some rest." I tell him.

"Two steps ahead of ya." He lays back and enjoys his day off.

The wolf man staggers through an abandoned alleyway and collapses as the sun begins to come up. From the shadows a figure steps into the light.

"Beautiful morning isn't it?" Crispin looks down at the transformation taking place before his eyes.

"He..lp….meee." The wolf man takes human form. The man who was once a beast lays naked and freezing on the cold ground.

"Come on Anthony." Crispin throws his jacket over the man. "You'll scare people if they see you like this. I have something for you."

He dangles a vile of orange liquid above his head. Arms shaking, the man reaches for the vile. Crispin allows him to have it and he swallows the whole thing in one gulp. Returning to his feet the man buttons his coat and glare at Crispin.

"I should kill you for this." He says. "And I have the power too."

"But then how would you stop the changes?" Crispin asks him. "The only thing keeping you alive and that beast form under control is my Xenothium serum. You know no one else has the knowledge or resources to make your vaccine. Besides, you're a valuable member of my extended family."

"Don't touch me." The man slaps Crispin's hand away when he reaches for his shoulder. "You made me into this. You and that d**n organization."

"If you don't remember, you're the one who took the drugs. I only provided."

"I should've never listened to you. I had everything I could've ever wanted. Why!?" He punches the wall, which cracks under the pressure of his fist.

"Even in this form you are formidable." Crispin claps. "How did your assassination go?"

"It didn't." The man tells him. "Some big guy…I think he had black hair. I don't know. The memories from my other form are fuzzy. Anyway, someone saved him."

"Red X and Johnny Rancid. They are quite the pain." Crispin chuckles. "But I guess our little friend got the picture. You can leave him for now and go after Red X himself instead. WIth your power it shouldn't be a problem. But I want it done with finesse."

"I remember the plan you told me."

The man goes home to his apartment and lays down on a bed which is half ripped to shreds in a room which looks like a tornado hit it.

"My name is Anthony Romulus." His mind runs through the past few years of his life. "I was a star athlete. I joined the Olympics and made it to the final rounds, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted to win and I wanted a guarantee that I would win. Foolishly I searched out a man named doctor Milo. He told me about Xenothium, a substance with unimaginable capabilities. I didn't understand any of it, but he told me it could make me as strong as superman. I couldn't refuse. He created this serum which would give me the strength and speed of an animal. I was too simple then. Too easily washed away by the fame and money I received from breaking records and winning gold in every event I had entered. I was unbeatable."

Romulus turns in his bed as the terrible memories come back. "Then things began to change. I grew hair fast than normal and all over my body. It became so bad I had to lock myself off from the world. Then one night I woke up in a field covered in blood and surrounded by the corpses of dead cattle. When I asked Milo about it he told me that it was his turn to benefit from my winnings and that I owed him some of the profit. Knowing him the way I do now, he planned for me to throw him out like I did. I saw millions of doctors and no one knew what was wrong. Then one night a hellish pain ran through my entire body and I became that thing for the first time. The problem got worse when Milo told me that unless I take his serum I would die due to the poisoning. He revealed himself to be Crispin, a sadistic mad man and maniacal freak who worships some drug induced Xenothium deity and he wanted me to carry out his dirty work. Thanks to the serum I can live and the creature attacks those he sends me after like an obedient puppy. I gave everything to the Depraved and helped to build Crispin's empire. Now I have nothing and the only thing that keeps me alive is the thought that he will one day let his guard down and I will be there to return the favour he did for me. Until that day I don't care who or how many I have to kill. I will get him and destroy his organization from the inside out." The man clutches his blankets as a tear falls from his face.

The next day, I burst from my room with a big smile and a skull painted on my face.

"It's halloween!" I jump up excitedly. "Make sure to record all the halloween specials and stalk up on candy!"

"No one's going to give any candy to a twenty year old in a death costume." Charlotte tells me.

"I wont know until I try." I tell her. "After all halloween is the holiday of giving."

"Isn't that Christmas?"

"On Christmas you give presents to your friends. On halloween you candy to everyone who comes to your door." I explain. "Which one do you thin is more generous?"

"Holiday or not. They wont give you anything." She grabs a sucker from the bowl on the counter and pops it into her mouth.

"I already have a back up plan for that." I grab Mary from around the corner and pull her out.

She's dressed in a fairy princess costume.

"Tada!" I present her like a dotting father taking his kid out for her first halloween. "Presenting princess baby doll!"

"D-Do I really have to wear this?" She asks, her face completely covered in a radiant blush. "It's embarrassing."

"You lost the bet so I get whatever I want." I remind her. "And I want you to be my little sister for a day and get me some freaking candy."

"Couldn't I wear something with a little less frills?"

"I like the frills. It's kind of gothic princess meets magic fairy land."

"Help me out here." Mary turns to Charlotte for help but the girl is completely smitten with the costume.

"You look so cute! I just want to eat you up!" She nuzzles poor Mary like a toddler. "You are so adorable! I hope when I have a daughter she looks as cute as you!"

"Two to one." I take the opportunity to win. "The costume stays."

"Fine." Mary sighs as I grab her by the hand and drag her out the door.

"Candy, candy! all for me! Candy, candy! All for free! When I come up to your door you give me plenty more! I love candy!" I sing a little song as the door slams behind me.

"He's like a little kid." Charlotte sighs. "I wonder if anyone will believe those two are related."

We make a killings worth of candy, and I've killed for candy before. Thanks to Mary's cuteness all the nice old people gave us a ton of extras. Since old people have a thing about kind older brothers taking their sisters out for special occasions (they think it's cute or something) I got handed some treats too. I love Halloween.

"So," Mary and I stop off on a bench outside the zoo and break open some of our spoils. "What did you find on Johnny's coat yesterday?"

"Whaddya mean?" I ask with a mouth half full of Mars bar and half full of Grape Crush.

"Don't try to fool me." She gives me a bratty look as she fishes a bag of sour keys out of her candy sack. "Right after we got home you went right to your room and didn't come out until you made the bet with me to come out tonight. Don't try to tell me you spent all that time making that costume."

"I was playing an erog."

"One of your erotic games?" She sighs at my lie. "You can make up a better excuse than that. If you where really playing one of those dirty things you'd have told me the title and basic plot before I could mention that I'm not interested. Also, you haven't made a dirty joke since we left the apartment. So, what did you find?"

I give in and tell her. "I thought it might be hair but it felt different than normal so I analyzed it and it turned out to be fur."

"Fur?" She asks me.

"Yeah. Timber Wolf fur. I thought about the person he said attacked him and wondered if it might not be a costume he had on."

"You think he was a real werewolf?" Mary asks me in disbelief. "A little out there for our regular stuff."

"Not if you consider the high levels of Xenothium radiation my equipment detected in the fur. It actually absorbed the energy of unstable Xenothium into it. I only had a small sample but I sent it to Chang and he gave me what he thinks the main ingredient are. It wasn't an accident or a random mutation like the others. Someone did this on purpose."

"You mean that someone manipulated the unpredictable effects of Xenothium radiation?"

"Xenothium is a powerful thing. At one point it can give you power beyond your imagination and at another it will corrode your body into nothingness. It can do just about anything. It seems our wolf friend, willing or not, was a test subject for someone trying to control the unpredictable outcome."

"To make what?"

"A steroid. If any human could instantly gain the powers of a wolf then they'd be the ultimate apex predator. Their senses, muscles and instincts would be far beyond human as well as their killing proficiencies. I'm guessing they used actual steroids doctored with Xenothium and timber wolf oestrogen. It's the only way they could have done it."

"You know how to control the outcome of Xenothium as well. You use it to make your laser weapons and things, like when you hit the ground and the big X comes out. It's Xenothium energy, right?"

"Yeah. But mine is red Xenothium. My own, fully purified, version. What they're using is orange Xenothium. Unless it changes colour it is dangerous. Judging by the construct and fusion of human and wolf DNA the person who took the serum would need to have a constant supply of Xenothium and timber wolf oestrogen on hand."

"So, we stopped in front of a zoo." Mary grins at me. "You're a nice guy after all."

"What do you mean?"

"You want to find the guy who hurt your friend. It's actually kind of nice."

"I'm not nice." I tell her. "I'm just concerned about someone other than me manipulating Xenothium."

"Right." She so doesn't believe me. "Let's go do this."

I happen to have brought our costumes along in the bottom of my candy bag. We wait until the guard is out of the way before Baby Doll makes her move.

"Hey there little girl." He walks over to her. "The zoo is closed for the night. Why don't you go home?"

"I (sob) need help." She pretends to weep.

"Help with what?" He gets close enough and Baby pulls her gun on him.

"Help finding a friend of yours."

The man backs away and is about to scream but I drop down behind him and grab his mouth before he can.

"Settle down Charley." I saw hi name tag. "We're just here to ask a few questions. Starting with where two of your timber wolves went. I heard they started to go missing a while ago but to prevent bad press your boss is keeping things under wraps."

I let the man's mouth go and he falls to his knees and begins to cry.

"I'm sorry. I didn't…I never." He's shaken up.

"Did we go to far?" I wonder.

Baby kneels down and puts a hand on his head.

"We just need to know where they went." She tells him comfortingly. "If you tell us then we can find them and stop the person who attacked you last night."

"I never should have done it." He tells us with tears pouring from his eyes. "I thought they would just take the wolves and leave but they kept coming back. When I told my last boss what happened he died. They killed him. I was going to get a different job but they sent a resume here for me. I can't get away from them."

"From who?" Baby asks him.

"The Depraved." I finish for him. "There's only one group of organized criminals in this city with any pull that could do this."

"They're gonna kill me. They know I can't be trusted." The man starts to babble.

"Where are they?" I ask him.

"I can't tell you. They know everything I do. He can see in my mind."

"Who?" Baby asks.

"He's sees everything. Not just him. All of them. They're everywhere."

"We wont get anything else from him. He's nearly cracked." I tell Baby and we begin to leave. Before we can get anywhere I hear a soft rustling and low breath.

I a single movement I kick Baby Doll out of the way and get mowed over by a giant fur carpet with teeth. The werewolf snarls at me as his drool drips onto my helmet. I activate the electrical surge in my suit to zap him off of me. He jumps back and wags his head as the jolt dissipates. He howls and circles around me. I take a stance and prepare for the worst. He comes at me from behind but I flip over his head, using my cape for cover and then a whip to strike his eyes. He grabs it and swings me into the ground with incredible force. I go to get up but before I can he kicks me in the stomach and sends me through the cage bars behind me. He jumps in after me (which is an incredible hight by the way) and begins wailing on my chest.

That kick was so powerful I could feel it through the suit. Is it the Xenothium? I thought it would just give him the powers of a timber wolf but it seems to have given him far more enhanced abilities. Super strength is a definite. He delivers another one of those locomotive powered strikes to my stomach. I know the Metalla can hold up but it feels like I'm being crushed by Doomsday. I kick straight up during the second between each punch and kick him straight in the jaw. He falls backwards but seems to be fine. He rolls over and charges back at me. As I jump out of his way I can take solace in feeling safe in the suit.

Baby fires a few shots at us. The bullets go right through the werewolf but his skin regenerates just as quickly.

"No fair!" I point at him, taking his attention off of Baby Doll. "I call shenanigans on the healing factor!"

That little display earns me a claw across the helmet which knocks me into the wall opposite of him.

Mary doesn't take the hint to run and begins opening fire on the werewolf. He charges at her and when his claw hits her stomach she goes half way across the cage. The wolf jumps over to her and is about to bite her head off when I call out.

"Time for a Red X Ultra Special Mega Awesome Reference Attack!"

"A what?" Mary has to ask.

I place my hands together and get into the position.

"Kaaaa"

The wolf turns to me as energy from my suit gathers into the gauntlets.

"Meeeeeee"

I watch as the creature eyes my glowing hands.

"HaaaaaMeeeee"

It reaches out to me as the energy comes together and I thrust my arms out towards it.

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!"

A big crimson X made of pure Xenothium energy erupts from the palm of my hands and collides with the beast.

"How do you like my Red X Kamehameha wave?" I call out smugly as the energy engulfs the werewolf. At least I thought it did. The creature pushes both its arms out through the large blasts of energy and pushes forwards. I push back with move and more energy but his steps come closer and closer. I think I have him for a moment when he begins to slide back but he keeps pushing on. Eventually he reaches me and grabs my wrists.

The creature lifts me off my feet and tugs on my arms, trying to pull them off.

"No good shaggy." I bring my knee up and smack him in the face with it but he wont let go. "Metalla isn't that easy to stretch."

He lets go of one of my arms and starts to smack my body against the ground again and again until the floor cracks. As he does I grab a bomb from my belt and toss it on his chest. The thing explodes, forcing him to let me go and I use the time to get some room to breath. At a safe distance on top of some fake hill in the cage I look out into the smoke with my inferred but don't see anything. I realize too late. He grabs me from behind and his teeth come down on my shoulder. The armour holds.

I extend the X cutters and stab them back into the enemy. He howls in pain and lets me go. I dive forward into a summersault and toss a gas bomb at the wolf. It slashes the clouds of gas wildly. It starts to choke.

"That's not any gas. It's pepper spray mixed into an explosive." I explain to the mindless monster.

The creature snarls at me again and attacks but I flip out of the way.

"Not as effective as I'd hoped." I sigh and blast a few X beams at it. They have less effect than an ant punching a heavy weight.

The fight continues on until the werewolf kicks me back into another wall and jumps over to Mary. He slashes at her, not killing her but knocking her unconscious, and grabs her. He jumps out of the cage as the sun begins to rise and his body returns to that of a human.

"If you want your little friend back then come meet me at the Oscura colosseum tonight." He looks back at me and runs off. I try to go after him but by the time I get back up there he's gone.

When I get back to the apartment Charlotte is just waking up and getting breakfast.

"Walloping web snappers, what happened to you?" She says cheekily as I come in through the front door. "You look like hell."

"Werewolf. Stole Mary. Want baconator." I mumble and trudge over to my room.

"Who took Mary?" Charlotte hops out of her seat. "What happened?"

"No talk now." I shove a finger to her lips. "Me sleep now. You buy me silver nitrate. Go."

With that I close my door and head to bed. Charlotte stares at the cold, blank door, feeling a little dejected.

"I don't know what's going on!" She yells at the door before taking out her computer and doing her thing. "Silver nitrate. I guess we're going werewolf hunting."

I come back out of my room pretty late. Charlotte is tapping her foot impatiently against the floor as she waits with crossed arms on the couch.

"So, what have you been doing all day?" She asks me.

"Thanks for the silver." I tell her as I toss a few canisters into a knapsack.

"Wait a minute. You're going alone?" She practically fallows me. "Are you monkey s**ting insane? I'm going to."

"No."

"What do you mean, no?" She looks at me like I'm a complete idiot. "I'm going."

I have to wait for her to grab some stuff and she comes along.

The Oscura Colosseum is a replica of a colosseum in Rome and is used to hold big sports events. I checked out this guys history after seeing his face and learnt that if I was a sports fan I would have recognized him as Anthony Romulus right away. Fitting name. I can pretty much fill in the blanks from there. Thats why I'm brining the canisters.

When I get to the colosseum I set Charlotte, who has a mask on to protect her identity, down.

"The sun isn't down yet." I say out loud. "Good."

The both of us walk into the stone doorways of the colosseum. The stone walls part into a large circular battlefield surrounded by rows of stone seats. It really looks like we're back in a time out of our own. I can see Baby up where the royalty would sit to watch two people kill each other. She's tied up and barely conscious.

Romulus steps out from the opposite side of the colosseum.

"You brought a friend?" He says. "That makes this easier."

Suddenly Charlotte is hit with a tranquillizer dart and begins to fall. I catch her and notice that we are not alone here.

"Not cool." I tell Romulus. "What is it you want?"

"My boss told me to fight you this way. He knew you would come during the day when my powers would be at their weakest." He explains. "I am truly sorry that I have gotten your friends involved in this, but I cannot afford to loose to you."

"And here I was, brining you presents." I toss him the bag. "Your boss was the one who wanted you to string up Baby Doll and make sure I didn't bring any help. He seems eccentric. I assume he wants this to be a no armour fight."

"You're right. And if you don't do as I say-"

"The sniper will kill Baby Doll." I finish for him.

I take off my helmet, revealing the mask underneath and toss it over to him. I then take off by cape, boots, gauntlets, belt and finally my chest piece, leaving only my armoured pants left.

"You can keep the gauntlets." Romulus tells me.

I walk up to the gauntlets and bend down to get them.

"I can help you." I tell him. "I took some blood from the fight last night. I can't completely cure your wolf form but I can give you control."

"How can I trust you?" He asks me.

"You trusted the Depraved."

"It doesn't matter." He tells me. "You'll be dead in a few hours anyway." I feel a sting on my neck and fall unconscious.

When I wake up I am chained to the centre of the colosseum with Romulus standing a distance away from me. Charlotte is tied up beside Mary. Neither of them look hurt. I still have my mask on and my gauntlets. Looks like this Crispin guy wants me to have a fighting chance. I start to pick the locks with a special hidden item I keep in the pants of my suit. Cool gadgets are nice but you can't replace old tech like this.

"A few more seconds and the creature will take hold of me with the moon." Romulus tells me as his body writhes in pain. "I wont be able to control it. If you can't get out by then you'll die." His eyes look up at me with something more human than expected. "I'm sorry."

The moon comes out from the clouds and his body begins to change. His mouth stretches and the sound of shifting bones and sliding muscles echoes through the large colosseum space. His body becomes covered with fur and grows to nearly twice its size.

The lumbering figure moves towards me. I stand up and the chains drop from my arms.

"I've been waiting all day for this." I tell him.

Romulus attacks and nearly takes my head off. The creatures rising breath anticipates the taste of my flesh as bulging muscles tense under heaps of fur.

"You know," I grin with my own absolute anticipation. "I may just die here."

I don't have enough power in my gauntlets to do much but use the X cutters so I activate them. I don't have enough energy to keep them on non stop but I can at least use them without the rotation. Romulus slashes at me but I duck down and bring a cutter up into the bottom of his arm. He knocks me across the stadium with his resulting attack and I can almost hear the bones in my back pop out of joint.

By this time both Mary and Charlotte have woken up.

"What's that?" Charlotte asks as she peers down at my battle.

"It looks like we're prisoners." Mary tells her. "And we may have been used as leverage to make this a fairer fight."

"Fair as in?"

"Fair as in Alex is practically unarmed."

I block a swipe from the werewolf's clawed arms with my Metalla armoured pants and use the force from his attack to spin into a kick to his face. He retorts with a swift attack of the tail. I block it with my gauntlet but it hits so hard I nearly get hit in the face with it. I'm suspended in the air with that last attack so I don't have much I can do when his jaws come out to claim my head. I throw my left gauntlet up so it can take the fall for me while I use my right gauntlet to stab him in the eye. He howls in pain as his eye regrows.

"How do I beat him without killing him?" I wonder. "I wanted to use the canister but he's not making it easy to get it back."

He grabs my head with his clawed hand and with his free arm delivers a devastating punch which I barely block with my gauntlets. The punch rips me from his hand and I bounce off the ground when I hit. My head is ringing so loud I can barely hear Charlotte screaming about that last hit.

"What the hell?" I get back up to my feet. "Ow. Just…ow."

He moves in on me before I can respond and punches me straight in the stomach. The force knocks me back again but before I can land on my a** he jumps over and punches me in the back with what I could swear was the force of a comet.

"Oh come on!" I yell out as he grabs my shoulder into his jaws and tosses me to the side. "Yeah. Really showed you." My breath gets heavier.

Romulus howls victoriously but I'm still standing.

"Stop making so much noise you overconfident canine." I get into stance. He howls once more and charges at me. "Oh Fu-"

I hit the wall behind me, putting a crack in it. I try to move but my head is crushed back into the wall by his hand as he collides with me.

"I'm going to rip your a-" He crushes me back into the wall again and again before bitting into my arm ferociously and tossing me over his head. When I come down his fists pound into my back again and again. I can hear Charlotte's screaming from the sidelines and Mary calling out to the sniper on the roof, practically begging him to stop this. The werewolf tires of this little game and turns to walk away.

I can hardly feel my limbs but I stand up. I run at him but he turns in time and punches the stomach. I puke blood onto the ground in front of me as the creature stands above me. His drool drips from his jaws and lands on my unblinking face. I can feel it. He's ready to take my head off. In an instant I am brought into the air with the force of his claws as they run across my face. I land motionless a few feet away from him. The attack left several scars on my forehead and the blood oozing from them runs down the side of my head.

"ALEX!" Charlotte calls out to me in horror as tears fall from her eyes. Mary watches in silence, trying not to let herself cry.

Romulus walks towards me to claim his prize. His gaping jaws anticipating the inviting taste of my blood covered flesh.

"Alex." Charlotte clenches her teeth before letting out a loud yell. "GET UP!"

"Hehehehe." Everyone seems to be trapped in time for a moment as laughter echoes from my body. "Hehehehe. KYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Charlotte and Mary watch silently as I get to my feet. The blood from my scars on my forehead covers the right half of my face. The eerie laughter booms forth from a maniacal smile.

The laughter stops and I look Romulus dead in the eyes. "Now that was fun. kehehehe. This is the first time I've bled in a long time. I almost forgot the rush. The feeling of warm blood slashing against my skin." I lick the blood from my lips. "Absolutely stimulating." Romulus gets ready to attack me. My body shivers in ecstasy.

He comes running at me. The sound of the air being cut by my X cutters resounds through the colosseum. He arm reaches out for me and my blade comes up and runs down his arm. I feel his blood against my face. My blade cuts down his arm and across his chest, spewing blood like a shower. I stop the cutters so I can stab one point of the X shaped blade into his stomach and start it again. Romulus howls as his stomach is cut into mulch and I hop up over his head, slitting his throat as I do so and stab both cutters into his shoulder blades, hanging on his back. The werewolf reaches for me but can get a grip. I activate the cutters again, chopping his bones in half and kick myself off of him.

"KYAHAHAHAHA! Awesome!" I laugh at him.

He runs at me but I jump up and slash his eye again, this time knocking him off balance and sending him head first into the ground.

I run my arm down his back, shredding it with my cutters. "You may want to get up or I may actually kill you."

"What's going on?" Charlotte asks Mary, finally able to speak. "There's something wrong with him. He's not the same as before."

"He hasn't killed anyone since he joined with you, right?" Mary asks.

"Not since he and Johnny first met."

"But before that he was a murderer, right? I remember reading that he would carve X's into his victims chests and do all kinds of weird things. Maybe this is how he really is."

"No. Something isn't right." Charlotte rejects the idea. "Just look at him. He's too cold. I've seen him do weird things and even be really merciless but this…This is something else."

I run up to Romulus and kick him with both feet, pushing back off his chest like a spring board and cutting him across the stomach when I land. He tries to grab me in his arms but I'm where I want to be. I hold both my arms out to the sides, grabbing both of his arms. I grin as the X cutters spark to life and cut through them. Without any arms the creature cries out. I grab his chest and stomach and lift him above my head. I toss him back to the ground and hop onto his chest. Sitting on it I ram my fists into his face again and again. His arms finally regenerate and one of them makes a swipe at me. I flip out of the way and land safely a few feet from him. He gets to his feet and growls at me. I snarl back. We run at each other and I grab Romulus again by the chest and stomach, this time flipping him over my head and smashing his into the ground. He gets back up and slashes at me with his claws. I respond with my own attacks from my gauntlets. I grab both his arms and use them as supports to get a direct kick with both my feet to his chin. The sheer force knocks him back a few steps. I move in again. Slashing at him over and over. His blood spills all over the colosseum floor. The continued attacks create a bloody X shaped wound on his chest.

Exhausted and worn Romulus falls to his knees. His bestial form clutching the mark on his chest. I walk up to him and look down at his pathetic stance with nothing resembling human emotion.

"Is that all you have to offer me?" My cold dark brown eyes looking black in the dark light of the moon.

The beast only replies with heavy breathing and a defiant stare.

"This is no fun." I lift my gauntlet in the air and get ready to bring down the killing blow.

"STOP IT!"

The sound hit me out of nowhere. Charlotte's voice, calling for me to stop. I look up at her on the sidelines. Tears are pouring down her face. They're not the ones from when I was beaten a few moments ago, but new tears. She's crying for Romulus? That's not it either.

"Stop it already!" She shouts again. "Just stop it!"

Watching her like this. I don't know why, but my heart hurts.

"Well." I turn back to Romulus. "Looks like I'm going to have to destroy this beast."

Well, I said destroy him but that's not what I meant. I free Mary and Charlotte from their binds and take Romulus in to one of the inner sanctums of the colosseum. When he wakes up he is surrounded by us.

"You're alive?" He looks at me. "How?"

"Well, I was never really in any danger." I fold my arms behind my head and smirk. "Taking down a werewolf or two is no problem for someone as awesomazerific as me. After all I am the main character."

"What is he talking about?" Romulus asks Charlotte.

"He's just a little weird." She tells him. "But he did save your life with that emergency treatment."

"Saved my life?" He looks back at me.

"It was nothing." I respond. "Your healing factor would've had you back up in no time if it had better conditions. All I did was patch you up a little."

"What about the sniper? He was told to kill you if you went near your friends."

"About that." Johnny walks in. "Did I mention that the last thing I want to see when I come home from a day at the hospital is not a note with explicit details leading me half way across town when I;m not allowed to ride my bike so that I can beat up some wimp with a rifle?"

That's right. I planned this. I totally left him the note and made sure he'd be around to take care of the sniper or any other people Romulus may have had around.

"And that reminds me." Johnny turns over to me and punches me across the head.

"The f**k!?"

"You never fight my battles for me." He pokes me in the ribs. "I fight for myself. You understand? And don't drag Mary and Charlotte into it either."

"I wasn't doing it for you." I tell him. "I knew he was gunning for me in the first place…and Charlotte forced me to take her!"

"How could you have possibly known they where after you?" Johnny sighs. "You just did it because you wanted to one up me!"

"I don't need a werewolf to do that. Xenothium was involved and I just happened to hate when people start stepping into my territory."

"Why don't you pull your head out of your a**?" He hits me again.

"You a** camel! That hit a wound!"

"I will beat the gerbil out of you, ya-"

"Why do you guys have to be such children about everything?" Mary asks us.

"Ask the scrotum washer." I point at Johnny.

"Shut up. I am the balls."

"Will you both shut up?!" Charlotte yells at us. "We have an injured wolf man watching."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about him." I grab one of my canisters from my bag and reach into it. Inside is a needle filled with silver liquid. I walk up to him and toss it in his lap. "It' a serum to combat the one you got from the Depraved. It's a combination wolf oestrogen with some other stuff mixed in which should bond with your current molecular structure. Oh yeah, there's also silver nitrate, which seems to convert the radiation into something manageable. It wont stop you from transforming but it should give you control on when you transform as well as your wolf state."

"You did this for me?" He asks, looking from the needle to me.

"It's not fool proof. Everything I told you is just theory." I turn away and grab my bag. "But it will stop the deterioration of your cellular system, which is the cause of your pain. If it does work you can choose to lead a normal life."

"I'm not sure I can." His hands grip the ground as the emotions he's been holding down burst to the surface again. "I can't go back to who I used to be."

There is a long silence before one of us finally speaks up.

"You shouldn't." It's Charlotte who finally speaks out. She sits down next to him and her intense stare meet his tear filled eyes. "We may not like who we are now or what has happened to us but we can't go back and erase it because even if the memories are hard, the things that hurt in life make us stronger. It's okay to look back on the good memories but don't dwell on the bad ones. Accept who you where and who you are now and grow from those experiences. If you don't you will never become stronger and those memories…"

She pauses for a moment and I look back at her. The expression on her face at that moment. I don't know quite how to describe it. It's not her usual face.

"If we don't move past them the memories will consume us." She finishes before picking up the needle and putting it in his hand. "He may be a jerk but he's very smart. Whatever he put in this it will most likely work just as he planned. Whatever you choose to do from this point on I hope you find happiness."

Mary notices me leaving ahead of everyone as Charlotte's talking.

"You're not acting yourself." She says. "Is anything wrong?"

"Not exactly. It's just been a weird night." I say and go on ahead.

Soon the others come running after me.

"What are you doing?!" Charlotte runs up to me and tosses the cape from my costume on me. "If you walk home like that you'll blow your cover." She grabs the mask off of my face.

"Blow my cover? It's Halloween and I look nothing like my usual costume…" My mood changes to serious. "Hey. About a while ago." I hook the cape over my head like a hook to keep her from seeing my face. "I'm sorry you saw me…like that. It must've freaked you out."

"You weren't normal." She says. "It wasn't your usual aura, I guess." She notices me blushing despite my trying to hide it with the cape and she smiles. "Whatever! I guess you're just a psycho." She slaps me on the back, hitting a wound and I stop dead with pain.

"That really hurts!" I yell at her.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" She yells back.

"You did it on purpose!"

"No I didn't! Why would I do something like that!?"

"Because you're a sadistic freak!"

"You're going to call me that after what just happened!? You are such a…UGHAH!!!!"

Preview Time!

Mary: "Hey Johnny. If you didn't want to do it then why did you fallow the instructions on Alex's note?"

Johnny: "Uh!?"

Charlotte: "It's because he trusts him with their magical guy bond."

Johnny: "We do not have a magical…guy..bond…what does that even mean!?"

Charlotte: "It's a bond between two guys who have a deep mutual respect for each other. It involves a lot of respect and understanding as well as trust. It's kind of like a guy crush but mutual."

Johnny: "I do not have a guy crush!"

Alex: "If he does it's not mutual."

Charlotte: "Most guys with guy crushes respond the same way when asked."

Johnny: "There is no guy crush or bond! Nothing!"

Mary: "I'm sorry I asked. Let's just get on to the voice thing."

Alex: "And the voice of Johnny Rancid is to be…" Drum role.

Johnny: "You're making too big a deal out of this."

Charlotte: "I'm kind of excited."

HumanX: "Johnny's voice was an easy one to think of. Clearly I wanted a tough sounding voice since my version of Rancid has a way different personality from the original Teen Titans cartoon version. There where times when I may have wavered and thought, maybe he could work or maybe I could try a different direction, but in the end I realized that no one could play Rancid except for Christopher R Sabat. He played Vegita and Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z and Giroro in Sgt Frog. This childhood hero swept away the competition. It was his performance as Giroro which really hooked me to the idea though."

Charlotte: "I can see it."

Mary: "When is this going to be over? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Alex: "You never saw Dragon Ball Z?!"

Mary: "Is that some sort of hensai?"

Alex: "It's hentai, and no. Dragon Ball Z along with Digimon and Pokemon shaped a generation. It was the riveting work by Akira Toryama which began with Dragon Ball, a story about a baby from a foreign planet lands on Earth and grows to become its greatest defender through martial arts. In Dragon Ball Z he meets his brother and its turns out his original goal was to destroy the planet and after defeating his brother and later on his brothers comrades he goes on a space based adventure and later fights a robot guy and a magic dude and that's where it ends."

Charlotte: "What about Dragon Ball GT?"

Alex: "Never happened. I don't accept that as a reality. In my mind the series ended with Z."

Johnny: "Be silent insolent fool!"

Alex: "Nice Vegita impersonation."

Johnny: "Well, I do have the voice for it."

Mary: "…I don't understand ootagu's."

Alex: "OTAKU! Whatever."

Charlotte: "Johnny, if you please."

Johnny: "Yeah, yeah. In the next episode of Red X Oscura, Alex finds himself faced with an opponent even he may not be able to defeat. What is the mysterious relationship he has with this woman and what is the secret behind the tattoo on his left shoulder? Will she be the key to unlocking his past or sealing his future? Alex revealed, who is Red Caw?"

Alex: "Wait. She's coming here?"

Ch10

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests and sexual content so readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

The museum downtown has just received an expensive new jewel from a lofty investor. The jewel was shipped in two days ago under the watch of seven armed guards and a disguised truck. The selling price of this little trinket is over forty million dollars. That's enough to buy forty million crack h**rs. The crystal itself has a curse around it and those who own it are said to die young in terrible nightmares. The museum took it believing the stories to be superstition and that the historical value of the jewel is far too valuable to loose.

Outside the museum a young girl looses her ball and it roles up to the guards standing watch over the back entrance. One of the guards picks the ball up and hands it to the young girl.

"What are you doing out so late?" He asks her with a kind voice. "You'll make your parents worry."

"I didn't mean to." The little girl tosses the ball in the air and the guards are covered in knock out gas. "Works every time." Baby Doll grabs a pin from her hair and undoes the lock on the door.

"My turn." I walk out from the shadows with Johnny behind me. "You guys remember the plan?"

"Cause tremendous yet silent trouble while you snatch a pricey artifact from an innocent museum?" Baby Doll asks with a look that says "do you think I'm stupid". "I think I got it."

"You sure you don't want me in there?" Johnny asks me.

"Who do you think I am?" I ask him and head inside.

Security is easy enough to avoid. I slip past them with no trouble and make my way to the new exhibit.

"Trip lasers." I notice them on my inferred. "Do they think I'm an amateur?" In six graceful movements I dance through the lasers as if it where a child's game and come out standing next to the jewel. "Ooh. Sparkly."

Before I can grab the jewel the glass of the roof shatters and a flying object snatches it from the display case. I look up at one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while. Some red head in what looks like old pilot gear stands on the back of a rocket with motorcycle handles. She has the jewel in her hand.

"My name's Roxy Rocket." She tells me. "It's nice to meet ya."

"Red X." I point to the X on my chest. "Why are you steeling my jewel?"

"It's not exactly yours, right?" She smiles down at me. "First come, first serve. If you want it then meet me by the sky scrapper near the train station at nine tomorrow."

"AM or PM?"

"PM. I like how my rocket looks in the night light."

"We could do that." I grab a grapple from my belt. "Or-"

I fire the grapple but she unexpectedly anticipated my move and rose out of the way.

She looks down at me with a smile and floats out of the building. "Don't forget our date."

"So, in summarization; you got your butt handed to you." Johnny says while he leans back on the couch at home.

I sit down with a strawberry milk and one of the manga I've been meaning to get too.

"She called herself Roxy Rocket. It was a lucky break for her. I underestimated her ability to dodge my attack."

"Is that denial I hear?" Charlotte smirks as she leans over the back of the couch to tease me. "Is the great Red X resorting to excuses for getting beat to the punch?"

"She wasn't anything that could really take me down." I tell her. "It was just a lucky break."

"Sure it was." Her smile widens. "You're just sad from being beaten. It's okay."

"I wasn't beaten."

"Yeah you where." Johnny chuckles. "She beat you bad."

"She didn't beat me."

"Come on guys." Mary steps in. "You should go easy on him."

"Thank you." I'm glad someone is on my side.

"It's hard for a guy when he's beaten by a girl." She had to ruin it. "It hurts their pride."

"I was not beaten." I tell them again. "I just didn't expect someone had enough skill to successfully dodge my attack like that."

"And because of that you where beaten." Charlotte chimes.

"By a girl." Johnny adds.

"On a rocket with handlebars." Mary also adds in.

"Why is everyone making fun of me?" I pout. "And what does it matter if she was a girl? Haruhi Suzumiya's a girl and she can destroy the world if she wants to."

"So can most girls I know." Johnny says. "But they only gain that power once a month."

"What's with all the period jokes in this fiction?" Charlotte sighs. "But seriously, what are you going to do about it? That jewel was supposed to be a form of solid Xenothium ore which was radioactive. If we don't purify it people will just keep dying."

"I could leave it with Roxy Rocket." I suggest.

"So, if you're beaten by a girl you poison her?" Johnny asks me. "That's cold."

"I wasn't beaten!" I snarl. "I'm going to go meet her and get the jewel back."

"By the way, how obsessed are you with her right now?" He asks me. "I know you don't like to loose at anything. Have you started stalking her to find her weak points yet?"

"I didn't do anything." I deny what he's talking about but of course...

"According to his internet history he's found several sights about her." Charlotte outs me. "Turns out she's a former stunt double for an old action star who couldn't stay in her job because the insurance wouldn't cover her overly dangerous stunts."

"Suck my-" I start but she cuts me off.

"Can you deny it?"

"You all suck." I get up and go to my room.

"Don't pout buddy." Johnny calls after me. "If you're too afraid to fight the girl we can send Mary to do it." My door slams.

"I can't believe he actually lost." Charlotte giggles as she goes to get one of my strawberry milks from the fridge. "He didn't really loose or anything but he's taking it so hard."

"I know." Johnny laughs. "It was just dumb luck but this is so awesome. I guess even self absorbed wonder boys can get a bummed deal now and then."

"I am going to milk this like a b***h." Charlotte jumps down onto the couch and high fives Johnny.

"You must really like him to get so worked up over this." Mary smiles at Charlotte.

"No way. The guy's a tool." She tells her. "I just finally have something to get him back with when he calls me names. He'll be all calling me something stupid and I'll be all like "you got beat by a girl" and he'll be all "wah! I'm a little baby" and I'll win."

"Huh?" Mary decides to leave it there for now. "Tomorrow's Saturday, isn't it? I need to pick up some stuff from my apartment today but it looks like I'll be up late."

"I'd hate to miss Alex getting his butt handed to him again but, I'll go help you out." Charlotte offers.

"And I wont do anything." Johnny raises his beer like he's saluting a wonderful idea.

"Great. Come by around eight since I have to go to my job before then." Mary tells her.

Soon the time comes for my second confrontation with Roxy Rocket. I wait in costume on top of the police building until she arrives.

"I'm surprised you showed up." The sound of her hovering rocket sends a vibration through the air.

"I never leave a lady waiting." I tell her. "Now, what exactly is your intention of bringing me out here? Is it a contest you want or do you just love the moonlight at this side of the city?"

"The same reason you let me escape with the rock in the first place. I'm looking for a thrill."

"Then wouldn't meeting in the hotel district be a little more convenient?"

"You wish." She unzips her jacket enough so that I can see the jewel around her neck. "To get it back all you need to do is take it from me, but keeping up with me is not an easy thing to do."

"Alright." I get ready for her to start the count down.

"Three, two, one and go!"

Charlotte is helping Mary move some of her stuff from her old apartment to ours around that time. They are down to the last few bags when they decide to go for a break at a cafe Charlotte hasn't been able to convince Johnny or I to go to with her.

"It's so good to have a conversation with another girl for a change." Charlotte slurps down a french vanilla coffee with whipped cream and sprinkles. "Everything doesn't have to be about boobs and manga."

"Don't you have any friends from school you can talk to?" Mary asks, concerned for the high school girl who seems to have no one else but me and Johnny to talk to.

"I've never been to social in school. I'm kind of the quiet girl in class. I guess I have a few people I talk to now and then, like the girl beside me, but I wouldn't exactly call her my friend. She's nice enough but I've never really fit in there."

"You strike me as the kind of girl who could find a place anywhere."

"Thanks, but I'm usually a shut in."

"I guess it's just the personality the boys bring out in you. You must be close to Alex to have such a different personality with him around."

"We're definitely not close." Charlotte tells her. "And I would absolutely never call him my friend. He's more like an tormenting older brother, or an annoying dog I should've left in the pound."

"Maybe you're closer than you think." Mary hints. "I may not look it but I'm much older than you are and with age comes experience, especially with relationships. You two are close. At least you're closer than the rest of us."

Let's go back to me and Roxy Rocket now. I've activated my roller blades in my suit and use their rocket powered speed to keep up with Roxy.

"These things move like air trecks." I call up to her as I fallow bellow. With a twist of my gauntlet I aim and fire a grappling hook which latches onto the back wing on the rocket. It takes precision but I fluidly avoid the buildings Roxy tries to smash me into when she notices I'm hanging on. She sends the rocket into a nose dive and pulls up at the last second. The result of doing this would send me into the ground like a whip and falling at this speed would not be an option if I didn't have my suit. I have to bail out since the whip action would tear my arm out of the socket nearly invincible suit or not. I fall but allow my suit to let out a surge of static energy which latches onto the walls and slows my fall until I have slowed enough to fire a grappling hook and swing around a building, right in front of Roxy.

"Nice move." Roxy says as I land on the hood of her rocket. "But can you dodge bullets?" She fires a gun at me and it stops flat on my armour.

"Can, but don't need to. Can you dodge lasers?" I punch a laser X fist from my knuckles which she dodges in time.

She eases up on the handlebars and we dive towards the ground. I reach out to grab her but get hit in the back of the head with the top of the tunnel she just dove into.

Charlotte blushes as she stirs her coffee with one of those stupid looking tea straws you always find on the ground anywhere they sell coffee. The ones you can't use to actually drink the coffee or it will burn your throat and end up choking hot coffee all over myself…I mean yourself. "I guess you might be right."

"How did you two meet anyway? You don't seem like the kind of people who end up hanging out often."

"Actually, I just happened to meet him on the bus and he tried to help me fight off some losers who where fallowing me. I didn't know the guy I met on the bus was him at the time but when I knew that Red X was fallowing me I lured the guys out to a place I could fight them easily and started showing off some of my moves. I wanted to convince him to allow me to fund him but he took off. After that I just happened to run into him and he saved my life from some guys who where trying to kill him. I was able to give him my proposal and he accepted."

"Johnny said something about jumping off a building." When Mary says it Charlotte's blush brightens.

"That may have been a little eccentric, but it got the job done. After that I tracked him down to his house and someone burned it down while we where out. He had no place to go and I offered my place. So in conclusion, he owes me big."

"But, why where you looking for him in the first place?" Mary asks the big question. "You said that you lured the guys from the bus so you could show off and you even offered to look after his financial needs before even knowing what kind of person he was."

Charlotte takes her hand off the straw she's been stirring and rests her head on her hands which she folds under her chin. "I guess I could say that I didn't really care what kind of person he was. The bus wasn't the first time I met him either."

"But what would make you trust a complete stranger like that?"

"He was my hero." Charlotte looks back on her memories for a moment before she goes back to her conversation. She notices the obliviously intense look Mary is giving her from across the table and caves. "You cannot tell Alex or Johnny about this. It is one hundred percent confidential."

"If I was a scout it would be on my honour." Mary salutes.

"It was about two years ago when I was fifteen. I used to go to school like any other student and come like any other student. It was my fifteenth birthday and I was excited because my mom and dad where supposed to come into town and spend the day with me after school. The problem was that they cancelled on me the day before and I had been looking forward to it all month. I was pretty p**sed so I went out with a bunch of classmates instead of going straight home like I usually do after school. I was out late but didn't feel like partying or anything. I was really spoiled and thought that just because my parents worked overseas a lot I had the right to complain when they couldn't make it for my birthday. When I got home the door was unlocked so I went inside and found a beautiful cake on the table with this pretty blue icing around the edges with my name written into it and two presents sitting beside it. Then I looked down and saw both of my parents laying on the floor covered in blood."

The tunnel Roxy Rocket went into only has one exit. I swing over and wait for her. When she comes out I hop down and grab her by the waist, trying to pull her off the rocket but she has a good grip and more experience on this thing.

"Alright dunce bucket, it's time to pull over." I get up and use my static electric boots to stick to the rocket. She pulls her gun on me but I flip over her head before she can and hook a grapple to the front of the rocket. She flies it over Oscura bay and I'm forced to ski across the water's surface.

She gets a hold of the rope and fallows it up to the front of her rocket. She's absolutely crazy, letting a rocket like this fly with no one in the driver seat while it careens through the night air. She unhooks me and I would fall into the water if I hadn't anticipated her making this move and charges the blaster, punching the surface of the water with my gauntlet and causing four lines to erupt in the water in an X formation, allowing myself enough momentum to leap off the force of the energy blast and fire a grapple which digs into the rocket.

I swing back up and face Roxy on her own rocket as we fly closer to a more desert like area a little ways from Oscura.

Mary is speechless. She'd never thought to even ask about Charlotte's parents. And to find out that they had been murdered.

"I was freaking out and didn't really know what was going on. I think I was crying or screaming. One of them. As it turns out my parents killer was still in the house. He came out from the shadows and before I could run he'd already pushed me to the ground and taken out his knife. He cut my shirt up the middle first and even though I tried to fight him he was way too strong for me, despite all my martial arts training. I never took it seriously until after that day. I knew he was going to kill me, but that's when Red X showed up. He was wearing his black t shirt with the X he always wears but he had a halloween mask on and some biker gear or something. Whatever it was, it shimmered in the lights from the window. He called to the man and the man said something back to him. Then without a word he threw his crimson shuriken and knocked the knife out of the mans hand. At the time it just looked like he raised his hand and red sparks flew. Before the man could make another move he was dragged out the window by Red X. I guess he must've had him by a wire or something. Then that was it."

"Except that you're not telling me the whole truth." Mary looks over at Charlotte. "I used to be an actor. I know when people are putting on an act. I'm sure some of your story is true but you're keeping something more from me." Before Charlotte can speak Mary continues. "If you don't want to trust me with the whole story that's fine. I'm not going to pry."

Charlotte grabs her coffee and chugs the cup, which is now cold, in a series of gulps.

"Great coffee, huh?" She says with a smile.

"Yeah." Mary agrees.

By this time we have left Oscura City and are flying over a desert-like mountain valley. Roxy punches me in the face but nearly breaks her fist on my helmet.

"I thought you where gonna be a challenge." She spins and tries to kick me in the stomach but I grab it and try to flip her so she falls off the rocket but she spins herself so she can and on it instead. "I heard you where a daredevil like me but you hide behind that armour like a coward afraid of death. Do you know what I thought when I saw you?"

"Damn, this pilot costume makes me look like an a*s camel?" I say as I block a punch and grab her utility belt off of her waist. "I forgot to set my TV to record the newest episode of Glee? This giant rocket between my legs could be used for so many innuendoes?"

"I thought, this is Red X? The cruel no holds bared killer who would run naked into a barrage of bullets and come out clean on the other side? This can't be. He's just another pansy in a cape. He just thinks he's fearless because he's clad in impenetrable armour."

"You're right." I say and unlock the chest piece of my suit, letting it fall to the uninhabited mountains bellow us. I shed my cape too. "This would be much more fair face to face." I grab my helmet and take it off, revealing a small mask covering my eyes and the bridge of my nose. "If there's one thing I've learnt from Scooby Doo it's that wearing mask over mask can confuse the crap out of people so I always keep a spare on. Now that all of my vital upper body is unguarded you will have plenty of places to hit me." I raise my gauntlet and fire an X blast. "But don't think that gives you an advantage."

"I want more than just a skin show." Roxy drops her coat in the same way I tossed my stuff. "I want to see you cut loose."

She leaps at me and I grab her by the neck and push her back down on the rocket. She kicks me in the stomach and pushes her feet up so that I am tossed over her. I let go and extend my X cutters to stab into the rocket and get a grip. Roxy turns to attack me but I'm already on her with a right to the stomach and an elbow to the chin.

"OOOH! That's it!" She grabs my arm as she calls out in pleasure. "That's what I want to see. Fight me like an animal."

She flips me over her shoulder and tries to bring my head down onto the rocket but I twist in the air and use her own attack to build the momentum for a kick to her face. She tries to punch me but I duck and grab her by the fat of her thigh and upper arm, lifting her above my head and tossing her forwards. The rocket catches up to her quickly and I punch into her gut with the added force of her own vehicle working against her.

"I've never had it this good." She licks her cracked lips as her eyes look up at me with a mixture of respect, passion and envy. "I think I may just like you."

"That's sweet." I tell her as I flip her backwards and give her a bloody nose against the hard metal surface of her rocket. "But I don't need anymore crazy girls in my life."

She looks ahead and I fallow her eye line.

"Oh f**k, we're gonna hit that mountain aren't we?" I sigh and go to turn the controls but Roxy tosses a freaking grenade at it and blows the monkey fruiting thing to kingdom come. "Okay. I'm sure you have a perfectly good explanation for that."

"I don't plan on loosing my thrill yet." Roxy stands up on the doomed craft and runs at me. I punch her in the gut and put her down to her knees in one strike.

"You idiot." I look at the busted controls. "What do you think this is?"

"The best time of my life." She stands up and grabs me into her arms. "We can see who will win and live and who will loose and die in the explosion. Wont that be fun?"

"I'm ecstatic." I tell her sarcastically. "I don't want to die with you on a rocket heading for a mountain. That's just dumb."

"The only way off of this rocket is to let me die in the explosion. I wont let you save me."

"And I wont try to." I give her one straight shot and check out my landing zone. "I can survive that." I go to jump but look back at Roxy who is getting back to her feet. "By the way." I call back to her. "Loosing your life to the ultimate rush is stupid. If you die then you can't get up and experience it again."

She looks at me through a black eye and blood covered cheeks. "Oh, I really like you. But the question still remains, which one of us chickens out first?"

I walk back to her and face her towards the mountain, holding my arms around her so she can't move.

"Who cares, when the person who lives is the one telling the story. And what about your idea that we should both die together?"

"I thought you said you wanted to live?"

"I just said that loosing your life you the ultimate thrill is stupid, not that I'm smart. But before then lets have some fun."

We stare into our deaths with her held tightly in my arms. Her fingers play with the exposed hair on my head as she becomes more nervous and starts to loose her composure. I bring my hands up from her thighs up her belly and further until I get what I want.

I step back and activate my roller blades.

"What are you-" She can't move because I covered her feet in extremely strong goop from one of my shuriken.

"Now that I have this" I open my hand and show that the jewel is inside of it.

"So, that's why you suddenly became all hands." She realizes. "And here I thought we had a connection."

"I should be going. Nice meeting you Roxy. That goops around your feet should dissolve in ten seconds. If you survive look me up sometime." I'm about to leave but I turn back to tell her one more thing. "By the way, Im way to smart to jump blindly into a situation like this without a plan. You should learn from this. Happy landings." I leap back off the rocket and skate down the side of the mountains bellow me like a snowy slope.

I don't know if Roxy survived or not and I really don't care. I got my stuff back from the mountains and showed the Depraved that I rule their a** again. All in all, not a day.

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "MYTURNMYTURNMYTURNMYTURNMYTURN!"

HumanX: "Yup. You're voice actor will be announced in this chapter."

Charlotte: "Yeah!"

HumanX: "For Charlotte I wanted a very spoiled voice that could do a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. I ended off with Wendee Lee. She's at least three characters in Great teacher Onizuka, the main chick in Akira and Haruhi Suzumiya in the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. She plays a lot of roles but Haruhi was the one that convinced me to use her."

Mary: "Why don't I understand anything?"

Johnny: "It's anime stuff."

Mary: "Who's Haruhi?"

Johnny: "A girl who could destroy reality if she wanted too."

Mary: "Oh."

Alex: "Who cares about Charlotte's voice!? Why was I reduced to a side fight while the real story was going on? I feel like Johnny. And what's with the speeches I've been giving lately?"

Johnny: "Thanks for that."

Mary: "You've also been beating girls pretty bad lately."

Alex: "There's no such thing as gender on the battleground unless it can be sued to your advantage!"

Mary: "The speeches are just little looks into who you are since you don't really let people know how you really think or anything about your past."

Alex: "My past is my past."

Charlotte: "Who cares! My turn to announce the next story! All he wanted was to compete. His heart burned for the lights of the arena. Now he is cursed to become a creature of the night. Is this the cost of using Xenothium? The blood of two bests is shed. What are you Alex?Next chapter, Red X verses Romulus, Two monsters collide."

Ch09

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase (Safe as a dry hump). We've got ripped open chests and sexual content so readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

"That's freaking hilarious!" Johnny Rancid sprays droplets of beer from his flapping lips. "So, you had her in the closet while the math teacher was giving it to a co-worker right outside? You've got balls, man." He hits the arm of the chair as he keeps laughing.

"I know, I know." I smile and down a sip from my Darth Vader head cup. "You should've seen her face when I started talking about erotic zones. She looked like her face was gonna explode."

I feel a sudden jolt as a rolled up magazine smacks the back of my head.

"Why do you have to keep telling that story?" Charlotte asks me. "It's bad enough you came to my school in the first place but now you have to rub that horrible experience into my face every second of every day."

"It's just a little fun. I didn't do anything wrong." I tell her, rubbing my head.

"You call humiliating me and making me think my vary purity was on the line funny?" She grinds her teeth.

"Purity?" I ask her with a sudden realization. "Are you..?"

"I've never done it before." She says with an unsuspected smirk. "Got a problem with it? Unlike some people I have self control. Anyway, you to have to come with me for training."

"Why do I have to train you?" I ask her.

"I don't want to be some freakazoid kung fu nerd like you but if I'm going to clock that black haired bimbo the next time I see her I'll need to pump up." She flexes for a moment and smiles brightly. "So, let's go."

"I had to climb a mountain, fight a bear, snake and monkey with nothing but some clothing some old lady gave me only to find out that the same freaking old bat was waiting for me at the top of the mother forking mountain to see if I was worthy to be her student. The bear was a crotch munching jerk about it too. He sat on me. It took three showers before I stopped smelling like bear a** and the wrinkly old bastich still treated me like rat crap. AT least when I was a terrorist I got a little respect…hehehe. I got some respect then."

"Since half of what you said was probably a load of crap, I'm going to ignore it and we can move on, alright?" Charlotte reaches down to help me to my feet. "I don't need your mountain climbing, sit under a waterfall, train under a hundred times gravity crap. Just give me enough to hold my own against metahumans."

"And what do I get if I do?" I ask her. "Remember, we're running a business here. You pay for everything I could ever want and I entertain you with my daily antics."

"Keep your daily antics in your room." Charlotte points her finger an inch away from my face. "And as for our arrangement I believe that I only agreed to provide housing and meals. As for those manga and anime you buy as well as all the Japanese treats, those I gave you out of the kindness of my heart. Maybe I'm not in the giving mood anymore and I'll cut you off…Now that I'm thinking about it, you owe me more than forty two thousand dollars on mochi alone."

"I'll do it for a life sized Snorlax beanbag chair." I tell her.

"Where do I get one?"

"They don't exist. I saw a picture of one some guy made online and fell in love. You'll have to find a way to have one made for me."

"Deal. And to even this out you have to make dinner tonight."

"YES!" Johnny throws his hands up in joy before realizing he just insulted Charlotte's cooking in front of her. "I mean, no. I love your cooking."

"Then I'll make you something big tomorrow." Charlotte smiles darkly.

"G-Great." Johnny can hardly hold his smile.

We've been running for a while now. Since it's Saturday we've got all day, by according to Charlotte. She has a surprising amount of energy for a girl who does nothing but read magazines and play with her machines all day.

"You okay back there techno nerd?" I call back to her.

"I thought you'd teach me fighting moves, not run me around town like a sweaty pig." She calls up to me. "I do this on my own every day."

"But with a cute butt like mine to watch the whole time your guaranteed to sweat more." I tell her.

"Right. Can we move on?" She asks me. "I know about the importance of daily training and stuff but this is a little-"

"Daily training?" I look back at her like she's an idiot. "We're just warming our legs." I slow down so she can catch up and end up beside her. "I can start you off pretty simple, with a few jujutsu and kenpo lessons along with karate and some other martial arts forms. I know that you're devoted but it will take a lot of judgement on your part to decide when and where to use these moves. Since you're not a fighter I'm only taking you to metahuman level. No more. I'm only giving you what you need to survive."

In that moment Charlotte looks at me with a deeper respect than she's felt for anyone in a long time.

"Right!" She pumps her arms into the air. "Let's get started!"

"Hey, what's that?" I stop running and look at a new building. "The new library is opening today…"

"No!" Charlotte jumps in front of the library. "Absolutely not."

"But all the books." I reach for it as she pushes me back. "I must read them. They're getting the new book from one of my favourite psychiatrists in a collaboration piece. I wanna read it so baaaaad!"

"I thought you found your fellow workers infantile?" She pushes against me as I inch towards the library.

"That's only because my mind is so much further advanced. I like reading what others have to say about these things. Even non-geniuses can provide insight to a problem geniuses have."

"But we have to do my training."

"It's Saturday. We can do it tonight. They have Cryogenics by doctor Fault, The Human Mind And Evolution by Martin Mayor, The Science Of Heaven and Hell by father Munroe."

"I thought you didn't believe in evolution."

"I don't. I disproved it when I was seven with my stupidity verses irrelevance theory but I like how the idea seems like Pokemon."

"You need less insulting names for your theories."

"I can't help it. It's how I am. That's also part of why no one ever takes them seriously."

"Then you can think of new names for them while you train me!"

"But the desk lady said she would keep me the copy of Malchior and the Dragon. Please? I just want to go in for a few minutes!" I beg her and she gives in.

The library is a gothic style building since it used to be a church that was used way back in the gothic times but left unused for a long time. The city finally decided to make it a library and have it restored and used as a functioning building.

"I love the decor." I look around at the hanging sculptures and beautiful pillars surrounding the endless sea of bookshelves. "It's like a dream. A beautiful hard cover dream."

"You really love books, huh?" Charlotte asks me. "I don't mind magazines and books on machines but I can't stand musty places like this."

I sigh. "You're so young. The world of literature is a vast and wonderful place."

"You're only three years older than me." She grumbles. "And all the information I need is on the internet."

"There are things in this world you can't find on the web." I tell her and start pulling books off the shelves and dumping them onto the piles in her arms. "A lot of the books in here predate the computer and some where written by famous people from long ago while others where complete nobodies. You can't find their works anywhere on the internet because no one thought to put a lot of it up. There's this book here that is one of a kind about a knight who slays a dragon magician but the spells used in it have also been used by famous sorcerers and even though it is an overlooked piece of fiction, by studying it many ancient spells where rediscovered."

"Yeah yeah." She grumbles.

We dump the books on a table and I dive into reading them. Charlotte sits down at the corner beside where I and and sets her head down on the table. She looks up at me but I don't notice her because I am captured by the current book I'm reading.

"You know." She says in her mind. "When he's reading like that, he's pretty cute. In a way. Actually," She takes a longer look. "He actually looks mature, like a real adult." She looses herself to her thoughts and continues to watch me. "He's actually kind of cool." She shakes the thoughts out of her head, returning to reality. "No no no! He's a jerk. That's just part of what makes other girls fall for his acts. You've seen this in class yesterday…but he never looked so calm and driven."

"If you keep starring I'm gonna get embarrassed." I tell her without looking away from the pages.

"I wasn't starring." She tells me. "I was just wondering how so much ugly got into one face."

"Though your retort was lacking I will give you points for how you made it seem like an honest reply." I flip the page and continue reading. "Just hang around a bit longer and we'll get back to training."

"Sure." She lays her head on the desk and before long her eyes look back up to me before slowly closing.

"Wake up." I rock Charlotte slightly by pushing on her shoulder. "It's time to go."

She sits up and rubs her eyes. "What time is it?" She asks me.

"Nearly seven." I tell her as I use the book in my hand to karate chop her gently. "You snore like crazy by the way. It was like listening to a duck being strangled."

"I do not sound like a duck." She tells me and gets up. "Wait!" She opens her eyes wide and grabs me by the collar of the shirt. "You said seven? I've been sleeping for four hours!? We have to do training! I'll skip dinner so I can make up on the lost-" She falls back on the table when I poke her in the forehead.

"The reason you slept so long is because you haven't been getting enough rest lately." I keep my finger pressed to her forehead. "You where running sloppy this morning and your breathing is off. You've obviously been overworking yourself with no sleep to recharge and skipping meals to spare time. What have you been eating?"

"I've been eating fine. All my meals are made when I'm home." She tries to lie to me.

"Don't lie to me." I warn her. "I can see right through you. You haven't had a decent meal in a while."

"I skipped breakfast because I couldn't do as many pushups as I wanted and I've been eating a lot of protein bars and things."

"Idiot." I put the hand that was at her forehead to mine and sigh. "Are you kidding me? You should be eating healthy foods for training, not artificially enhanced protein."

"But you eat them." She pouts.

"That's because the chocolate fudge ones are delicious. They have their uses but unless you consider what you need aside from what is in it you'll still be at a disadvantage. And skipping sleep sessions is just plain stupid. Have you ever seen me skip sleep time? I fallow a schedule designed to fit my body as best as humanly possible. If you skip out of sleep your body will loose energy quicker and the effectiveness of your training will lessen. The impact on your mind is another factor that requires food and sleep as well as physical exorcise and fun. When was the last time you took a break from training? Just yesterday you where freaking out about being beaten by that girl and you've already run yourself dry. If you're not responsible then there is no point in training you."

"I'm sorry daddy." She doesn't notice what she said at first but when it hits her she brings her hand over her mouth in shock.

"What did you just call me?" A smile slowly creeps onto my face.

"I didn't mean to say that. It's not my fault." She says behind a massive red blush.

"Is someone missing their dead daddy?" I say in a baby voice. "Do you need a hug?"

"It just slipped out." She huffs. "It's just that you're not usually like this…all nice and trying to help me. You seemed really mature, unlike usual, and it caught me off guard."

"So now I'm a father figure?" I ask her. "Am I really that special to you?"

"Oh, shut up." She turns away from me. "It just slipped out." She tries to get up but her malnourished body doesn't hold and she misses the side of the desk. I catch her before she falls and she ends up running into my chest. "This wasn't my fault either." She mumbles with no energy to fight with me anymore.

"I guess we're heading to the plaza." I sigh and go to take out some books with my new library card.

Charlotte sits across from me in a restaurant in the middle of the Oscura shopping centre. Her mouth waters as her eyes take in the sight of a large stake covered in vegetables and gravy.

"Is it really okay if I eat this?" She asks me.

"You're paying for it." I tell her as I waft down a triple stacked burger. "Since you're small you have to build up some muscle to take what I'm going to do to you. Once you have that big piece if meat inside you we'll wait until you can handle me taking over the development of your body."

"I really don't like how you chose to describe that." She looks at me for a moment before snapping her eyes back to the massive slab of meat. "But right now all I can think about is how amazing this will taste." She cuts a piece off of the slab and places the meat between her lips. The taste of its juice enters her mouth, tingling her taste buds to their limits…I really do describe things weird. "It's so amazing." She practically moans. "I've been on a diet for the past month so I haven't been able to eat anything so amazing. I just can't get enough of it."

"That's what she said." I look at her for a moment and decide to ask something that I never felt like asking before. "Hey Charlotte."

"These potatoes are amazing. Fluffy, fluffy, I love this training, I'm gonna eat like a pig." She starts to sing before realizing I said her name. "What?"

"You wanted to meet up with me before we met on the train, right? I was just wondering why. Did I meet you somewhere before and not remember, or did you just happen to have seen me before?"

She looks at me with a fork full of meat in her mouth, swallows it and smiles. "That's my secret. If you really don't remember I wont tell you."

"In that case I'll make sure your training turns you into one of those muscly body builder chicks."

"If you do that then no mellon bread and you can kiss the Full Metal Alchemist box set you wanted goodbye."

"Fine." I give in and look out the window. "I wasn't really that interested. The point is that for some reason I now get everything I want for free…Now that I think about it I haven't stollen anything in a while."

"You've been busy with your psychiatry training and stuff. Besides, dressing like Batman and attacking helpless criminals takes a bit of work." She shovels another pile of potatoes into her mouth.

"I do not dress like Batman." I tell her. "He uses a different armour than I do and the design of our torso pieces are all different too. He uses a cowl and I use a helmet. He goes for the bat look and I look like the grim reaper with an X on his chest."

"I still don't see the difference between your look and his."

"Okay then." I raise a possibility. "Then to celebrate when my two years of training hours is over you will fly me to Gotham where I will take Batman's costume and prove to you that we have a completely different look."

"Fine." Charlotte tells me. "But don't come crying to me when the Gotham Knight kicks your imitating a** back here."

"You saying I can't take Batman?" I ask her and look down a bit further through the crowd. In a split second I kick her chair just moments before a flurry of shuriken shatter the window across from us. The shuriken pass by Charlotte's face as she falls back onto the ground. I pull one out from the wall beside me. "A maple leaf." I twirl it in between my fingers.

"Is my steak okay?" Charlotte asks me.

"Yes." I get up and grab a bag from the ground. "I'm going to go check this out. It would be a shame if all the restaurants in the area closed down for repairs. Keep refuelling."

"Understood. Have fun." She tells me and I disappear into the crowd of escaping people.

The maple leaf shuriken are coming from the centre of the plaza. When I get there I see a woman in a play mask, you know the ones that look like it's from the phantom of the opera. She's wearing a large coat covered in leaves and twigs.

"Wow." I cock my head to the side and wonder what the heck is wrong with her as I walk up to her. "That outfit is…wow."

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come out here." She tells me and raises her arm in the air. "Pin ups, attack!"

Suddenly I'm surrounded by jacked, barely dressed men in what looks like it should've been tuxedos…so, these are pretty much the gayest henchmen ever.

"What is this?" I look around. "I don't even have a cheeky joke for this situation."

"My name is Callander girl." The boss tells me. She has a massive machine behind her that looks like a shuriken cannon. I guess that's how she was able to send those things flying at me. "I was sent to destroy you by the-"

"I've got it!…No. That's pretty offensive to the gay community. I mean yes, it's funny but even I know not to screw with gay people…haha. Screw with gay people."

"Pay attention to me!" Callander girl yells at me. "I was sent here to kill you."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." I grab a couple shuriken from my belt while making sure to hide my hands under my cape so she doesn't see.

I toss the shuriken, damaging the controls on the cannon and knocking the woman's mask off. She hides her face with her hand as she searches for the lost mask.

The pin up boys attack me but I'm not sticking around for that sausage fest. I run up the side of a nearby wall, using the static electric system in my suit to keep from falling, and jump over the group. When I hit ground again I already have my knockout gas shuriken in hand and toss it into the middle of the group. They start to cough on the gas but it is sucked into a hose by their leader who has found her mask.

"You idiots!" She yells at them. "I told you to be careful of his juvenile tricks!"

"Juvenile?" I use my grappling hook to swing over and land beside her. "I consider my tricks to be more humorous or even petty." I slap a shuriken on her back and the ends extend, dragging her up into the centre of a gigantic X. "Wow." I look up. "I am really glad we got the spacial distortion thing worked out."

"Hiya!" One of the pin up boys tries to kick me from behind but I grab him by the ankle and toss him at one of the spikes on the X, knocking it down. It shatters and dissolves into gas.

"Do you think you can sneak up on me with that crappy dollar store Judo, sack satin?" I sigh.

I'm about to spin around and kick another of the pin ups trying to sneak up on me but there is a bang sound and he falls to the ground.

"Was that a rubber bullet?" I ask, recognizing the sound.

I become surrounded by pin ups. They slowly come closer to me but then with a few more shots they begin to fall.

"It's a sniper!" The boss calls out, finally free from my trap. "Guard yourselves from above!"

They all run and hide under the roofs of the businesses. They all take out their guns, they really should've been using earlier, and get ready.

Bang and Bang. Two more get knocked out. Then another two. One gets scared and runs out screaming but he gets one planted right in the food expulsion unit.

I stand in the middle of the action looking up in the direction of the sniper. I grin under my mask. This guy is not that bad.

A harpoon is fired from the snipers direction and flies by, digging into the ground behind me. The sniper glides down the rope attached to the harpoon and lands beside me.

"Haven't seen you in a while." The tiny lips curve into a smile as her blonde hair nearly glistens in the light of the sun. The zipper of her black leather jacket makes a chime sound as it hits the floor. "Sorry I didn't appear earlier."

"And who are you?" I ask her.

"You don't recognize me?!" She points at her face and removes her glasses so only I can see her. "It's me! Baby Doll!"

"…Oh. Hey." I recognize her now. "You're the big chick with the thing that makes her look like a little chick. What's up?"

"Saving your sweet a**." She smirks with a cocky attitude. "A second later and these flamboyant bunny boys would've been taking you for a ride."

"You have any idea what a feint is?"

"Whatever." She reloads her guns. "As I recall your armour isn't impenetrable."

"Things have changed since then. Anyway, we gonna take these guys down or what?"

"Sounds good."

Baby Doll fires her guns, taking out several of the enemies and I launch my shuriken, putting down my own group of pin ups. Eventually we get down to the mask lady. She pulls a freaking bazooka and aims it at us. I grab Baby and pull her under my cape. The bazooka fires and the resulting blast knocks me under some rubble. When I get out Callander girl is gone.

"How are we alive?" Baby asks me.

"My cape and suit are pretty durable." I tell her. "It's because I wash them with Sunlight detergent. The power of the sun."

"Right." She looks at her weapons and grimaces. "That b***h broke my favourite gun."

"That's too bad. See ya." I get ready to walk away.

"Wait up." She calls to me. "Shouldn't we work together to get her?"

"What, is she one of the reviewers who gave you a bad mark or something?"

"I don't know her but I've been tracking down a lot of people who work for the Depraved."

"Oh? Is that what has been actresses do in their spare time?"

"Actually, I'm doing this because it's the real me." She smiles at me.

Charlotte runs up to us from the restaurant we where at.

"Holy crap! Did you see that explosion?!" She asks us.

"No." I say sarcastically. "There was an explosion? I was too busy being buried in rubble to notice."

"We where defeated by a woman calling herself the Callander girl." Baby tells her. "I assume you're an friend of Red X. My name is Mary Dahl, but my codename is Baby Doll. I hope we can work together in finding the Callander girl."

Charlotte looks down at her for a moment before scooping her up into her arms and squealing. "OHMYGOSH! She is so maximum adorable! And her little toy guns are sooooo cute!"

"Make her let go of me." Mary looks at me.

"Charlotte. Put the little sniper down." I tell her.

We go back to Charlotte's apartment to talk things out. Johnny happens to be home to we introduce him to Mary.

"And you see, I've been using the massive amounts of money I got when I was an actress to hire high end masters to train me in martial arts and gunplay." Mary explains to us as she nurses a cup of marshmallow hot chocolate. "That way I could work to better myself and learn to become someone I could admire."

"But why did you choose to go through such a dramatic change? I thought you hated who you where." Charlotte says.

"I used to be ashamed of how I look and hated myself for it. But well, I learnt that I should embrace who I am and that the image I had of myself was an illusion. I stopped hating myself and realized that I'm beautiful the way I am and that it would be a shame to run away from reality." She looks up at me for a moment. "At least, that's what I believe now."

Charlotte looks between us and notices something awkward.

"What exactly happened between you two?"

"Nothing special." I deny her implied accusations as her face comes closer to mine. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"That's right." Mary tries to support me. "He just kissed me."

"You kissed her!?" Both Charlotte and Johnny yell at the same time.

"Oh my gosh!" Charlotte puts her hand to her mouth. "I knew you where a perv but you really are a lolicon, huh?"

"Sure she's older than you, but man." Johnny nods his head with his arms crossed. "And here I was beginning to respect you as a human being."

"You where not and I am not." I tell them. "She's older than I am."

"But she looks like a kid." Charlotte smirks.

"And that's the part you like isn't it?" Johnny joins her.

"Stop picking on me." I pout and forget about arguing with them. "So, what are we doing about this Callander girl?"

"Well, I…um." Baby tries to continue but finds it hard to talk through the embarrassment. "I used my gun to launch a tracking bullet on her when she was running away, so we could get her by fallowing it."

"Tracking bullet?" Charlotte asks.

"Yeah. Since I'm small I tried having some lo jacked bullets created which would splatter and get stuck on people's clothes. It sticks on pretty good and the goop goes through most fabric so it should still be on her."

"Unless she likes to run around naked." Johnny brings up the unlikely possibility.

"Why didn't you just fire a rubber bullet and take her out?" I ask her.

"Her mask looks like it's made of steel and I thought my rubber bullets would just bounce off if I tried that. We where also covered under the rubble so I thought she might get away while we where stuck."

"Good thinking." Johnny nods. "I want to get a good look at this mask chick."

"Not much." I warn him. "C or B."

"What about the face under the mask?" Johnny points out.

"Not bad actually." I grab my laptop from the desk and bring up something I was working on earlier.

"You saw her face?" Charlotte asks me.

"No, but Callander girl is awfully close to another villain from my original home town. Calendar man." I bring up the spec sheet on Calendar man. "His real name is Julian Day and he's known for only committing crimes on notable holidays. He has possible connections with the Holiday Killer. Other than his obsession with dates it seems he's got nothing really interesting to him…Except that he has a daughter he doesn't know about."

"A daughter?" Charlotte looks at the screen. "Wow, she's gorgeous."

"She was admitted to Gotham orphanage when she was young and later found out that her father was the Calendar man. She went to see him a lot but he never came to meet her. She waited outside the asylum once all night in the middle of winter and was sent to hospital. After that she became a fashion model but after a while she was replaced with younger models. After that she fell off the radar."

"That's never good." Charlotte points out. "When famous people disappear they usually resurface as crazy nut jobs."

"Thanks for that." Mary grumbles. "We should start looking for our Callander crook before she tries dragging you guys back out onto her turf again."

"Already got her." I toss Mary back her tracking device.

"When did you-"

"Took it out of your pocket when you mentioned it."

"He does that a lot." Charlotte sighs. "At least this time he didn't take anyones underwear."

"That was awesome." Johnny fist pounds me.

The tracking device tells us that Callander girl is in a high end hotel district close to ours, so we launch an attack.

A ticking sound is heard echoing through a large entrance hall filled with guards. The ticking stops and the guards back away from the large doors seconds before they blow open and Johnny steps through.

"Hiya." He waves to the room. "We heard a good friend of ours owns this building and thought we'd drop in."

The guards open fire on Johnny who lights a cigarette as the bullets stop dead on his coat and pants.

"You wanna take care of this Baby?" He asks as Baby Doll walks out from behind him and fires two shots, each breaking a chandelier on the roof down and onto the majority of the enemies.

"You want me to leave you some of the rest?" She asks him with a smile.

"Well, I should earn my keep." He grabs his crowbar from the bet of his side and rushes the crowd.

I use the two of them distracting the guards to sneak past and get to the elevator on the other side. Two guards are standing in it and waiting for an attack, but when it comes they are not prepared.

"Sup dogs?" I flip upside down from the ceiling and toss a bomb into the elevator. They run out and I flip in. The bomb bursts but only confetti comes out. The door closes before they can run in to catch me and I ride the elevator to the top floor.

A bunch of guards wait for the elevator to reach the top, guns pointed and ready. The doors open but no one's there. A small object roles out from the elevator.

"You." One of the guards motions to the one beside him.

That guard moves closer and looks at the object.

"It looks like…fake vomit sir." At that second the vomit explodes, melting away all metallic material, including their guns.

I flip into the room and hop over their heads, landing at the other side of the rooms and putting my hands together. An X glows at the end of my hands and flies out at them, turning into a sticky goop and immobilizes them.

"You guys…stick…around. Heh. Aw crap. I said it didn't I?" I look down in shame. "I swore I wouldn't."

Pushing my own disappointment in myself out of mind I throw open the doors behind me and walk in to see my target sitting on the couch watching TV. She grabs the mask off of the table before I can get a look at her face.

"Who the hell are you?" She spins around. "Oh, crap."

"Yeah, I get like that when I have a zit too, but the mask is a bit much." I tell her and grab some shuriken, getting ready for a fight. "I'm pretty much here to tell you I know ho you are and will come back to get you if you start smashing up my town again. Just quit being a b***h and I'll leave you alone."

"Sorry." She grabs a gun from under her table. "But I've got my own reasons for taking this job."

The gun fires but deflects off of my cape.

"In that case I'll just have to crush your wind pipe and be done with it." I move in like lightning and kick the gun out of her hand, spinning around and grabbing her by the arm. I pull her over my shoulder and toss her across the room. She lands with her back on the table and tries to get up but she's groggy and I get to her before she can move. I grab her by the throat and force her back down on the table.

"I don't want to waste my time on bullying women, especially weak ones like you, but you're forcing me here." I tell her as my one arm keeps her stationary. "Just give up and leave town."

"I can't!" She grabs a maple shuriken from her clothes and stabs it against my armour, snapping the shuriken at the tip.

"In this costume I'm practically Superman." I explain to her as she struggles. "Not that I need the help. You clearly have very little experience in fighting, unlike me, but I do see something similar between us. We both have blood on our hands. Who was your first? One of the guys who fired you? Maybe the guard who wouldn't let you in to see daddy?"

"Don't you dare talk about my father!" She moves nearly an inch off the table.

"Daddy's your weak spot huh?"

"I told you not to talk about him!"

"Talking about it is the first step to recovery." I get what makes her tick. "Do you hate your father?"

"Shut up!"

"Was it painful to be rejected by a man you never met? He kept you behind stone walls and steel bars. His own daughter. He didn't even want to meet you. Not once. You must hate him more than anyone."

"I love my father!" She starts to crack.

"I can see that. Everything you do screams of a lost little girl crying for her dads attention. Boo hoo."

"Stop mocking me you little-" I close my hand around her neck to prevent her from talking.

"Hush now. Story time. Why don't I try to piece your history together and when I'm done you tell me if I'm right? Let's start off with how you where in a little orphanage in Gotham, one that was later condemned because the owner had a bit of a thing for little girls with no parents. You would comfort yourself in that place with thoughts of your real father being a kind and gentle man who would never hurt anyone. Then when you where adopted you hated your new father who was just as bad as the orphanage owner, seeing as he was killed on easter. What was it you used? Poison egg breakfast? The poison was a specific strain that resembles the chemicals in the plant he worked at. Nice touch. But of course, you only killed him after finding out about your real daddy and waiting for him to accept a call from you. How long did you wait? A week? A month? A year? Why don't you tell me?"

"I killed my foster father two weeks after my real father didn't come see me." She admits. "He was a filthy b****d anyway. He deserved to die."

"I know." I agree. "If I where there at the time I would've killed him the moment I found out what he did to you."

"Liar."

"Just look at the people I've killed already. All of them have done similar things to what he did to you. Why would I lie?"

She stays silent.

"So, what did you do after killing daddy nearest?" I continue questioning her.

"I went to see my real daddy after the police stopped paying attention to us." She begins to share. "I went to see him over and over again but he never met with me. They would tell me "he says he doesn't have a daughter" or "he doesn't want to see anyone right now" and eventually they stopped letting me into the asylum. I hated them for it. I thought they where keeping him away from me, but then he broke out. I've been sending him letters and I know he received them. But when he broke out I waited for him but he never came for me. I waited all night and nearly died."

"So then you tried to get his attention by becoming a model. Getting rich and having tons of fans so your father may want you as a daughter."

"No. It started with less glamourous work before that. I had to work hard to get away from the dead end club jobs and late nights with cruel men but I finally made my way to the top with my looks. I was the top model for a successful company but when I finally hit the hight of my success and went to see my father in the asylum he still never came to see me."

"That's when you started the surgeries."

"Yes. I thought if I just became more beautiful then maybe he'd notice me. But it was never enough. He never came to see me. So I thought if I could do what he couldn't. If I could kill my own dark knight I could finally be respected in his eyes. May be would finally come and see me and I could have a real father."

"So that's it?" I let go of her throat and feel my teeth clench under my mask. "That's why you do this?"

She doesn't answer but sits up.

"You're pathetic." I mutter, barely holding my anger in.

"My father never loved me!" She yells at me. "He wouldn't even see me!"

"At least he was insane." I clench my fists but hold back. "How do you know your letters got to him? Arkham Asylum has strict regulations regarding contact with the outside world. If a young woman is sending constant letters in to an inmate like the Calendar man then they would open and read them first before giving them to him. Your letters would've given them the wrong idea and they would've been destroyed long before reaching him. He probably doesn't know you exist. He's also a mental case whose only real love is dates and times."

"What would you know about it!?"

"You're not the only one with a crazy father, but at least yours was insane from the beginning. You never had to be rejected by a perfectly sane father for a building of metal cases. At least you never had to find more warmth in a heart made of ice or more of a father in an insane clown. At least you where never surrounded by adults who seemed more like children in comparison to you. At least you never had to realize that the only time in your life that you had anything resembling respect for your father was the day he put on a stupid mask. But I'm not here to air out my dirty laundry. Why don't you preach to me about how hard your life is and how you struggled for the respect of a man who didn't even know you existed. Why don't you tell me about how you blame the men in your life for your own mistakes. I get that it must've been traumatizing to have lived in that orphanage and with that foster family so why don't you tell me about how instead of taking the freedom you had when you where free of them you ran into the arms of another sadistic bastard. Tell me how you think that just because you got a s**t deal in life you think you can just get pity from everyone around you while hiding under that mask."

"You don't understand! I need this mask!"

I loose it. My arm comes up and in one precise strike the mask shatters and the woman falls to the ground.

"Just like everyone else." She hides her face in her left arm while putting her right hand to her swollen cheek. "You're just like every other man in my life. But I promise I will kill you."

"I don't really give a damn about that." I grab her arms and tie them behind her back so she can't cover her face anymore. She screams and tries to hide her face but can't.

"Don't look at me! I'm ugly!" She struggles but I force her to her feet and grab her by the cheek, forcing her to look into the reflected image of herself on the TV screen.

"Look at yourself." I tell her.

Her face is, by all aesthetic terms, beautiful. She is clearly a vision who could catch the hearts of any man with a single glance.

"I'm ugly." She begins to cry and closes her eyes.

"That's because you can only see the flaws." I tell her. "After being rejected so many times you still fallow after some neglecting father figure in your mind, hoping he could make up for the horrible men you've had to deal with in your life. You resorted to surgery to try and make your outer appearance more beautiful, but in the end you ended up seeing what you had become. Ugly. You're now just a porcelain doll made in the image of what you think your father would have accepted you as. You may say that you hate the men who abused you but you still had all that surgery so they would still look at you. You're pathetic and disgusting."

I let go of her and she falls to the ground crying.

"Think about where you are now and how to make yourself see the beautiful side of you. Try to dig through all the s**t in your life and find the one piece of you that is still worth something."

"You said some things before that makes me think you also have father issues." She says, still unable to look my way. "How did you not become like me? How did you become okay?"

"I'm dressed like this and fighting people with explosive shuriken. What makes you think I'm okay?" I chuckle. "My parents played a part in how I got where I am but they're part of the past. In the end I'm me. I don't need them to dictate my life. I'm screwed up because of what I've done to myself, not because of them. That's just how I see it. Anyway, I don't give a flaming dog crap if you get over your issues but next time I see you ripping up my favourite restaurants I'll shove one of my exploding X's up your but and you really will need surgery. Got it?"

She doesn't say anything and I leave. She gets up and sits on her couch looking at her reflection in the mirror. She is able to untie the rope after struggling for some time. She looks closer at the image of her tear covered face and running mascara and grabs the phone beside her, throwing it through the glass of the screen and shattering it into shards.

"I'm ugly." She mutters to herself over and over. "Why wont you look at me? You're the one I wanted to accept me for who I am. Daddy." She grabs her phone out from the TV and a can of lighter fluid from where she keeps her weapons and goes to the bathroom. She grabs a mirror from under the sink and places it up where it originally was before she moved in when she first moved in. She dials a number and puts it to her ear as she uncorks the bottle of lighter fluid. "Hello, police?" She says calmly as she pours the fluid downs one side of her face and grabs a lighter from the side of the sink. "There's been a burn victim."

"Do you think we'll see her again?" Charlotte asks me as we sit and watch TV on the couch at home.

"I don't know." I shrug.

"Why'd you let her live fi she might come back?" Johnny asks me. "Sure she's a girl but she's also a psycho."

"Maybe he felt a connection to her." Mary says as she grabs a bag of pop corn and sits down on the couch.

"Why are you even still here?" I ask her.

"I invited her to live here." Charlotte smiles. "Since she's your friend."

"Since when are we friends?" I ask.

"You seem to have gotten pretty friendly in the fun house." Johnny grabs a handful of pop corn from Mary's bag.

"That wasn't what you're making it out to be." I tell him.

"As I recall, you guys where the only ones making out." Charlotte teams up on me.

"It really wasn't that big of a deal." Mary tries to stop them.

"Oh! She's so cute when she's embarrassed!" Charlotte grabs her into her arms and squeezes.

"It really isn't like that." Mary tries to convince them.

"Forget it." I give in. "They're gonna believe what they want to. So, are you fine with staying around here?"

"You guys seem really interesting, so I think I will." She smiles.

"Well, it will be nice to have a girl on this team that is at least useful in a fight." I reference to someone in the room.

"That reminds me." Charlotte remembers. "You still need to train me. I ate that entire steak and I don't want to get fat because you didn't keep your promise."

"Can't we do that tomorrow?" I ask. "I'm kind of exhausted from beating up that woman today."

"You didn't beat her up." Johnny points out. "You just held down on a table and tied her up…kinky."

"You get training?" Mary asks. "I want training too!"

"I'm not here to give out free martial arts lessons." I try to get them away from me.

"Please Alex!" Charlotte comes closer.

"Please Alex?" Mary comes closer too.

"Some guys get all the girls." Johnny sighs and changes the channel. "I guess I should envy you."

"I will gladly trade places." I tell him.

"Come on!" They drag me off the couch and out the door. "Training time!"

Preview Time!

Alex: "Wow. No one requested anyone."

HumanX: "When I ask questions of the readers like that it doesn't usually go well."

Charlotte: "A lot of people are occupied with the fan fiction rules thing too."

Alex: "Maybe they thought it was just for Funimation actors? You just want actors from any anime related thing."

Johnny: "Or nobody gives a crap."

HumanX: "That's a pretty negative way of looking at it."

Mary: "What's going on?"

Charlotte: "HumanX asked the readers what anime voice actors would fit each of our roles."

Mary: "Why?"

Charlotte: "He's a bit of a nut. He says it helps him write the characters and their identities if he knows what he wants them to sound like. It's like a completion of our characters."

Alex: "Whatever! Lets just get to my voice already! I want to know what I sound like!"

HumanX: "Actually, that was a very hard decision. I came up with three possibilities. The first one that came to mind was Vic Mignogna. He played Tamaki Suoh in Host Club and Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist. I like his voice and he's an awesome voice actor who sings a bunch of songs. I also thought about Todd Haberkorn. He plays Death the Kid in Soul Eater and Keroro in sgt. Frog."

Johnny: "I love sgt, Frog. Giroro is awesome."

Alex: "Who is my voice!?"

Charlotte: "Nobody cares about your voice. Do I sound sexy?"

HumanX: "I'll tell people your voice next chapter."

Charlotte: "But I wanna know now."

Alex: "Me first!"

HumanX: "For the love of crap…I thought long and hard about this. I looked through all my anime for any voices that would work for Alex but his character was incredibly hard."

Alex: "Hehe. Hard."

HumanX: "Anyway, I finally chose Matt Hill."

Charlotte: "Isn't he that guy in Storm Hawks?"

Alex: "Yeah. He also played Bonkotsu in Inuyasha and Pantyhose Taro in Ranma 1/2. He was Kiro in Card Captors too for anyone who was into that when they where young."

Charlotte: "I loved that show! Kiro was so cute…why does he fit him." Point at Alex.

HumanX: "Well you see, I wanted a voice that would sound like an obnoxious or flirtatious character, since Alex is pretty full of himself. It was Bonkotsu who sealed the deal. I liked how his voice could be played off as evil and good at the same time. His characters tend to be guys who either sound full of themselves or ladies man types. I could see him playing Alex really well."

Alex: "I like it. A voice truly worthy of my greatness."

Charlotte: "Full of himself I can understand."

Johnny: "Are we gonna preview the next chapter now?"

Alex: "Let me do it. After all I am the one with a voice. She's hot, she's dangerous and she's ready to take on any challenge. The more thrilling the better. Can I keep up with this new thrill seeker? And the question that's been on the back of my mind will finally be revealed. Why did Charlotte take me in? Next time on Red X Oscura, Roxy Rocket and Charlotte's Reasoning."

HumanX: "By the way, if you disagree with any of the voices I choose please send me a PM or comment telling me what you think and if you think anyone else would've done it better. Thank you"

Mary: "I just got back into this fiction and it doesn't look like I'll be getting any screen time." Sigh.

Ch08

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests and sexual content (naughty) so readers discretion is advised.

Many of the characters seen are HumanX adaptations of characters from the various DC Comics animated series. HumanX holds no rights to characters such as Red X and Johnny Rancid (he only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

Sweat drips from the face of a young woman as her arm thrusts forward into a sand bag. Her heart rate has lifted pace and her aching muscles stretch and condense with each stroke. She wipes the sweat from her forehead and kicks the bag with precision and force beyond her years. Her golden hair sways with each strike as the ponytail sways back and forth. She stops for a moment to grab a drink from her water bottle. Most of the liquid in her body has been expelled through her sweat glands and mark her training clothes. She lays back against the wall, her chest rising and falling with each breath as droplets fall down her body like raindrops. She eagerly opens her mouth and drinks up the contents of the water bottle, gasping for breath when she's done.

"Drinking like that can't be good for you." I walk into the training room under the living space of our apartment.

"I can do what I want." Charlotte tells me as she starts chugging water again.

"Cooling your body down too fast can have negative consequences."

She slows down and clicks the bottle closed. "Happy?"

"As always." I look at the punching bag. As I run my hand along its side I can feel depressions where she hit it. "You really put some dents in this thing."

"Unlike you, I train every day." She gets up. "Some of us don't have an endless metabolism and eat melon bread and mochi all day." She punches the bag and looks at me like I should be impressed.

She's acting like she's completely normal but she's spent the last day or two in here since Katrina beat her and broke her invention. She used to train here every morning before but now she does it from when she gets let out of school until she has to go home. She's a girl whose had everything she's ever want from the moment she was born. She's been spoiled to the point that the sky is a simple kids dream and the universe is practically in her reach. She's had everything she could ever want simply because she wanted it. Because of that she has this deep pride. The first time I met her she purposely waited for me to be there to help her before she used her martial arts to help herself out. There must be some connection to her training in martial arts aside from using it to prevent kidnapping that makes her work so hard on it. Her ability to invent things is similar. A part of one of my gauntlets was damaged in the fight and that helped to make her like this. To have both of these things so easily dominated by a girl only one year apart from her was a huge blow to her pride. And in so doing, her confidence has been damaged. That confidence that made her throw herself off of a roof because she knew I would reach out and stop her from falling. A confidence that defies death and logic. That confidence shattered.

I look at her hit the punching bag with such determination. The way she pushes herself to become even stronger, it's almost cute.

"Who taught you how to punch?" I ask her.

"My dad did." She doesn't look away from her training. "He was a martial arts fan and we'd train when I was a kid."

So, that's the reason. "Good thing he's not here to hear this then. You're form is terrible."

"I don't need pointers from" She's cut short as I walk up behind her and grab both of her hands in mine.

I move her hands and elbows into position and run her through the movements. "If you do it like this it puts less strain on your muscles and puts your opponents weight into the damage."

She pulls away. "I don't need your lessons." She gives me a distrustful look. "Besides, you're just using this an an excuse to get close enough to touch my boobs."

"Oh, I don't need an excuse to get close enough to do that." I hold up her bra in my hand and flip it onto my shoulder.

"How did you do that?" She holds her arms over her shirt. "That's not human."

"You should see me when I'm trying." I smirk. "You'd be butt naked before you realize it."

"You're the only person in the world who would learn martial arts so you can steal women's clothing without being noticed. I don't know weather it's admirable conviction or pathetic lack of morals."

"Lack of morals. But here." I toss her bra back to her. "How about a match?"

"What? So you can grab my panties too? I don't want your grubby hands anywhere near me."

"I guess your right." I go to walk away. "I don't blame you for running away from a fight against someone like me, especially when you use such a crappy martial art style as that one."

Her hand clenches my shoulder.

"Let's do this."

We take our positions at each end of the dojo and bow. She comes in and watches for me to make the first move but I stand aloof and don't bother getting into stance. She gets fed up and comes at me. In the second it takes her to reach me I have entered stance and reach out for her with one arm, falling back and lifting her with my feet. She flies out of the dojo and lands on her butt.

"You b@#$%^!" She yells at me. "You did steal my clothes!"

I twirl her shirt on my finger. "Haven't you ever heard of a punishment game? Just be glad I gave you back your bra or I'd be forced to see your nasty puberty sacks. Gross."

"If you don't want to see them then give me back my shirt."

"This is how a punishment game works. For every time you loose I take a piece of clothing from you. You can choose what to take off if you like. But for each time you loose or win I will give you advice. But you get better advice for winning. And how about this. The person to get all the others clothes off gets to make that person do whatever they want."

She feels visions of sheep being torn apart by wolves in her mind as she wonders what would happen to her. But I know this girl well. Her broken pride wont fail now. "Fine." She grinds her teeth and gets back in the ring. "It shouldn't be too hard to beat you. And when I do I'll have you strip naked and run around town yelling I'm a little princess!"

"Whatever you say." I grin.

She comes at me again. This time she has a plan but I flip her and pin her down for ten seconds.

"Pants." She drops her shorts and kicks them away.

"You do realize that you're now down to two things left and you're fighting in your underwear." I tell her. Since we're fighting in a dojo we both are barefoot to begin with. "A girls body is built differently than a boys. Our centres of balance are not the same. Try again. This time, use my weight against me to get me out."

She makes it this time and I get throw out of the ring.

"Good one." I tell her. "But the floor had no impact."

"You let me get that one on purpose." She grumbles.

"That's because you wouldn't be able to get me otherwise. I'm a high level of physical perfection. You have no hope of beating me under normal circumstances. I simply let you throw me so you would learn that move better and you did. In other words." My eyes penetrate her comfort levels. "There is no way you can win against me. I'm gonna get you naked."

She comes win with a kick this time and I grab her ankle and pull it up. She falls back but uses it to bring another kick up. I dodge that one and roundhouse kick but she blocks really well.

"Unnecessary." I say as I drop to the ground and knock her off of her feet. She falls out of the dojo ring. "You could've dodged that. Don't block when you dodge. Blocking reduces damage but avoiding it all together is better. How have you not learnt this?" I remember our deal and hop down beside her. "So, what will it be this time? Bra or panties?"

She gives me a terrible look and stands up she walks back to her place in the ring and grabs her panties. She's about to remove them when Johnny comes in through the door.

"Phone ca…ah." He looks the us for a moment then closes the door. "Sorry to intrude."

"Aren't you gonna stay for the show? It's not much of a view but it reminds me of the discovery channel when they got monkey on." I call out to him but he's gone. When I look back Charlotte has her shirt tied around her waste and tosses me her panties.

"You never said I couldn't put anything back on. You disappointed you didn't get a look?"

"Funny. What are you gonna do when you kick?"

"I won't kick."

"That's stupid. You'll loose for sure and then I can just make you stay naked all day."

"Oh. So you really do want me naked." She smiles deviously. "And after all those names you call me and making fun of me so much. You really do want to see my goods, huh?"

"Yeah right." I sigh. "tater tots like your aint gonna do it. I need the full potatoes. Your malnourished little butt just isn't good enough."

"Then why are you trying so hard to get me naked?"

"It's a point of principle." I point at her. "In ecchi manga the dare game is an important part of the story. It usually happens on school trips or sleepovers but it becomes an enjoyable part of the manga and can often lead to further development. Also, characters who do not get much development get some screen time and a little fan service in. It doesn't matter if I personally want you naked or not. It's simply a matter of my ecchi soul. I cannot betray who I really am!"

"Whatever perv. I'm not taking the shirt off." Charlotte smirks.

"It doesn't matter." I smile and walk up to the dojo. "It's not like you have any chance of winning. Then you'll be my slave. I wonder if I'll get you to scrub the toilets or do my laundry. Maybe I'll have you do something so terrifying I can't say it or I'll be censored like in the Baby Doll chapter."

Charlotte can practically see my dark aura surrounding me. She swallows hard and hopes that she will be okay.

I stand triumphantly over a defeated Charlotte, laughing with victorious evil glory.

"Now, what should I make you do…I think…"

"I don't care anymore." Charlotte sighs in defeat as she clutches a towel to her body. "Torture me, kill me. I don't care."

I decide the perfect thing. "I'll wait."

Fear grips her face. "You'll wait? Y-You can't wait. That's against the rules."

"I made the rules and I don't remember that."

"But, if you wait then I wont know when it's coming. I'll live the rest of my life in fear as your messed up mind curdles some sick twisted way of humiliating me."

"Being stripped naked isn't humiliating? That says something about you."

"What ever it is that you come up with will be ten times worse." She quivers.

"I could do that, or this, or maybe that. She could get hurt if I make her do that. That's a good one. No. That's perfect." I torture her with the eerie suspense. "Don't worry. You'll know tomorrow."

"At least I wont be living the rest of my life in fear."

The next day Charlotte goes straight to school instead of the apartment. She takes her books out of her bag and sets them on her desk. She still can't get being defeated by Katrina out of her mind. And now she's got my one order to worry about.

"You look like crap." A brunette with two different coloured eyes sits down beside her. Her right eye is blue and her left eye is brown.

"I couldn't sleep last night." Charlotte groans.

"Bad day yesterday?"

"You could say that."

The teacher walks in and tosses his books nonchalantly on his desk at the front of the class. He wears an undone black jacket, a red dress shirt and black pants, all not too fancy but professional looking. He turns to the class and his black tie sways out in front of him with the lazy movement, the red X embroidered at its tip stops in the centre of his body.

Charlotte's eyes widen when she sees him. Her hand tightens on her pencil and she has to fight the urge to scream.

The teacher grabs a piece of red chalk and writes his name on the board.

"Welcome to class. I am professor Arkham." I look back, directly at Charlotte, as I address the class. "I'm subbing for your usual teacher."

Johnny runs out of smokes so he goes out to buy some. He walks into the store and groans when he sees whose holding up the register.

"I was jus lookin' for ya." Punk Rocket points his guitar at him. "I guess I got lucky."

"Depends on how you choose to look at it." Johnny cracks his knuckles and begins to walk forwards.

"I'll give you anything you want." The manager begs. "Just get this freak out of my store."

"A pleasure gramps." Johnny walks up but is hit with one of Punk's sound blasts and sent flying through the shop door. Johnny gets up and dusts the glass off of his fibber Metalla jacket. "Hated that door anyway. stupid handle always jams."

Johnny looks up at Punk who walks out from the shop with his newly designed costume. It's all black except for the silver and red pieces. His newly modelled coat has a large curved collar which spreads out like a vampire cloak and the silver tassels at the ends are weighed down by silver disks. He doesn't wear a shirt but instead has two metallic bands with orange liquid coursing through tubes that cross over his chest. His tasselled pants fan out over metal covered boots which appear to have been made from scratch. His guitar has been remodelled. Along with the design come newly attached tubes which feed up into the sleeve of Punk's jacket. The tubes are also filled with the liquid.

"Last time you silenced the sound of my chaos." Punk sneers. "But this time I'll bring you to your knees."

"Xenothium?" johnny recognizes the liquid.

"That's right." Punk smiles widely, letting his tongue hand free from his mouth. "My good mate Crispin gave me a present from his buddy HARDAC. Good old liquid xenothium."

"Crispin's the guy who hired me." Johnny remembers. "But who is HARDAC?"

"You never asked about the families, didja?" Punk chuckles. "Doesn't really matter though. Either way yer still a thorn in my bosses side an he gave me another chance to kick your ripe ol' a$$. And with this liquid xenothium power core chargin' my axe" He strums down on the strings and is covered in an orange field of electric like energy. "I can deliver on you and your little bum chum."

"Okay, first of all, me and X are not that way…well maybe him. He cried at the end of My Best Friends Wedding." Johnny grabs his new crowbar from his bike. "And second of all it takes more than a few new toys to beat Johnny Rancid. Let's take this to the docks."

"The sub looks pretty cute." The girl beside Charlotte smiles. "Young too." She looks at Charlotte who is gnawing on the end of her pencil. "Are you okay?"

"Just fine." Charlotte practically breaks the end off the pencil. "Just thinking about someone I'll be speaking with after class."

I grab a book from the desk. "Alright, before we begin, I'd just like to say the sooner we get through the stuff for today the sooner you can all go have a break. Anyone who chooses to leave because they think being taught by a sub is pointless may go whenever, but I'd rather not waste my time one telling people to shut up so leave quietly if you choose to. It's high school english and I'm assuming no one here is unfamiliar with the language. Today's lesions are in Shakespearian literature, specifically Romeo and Juliet…Really?" I look at the page with disgust. "Why is it always Romeo and Juliet? Whatever. We'll start with readings and then if we get through the whole book we can move on to a discussion slash lecture and after that we'll have work sheets."

"How did her get into my school? Why is he here? Should I tell someone? What did he do to the other teacher?" All these thoughts start running through Charlotte's mind as she contemplates killing me.

"You in the second row from the back at the left wall." I point at Charlotte who gives me a terrible look. "I want you to start reading pages one to five out loud."

"Why me?" She stands up.

"Are you embarrassed or something? You can read, right?"

She grabs her copy of the book and starts to read with grace and confidence.

"Two households, both alike in dignity in fair Veron, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."

Johnny and Punk fly down to the docks and get ready to fight. As soon as Punk nears the landing zone Johnny fires two blasts of red light from his headlights which sear the ground under Punk.

"Hey now!" Punk yells at Johnny. "If I wasn't payin' attention I woulda been killed!"

"Yeah. Stop doing that." Johnny fires again and again as he watched Punk dance around the blasts. "I love this new xenothium powered ride." He rubs the bike like he was petting a cat.

"Xenothium?" Punk shutters. "You're using xenothium?"

"Yup." Johnny smirks. "And mine is a lot better than yours. What was it Red X said? When Xenothium turns red it's pure and you can bring out its full power. Something like that. All I know is my baby can run for a year on less than a drop, and with gas prices the way they are that's a life saver."

"No one copies Punk Rocket!" Punk strikes his guitar and is wails like a banshee, emanating waves of sound and orange electricity. Johnny dodges through the electrical blasts and is unfazed by the waves of sound. He yawns and fires a blast of red xenothium energy at Punk who writhes on the ground in pain. "It's mutating me! My body is going to become a hideous monster! How could you do this to me!?"

"That is pathetic." Johnny hovers down. "Red xenothium is pure. all the power is controlled so it doesn't radiate any harmful mutation crap. In other words it only hurts when I do this." He pushed a button and blasts Punk who runs off.

"That b@$+@(%." Punk looses his fake ascent for a moment. "Thinking he can beat me in a long range battle." He aims the neck of his guitar like a shot gun and fires a blast of the orange electricity at Johnny. It hits but dissipates on the Metalla coat.

"You're not the only one with new duds, bro." Johnny hovers to the ground and gets his crowbar. "I don't even need my baby for this."

"Feel the power of chaos!" Johnny strikes his guitar and a sound wave pushes Johnny back. Punk then sends the blast at Johnny who guards with the wrist of his jacket.

"The guys who made me this jacket said that xenothium had to be at a certain percent of purity to penetrate this stuff. Looks like your chaos isn't pure enough."

Punk jumps out from his hiding place and dives between Johnny's legs, grabbing his pants and pulling them down. He points his guitar up and fires. Johnny falls to his knees and Punk runs off.

"The little f&%$@* just zapped my a$$." Johnny gets back to his feet and wipes the cinders from his cheeks before pulling his pants back up. "Of course, he realizes, this means death."

Since none of the boys in class wanted to read I've ended up reading the parts of Romeo.

"I take the at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo."

I look into the eyes of the girl reading Juliet and she blushes as she finds her place.

"What man art thou that th-thus bescreen'd in night so stumblest on my counsel?"

She barely keeps her lines straight. I move in a little closer, playing the mood of Romeo. She has trouble keping eye contact and glances up at me while I read and she pretends to be reading her parts.

"By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am: My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,"

By this point I've stopped reading off the page and starting speaking to her like it was a real conversation.

"Because it is an enemy of thee; Had I written, I would tear the word."

I look out to the class. "Now, who wants to red Romeo for this part?" No one raises their hand. "Then how about Juliet?" All the girls in class start raising their hands. "Let's see." I point to the one beside Charlotte.

"Wh-Where are we exactly?" She asks me and I walk over to her. I reach over her shoulder and point to the sentence.

"We're about here." I tell her. "Is this lesson boring?"

"N-No." She smiles as her arms become ridged. "I was just listening to you reading and lost my place."

I laugh a little. "Sorry about that." Charlotte gives me a look that says, STOP FLIRTING WITH MY CLASSMATES, but when have I ever listened to her?

The girl beside her begins to read.

"My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words of that tongue's" She pauses to swallow. "utterance, yet I know the sound: Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?"

"Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike."

"Here punkie punkie punkie." Johnny taps his crowbar in his hand as he searches for Punk Rocket. "Here punkie punkie punkie."

Punk crawls on top of one of the larger crates overlooking Johnny and aims his guitar like a sniper. He rubs some dirt from his eye for only a second and when he looks back Johnny is gone.

"You gotta keep your eye on the target, Punk." Johnny says from over top of him as he brings his crowbar down. Punk roles out of the way before the bar can hit him and fires at Johnny's face.

"That fancy jacket can't protect you if it doesn't cover you." Punk smiles wildly.

"Same goes for that ugly mug of yours." Johnny grabs the guitar by the neck and pulls on Johnny's nose ring. "Now be a good little boy and take your beating."

Johnny raises the bar up for an attack but Punk strums the note to cause a blast of sound and send Johnny flying again.

"I'm gonna crack that guitar and shove it so far up your a%%!" Johnny yells out to Punk who is quivering in a corner.

Class ends and I go to the teachers lounge for some coffee and a snack. As I walk down of of the empty hallways that is closed for construction, but all the construction men are on break, I get pulled into one of the finished classrooms and come face to face with an angry blonde monster.

"What?" I ask Charlotte, who doesn't let go of my tie. "Is this any way to treat a teacher?"

"What the h&** are you doing at my school?" She asks me through clenched teeth. "It's bad enough, what you did to me last night but now you're going to ruin my school life too?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, young lady. I'm a teacher and do not take part in students home lives. It would be unethical."

"What's unethical is letting someone like you into a school, and stop hitting on the girls in my class! Why are you doing this?"

"It's my one command." I remind her. "You have to do one thing I say today and that is let me be your teacher. Unless I change my mind. Maybe I could go with the running around naked thing…all…over…the…school."

"Fine. You can be my teacher but if you make me read again I'll skin you alive and mail you to China."

We hear the door across from us begin to open and I grab Charlotte so we can duck into the closet at the back of the classroom.

"Why did you bring us in here?" She whispers.

"We'd look suspicious if they saw us together."

"And being caught in a closet is any better? You're gonna get me in trouble."

We start to hear something.

"Oh s%#$." I sigh. "Why now?"

"What?" Charlotte asks but gets her answer in the sound of a loud moan from outside of the closet. "A-Are they..? No way."

"Just stay quiet. It sounds like two teacher. I thought Greg had a wife."

"Greg?"

"He's a math teacher."

"Mr.Herison?" She almost yells but I put my hand on her mouth just in time to muffle the sound.

We stand in the closet silently, only able to hear the sounds of the two teachers separated only by a wooden door. Charlotte backs as close to the wall as she can, realizing how small the space we're in really is. I grab her by the waste and pull her back in, bringing my mouth closer to her ear and whispering "Don't move. If you walk into something they'll hear,".

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" She shifts from side to side, trying to figure something out. "It's way too small in here."

"Are you getting embarrassed?" I tease her. "Maybe if we do it too you might not-" Her palm comes up into my face and she tries to push me away.

"Like I could stomach having an animal like you do something like that to me. It's not like you'd know what to do with a REAL woman anyway you otaku. This isn't like your sick little hentai games, and yes, I know you have some. Real girls aren't as easy as a simulated computer program."

I have to chuckle. "You think so, eh? The let me enlighten you." I put my lips closer to her ear, causing her delicate skin to tingle in response to the sudden closeness. "There are two types of erogenous zones, sections of the body which possess heightened sensitivity. These types are specific and non-specific. There are people who think that only the basic girl and guy parts are like this, but those people are idiots. These parts can be found all over the body. Some people are more sensitive than others in different areas. It's a little hobby of mine to figure out how sensitive a person is in what areas." I purposely let out a warm breath on her ear which makes her squirm. "In your case the ears appear to be pretty responsive."

Punk tries to snipe Johnny again, this time he chooses to attack from a window of one of the loading buildings. He fires a shot at Johnny's head but his target lifts his crowbar just in time to deflect the shot back at him. It damages the guitar and Johnny starts to hop up the nearby boxes to get to him.

"I'm coming for ya punkie." He calls out.

Johnny hops in through the window and goes to hit Punk with the crowbar but he dodges the vertical and horizontal blows then uses his guitar like an axe to hit Johnny in the face. Cocky from his sudden lucky shot he tries to play a note on his guitar and electricity pours from the crack in the neck. Johnny dodges to the side and comes in for another attack, getting Punk across the face. Punk tires to run but Johnny tosses his crowbar and it stabs Johnny in the back and begins to spark with orange electricity.

"So, that's where your power core is." Johnny smiles and walks up to Punk who strums uselessly on his guitar strings. Johnny kicks him over and yanks his crowbar from Punk's back. "Here's payback for my butt."

He slams the power core with his crowbar and it covers Punk in the electricity.

"You idiot! We'll both die!" Punk cries out as he tries to remove the power core from his back.

"Oh golly, you really think so hoof sniffer?" Johnny smirks as his bike flies in through the window and he hops on. "And here I thought I'd just fly off to safety and you die in the explosion. Well, can't leave a good plan to go to waste. See ya in h#&&." And he flies off, leaving a shocked Punk Rocket struggling with his gear.

The loading building goes up in orange flames as Johnny flies off to safety. He stops by the shop from earlier to pick up his reward for getting rid of Punk. "One pack of smokes old man."

"Oh, crap crap crap!" Charlotte screams out inside her head. "If I don't do something soon happy hands is gonna totally do something horrible to me. I should've seen this coming. I mean, I know I'm beautiful but come on, this is my school. Not that I can do anything about it with my teachers doing the nasty right outside the door. It's so cramped in here I can't move without bumping into something. But knowing this horn donkey I'm gonna end up getting boob wrangled. Why is it so hot in here and why does he smell so good? Did he smell like this before? NoNoNo! I can't do this! I'm not ready!"

I can tell she's stressing out. This is so much fun! I never get to tease her this badly. "Sometimes it takes gentle strokes to get the gears going." Two of my fingers run down her exposed thigh. Gotta love the school uniform. Skirts make sexual harassment easy. While she's distracted by that I grab her chin with my other hand and gently force her to look into my eyes. "But often a kiss can make the experience so much more enjoyable."

"No wait!" Charlotte comes to a realization. "This guy's a total man h0(#! I see him doing this to girls all the time when he thinks I'm not looking. He sweet talks them with that stupid face and fake modesty and deep dark eyes that are so dark brown they're almost black…Snap out of it! This is no time to be lost in his eyes! I finally remember that smell! It's a mixture of vanilla and cinnamon. Of course! Vanilla causes a relaxation and cinnamon causes sexual arousal. How did I not see that? He loves using scents to confuse the brain. Did he mix the two scents together just to pick up girls? Now if only I could stop looking into his eyes!"

"What most people tend to go for are the specific zones. They have a lot of nerves that are closer to the skin and are pretty basic knowledge. Not too hard to find." I move my hand that was on her leg up to her ear and move my thumb in a circular rotation. "You're ears aren't part of these. I'm gonna stay away from the non specifics for now. The areas I'm talking about include the ^&*(# and ^&%$#&( of the $%^#@ %^*%% and %^$#$ and of course the lips." the thumb of my hand on her chin gently caresses her lower lip."

"You shouldn't say things like ^&*(# in school." She whispers at me. "Especially not to a girl."

"I'm a teacher today so I'm teaching you." I smile at her charmingly.

"Even if you where a real teacher this wouldn't be right." She grumbles.

"Now for the non specific zones." I cheerfully move on. "These could require hands on learning, so I'll show you as I go. This places are similar to the skin where people grow hair and have a high density of nerves and hair follicles. These include the sides," I place the hand I had on her chin on her side. "the back of the neck" I bring my head in and breath onto the back of her neck as I lift up her arms and place them around my neck, running a finger down the underside of her left arm. "The inner arms, the axillae and sides of the thorax."

"You're not gonna touch those?" She asks me with an attitude, but unable to remove her arms from my neck.

"Only if you ask me too." I smile. "In short there are nine none gender oriented E zones. The ears, mouth, neck" I gently touch each one. "arms and underarms, fingers" I run a finger along the side of her arm and watch her eyes trace it to her hand, which I hold in mine and bring up to my lips, kissing it for a moment. "chest, which I'll skip for your sake, abdomen and navel" Which I hold a hand too for a moment, causing her to loose her cool and make a nervous face. the first facial expression crack I've gotten since we started here! "and lastly the feet and toes."

I haven't let go of her hand or bothered to try and reach down to her feet in this cramped space. Even in the darkness I can see her blushing face radiate in the cramped little closet. I still have her small hand held close to my lips.

"You realize what's going to happen next don't you?" I ask her with a serious tone as I step closer to her. She doesn't even look up at me when she shakes her head. "Even for you it should be obvious. You close your eyes and just let me do all the work. Can you do that for me?"

"I don't think I'm ready." She says nervously.

"And after acting so tough, you can't even handle the simplest of tasks." She's about to try and talk back to me but I place a hand on her cheek and smile. "Just close your eyes and I'll take care of the rest. Otherwise my ulterior motives for the punishment game would be for nothing." She swallows when she remembers the punishment game and wonders if this was all and elaborate plan to get in her pants. She closes her eyes hesitantly. "Ready?" I ask and she nods her head.

I swing the door to the closet open and step out. "I can't believe you couldn't even open the door. The simplest of tasks." I stretch my arms as I make fun of her. Her eyes open as she realizes that things aren't happening like she thought they would.

"W-What?" She asks with a stunned stupid look on her face.

"The teachers left ten minutes ago so I asked you if you knew what happened next, which was that we should leave the closet."

"Then why did you tell me to close my eyes!?" She asks me with white hot rage building.

"We where in the dark closet for so long our eyes got used to it so you should close your eyes so it didn't hurt."

"And about letting you take care of the rest?"

"I was closer to the door nob so I was naturally the one who should open it and my ulterior motives with the punishment game earlier on was to make you stop mopping around like a sad puppy…" My mouth slithers into a demonic smile. "What else could you have thought I meant?"

She mumbles, unable to answer me.

"Not too bad for a guy who "only plays dating sims", huh?" I tease her with my big fat smile on. "Really got you hot. You where all like "I'm not ready" and I was all like "just close your eyes and I'll take care of it". I can't believe you actually closed your eyes. Do you have like, no self respect? And here you where saying that you'd never get with a mutt like me and all it took was a few facts straight from wikipedia about E zones and you get all "Come on teacher, let's stay for after school lessons". You should've seen your face! Kyahahaha! I almost feel bad!" I have to hold my belly while I laugh cause it hurts too much.

Charlotte silently walks to the door of the classroom and locks it.

"Charlotte, what are you doing?" My voice can barely be heard in the empty hall. "It was just a joke, please. I wasn't gonna do anything, I swear. Just put the desk down. Charlotte, please."

The empty halls of Charlotte's school, which where usually quiet during, was a place where no sound could be heard. From that day forward the hall became infamous and to this day there is a rumour that circles through the students about a phantom scream that could be heard coming from the halls. No one knows where the scream came from. Some say it was the ghost of a jilted lover back from the grave, others say it's a teacher whose students drove him mad and he committed suicide and others say that a demon haunts the campus and the scream was the sound of his last victim. But those are just rumours. The truth is a desk to the head load of painful.

"And after all that he teaches the afternoon classes like nothing happened. What a d(%#." Charlotte complains to Johnny who lights a cigarette as he pretends to listen. "No smoking in here." She grabs it from his mouth and puts it out in the ash tray on the desk. "I mean, does he have any compassion? He totally plays with my emotions and makes me go crazy for a second, thinking I could ever have anything more than contempt for the freaking jerk and then pulls some stupid crap like that one me. He had his hands all over me and doesn't even give me a real apology. Does he even care about how I feel? I'm gonna go hit something." She gets up and storms off.

"She's p#33ed." I smirk as I walk into the room. "I still can't believe she let me feel her up like that. Maybe next time I should put her through some real trauma. She's pretty cute when she's not yelling or acting like a spoiled princess and equipped with a desk as a weapon."

Johnny grabs his smoke from the ash tray and relights it. "Not that it's any of my business, but did you do that on purpose?"

"Do what?" I hop down beside him and grab the remote.

"She just seems a lot livelier than when she was mopping about getting beat by that one chick."

"Really?" I say, wondering. "I hadn't noticed."

"What where you doing in her school anyway?"

"Her school is pretty rich and they have a lot of books in the library. I thought I could find one I've been looking for that was rumoured to be around. It went out of print so it's hard to find."

Johnny thinks that I could've easily asked Charlotte to look for it for me but doesn't say anything. "Did you find it?"

"Nope." I put on Great Teacher Onizuka and pop an ice cream cone in my mouth. "I guess it doesn't exist."

Johnny smirks for a moment.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing." He says, his smirk becomes a smile. "You're just a surprisingly nice guy, that's all."

"Whatever."

"Hey, I saw Punk Rocket again today."

"No way."

"Yeah, he had this stupid new outfit and an unstable xenothium amp he got from some guy named HARDAC. I kicked his a$$ again and blew the thing up."

"Sweet."

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "So, what was the book you where looking for about?"

Alex: "Uh…Science."

Charlotte: "What kind of science, moron."

Alex: "You wouldn't understand. It involves complicated things, like math and chemicals."

Charlotte: "Are you saying I'm not smart!? Girls are just as smart as boys!"

Alex: "I know girls are as smart as boys, but you're not as smart as me. Someone who was tricked so easily really shouldn't talk about being smart."

Charlotte: "Stop making fun of me for that!"

Alex: "Are you gonna cry to your mommy about it? Oh wait, she's dead."

Charlotte: "Don't worry, you can tell her all about it when I kill you!"

Alex: "You want me to tell your mom about you getting felt up? What kind of fetish is that?"

Charlotte: "Shut up! You're disgusting! Ihateyou Ihateyou Ihateyou Ihateyou!"

Johnny: "Guys, guys. We're all missing the point here, and that is that I totally kicked a$$ in this chapter. We should put aside our petty differences and rejoice in my awesomeness. As Spring ends and Fall takes the world we must remember my victory in all it's glory."

Alex: "Didn't he burns your pants?"

Charlotte: "He flamed your a$$."

Johnny: "In all it's glory."

Alex: "Whatever. The point is that HumanX is trying to figure out something."

Charlotte: "What is it?"

Alex: "He's been getting in to knowing more about anime voice actors and he wants to know who our readers think would make good voices for us."

Charlotte: "Who's mine?"

Alex: "Over the next four chapters we will each mention whose voice actor would be chosen by Human X."

Charlotte: "Four chapters? Are you foreshadowing something?"

Alex: "That is what a preview is for."

Johnny: "Alex will be the first one but we'd like to know your opinions. Even if you just want to write a name of a voice actor and maybe a role they played that's fine. If you have a link to a video they where in that would be awesome."

Charlotte: "Why does HumanX want to do this anyway?"

Alex: "He's been obsessed with voices for a while. He thinks that if he adds a voice it completes the character more and sets their personality. You can learn a lot from a voice too and see how people view his characters. Anything you can give us even if you're shooting in the dark will help. If you need a format for PMing him, just put the name of the character the voice is for the name of the actor and after that a list of roles that sound like you want them. that's only if you have all that information. You can just put a name if you want."

Charlotte: "Isn't this a lot just for a little inspiration?"

Alex: "The characters used in this fiction have only ever been shown one two times in a twenty something minute segment. That's a very small amount of inspiration in itself and look where it got us. And amazing character like me was born!"

Charlotte: "Then what about the other characters like the Master of games or baby Doll? And what about dead ones like the Ghouls and Kabuki Twins?"

Johnny: "If people want to give ideas for them then that's cool. It might inspire a comeback for them. Personally I think that guy who played Koiyuki in BECK would make a good Alex."

Alex: "What? I am not side character guy! He always plays the comedy relief friend guy in stuff from Key."

Charlotte: "But aren't the people who read this comic book fans? Why would they watch anime?"

Alex: "Bite your blasphemous tongue woman! Anime and comic books are like brothers! International brothers! And when combined they create an overwhelming power level of awesomeness that cannot be described in any words known to man so I'll make one up…Awesorificatious. Have you not seen the X Men anime!?"

Charlotte: "You just watched the first episode yesterday."

Alex: "And it was awesorificatious. I almost had to change my Spiderman undies."

Johnny: "Please tell me he's not going to start saying that."

Charlotte: "Well, we're running low on funny swear words and ways to say boobs. I just hope the Spidy undies was a joke."

Johnny: "Just please give us what you think and we'll see who HumanX thinks is the best voice for each of us. He already has voices he thinks are good but he has limited knowledge of voice actors and would appreciate the info. Alex, put your pants back on. No one wants to see your Parker pants."

Alex: "Fine. But I get to announce the next chapter."

Johnny: "Do what you want as long as it involves pants."

Charlotte: "My eyes are burning!"

Alex: "A new season comes a new challenge. A father passes his legacy to his offspring as Oscura inherits one of Gotham's threats. An old nemesis appears with a new goal and why do I always end up looking like that bad guy? Next red X Oscura, A change of season, a new acceptance. So, we're getting a new character?"

Charlotte: "Didn't HumanX announce that a while ago?"

Johnny: "You know how he works. He writes up one half of the story then the next and combines them but gets impatient and puts it off until later."

HumanX: "I'm sorry. I don't mean too."

Alex: "Just don't skimp on the parts with me in them."