Ch07

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests and sexual content so readers discretion is advised (I have no comical comments to add).

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

Johnny and I are watching TV when he asks me. "Hey. You wanna get me an ice-cream sandwich from the freezer?"

"Sorry man." I tell him as I munch down a bar of creamy chocolate cookie goodness. "Last one."

"What?" He runs over to the fridge and looks in at the empty box. "I just bought those yesterday. How many did you eat?"

"I dunno. twenty something.

"There where twenty four in the box."

"That's it. Twenty four."

"Dude." Johnny crushes the box in his hands. "I've been craving those since yesterday. I haven't even had one."

I lick the sandwich and toss the last bite into my mouth, tossing my head back. "Positively orgasmic."

"You are a sick man, compadre." Johnny goes back to his seat.

Charlotte stomps into the kitchen during breakfast and pushes a newspaper into my face.

"The h#)) is this?" She asks me.

"twenty seven kittens in one go." I look at the paper impressed. "That must've been one horny parakeet."

"Not that." She turns the paper around.

"Hey, I'm on the front page." I show Johnny who shoves a breakfast sandwich into his mouth.

"Mrice hot ran." He compliments me through a mixture of egg and bread.

"Looks like they've got a good photographer."

Charlotte snatches the paper away from me. "Look closer." She points to my hand in the photo and it's giving a peace sign. "Did you pose for this?"

"I was practicing having my picture taken for anime con."

"This newspaper goes out all over town. now everyone knows what your suit looks like. What if someone traces it back here?"

"With what? All you see is my costume. So I got a little press. Didn't do Superman any harm."

"Superman is a force for good all around the globe and a general nice guy. You are a greedy thief who on occasion beats people to within an inch of their life and sometimes further."

"And you steal ice cream." Johnny adds in.

"This kind of thing could kill you." Charlotte looks back for a moment, wondering what that comment was about. "The assassins who're after you could use this to know what to look for when they're after you."

"Yeah, because so many other guys fly around town on motorcycles and grappling hooks."

"This is Oscura. There's at least three of those a week and a green dog every other friday."

"They already know what I look like." I enlighten her. "The assassins so far have been able to distinguish me from the regular crazy guys and that means they've at least had some clue to how I look in costume. The important thing is that they haven't made a move on my Alex Arkham identity and that means that they don't know my secret. Therefore I am safe."

"Except that the millions of people who will see this now know about you."

"Another cape. Big deal. No more press and I'll be dead as Hourman before you know it." I get up and go to my room to get ready for work.

Charlotte yells at the roof and sits down on the couch beside Johnny. "Why wont he listen to me? I just want him to be more careful."

"Uhuh." Johnny grabs his beer from the table and tries to chug it down before his untainted attention can be focused on her whining.

"I do everything for that selfish jerk and he rewards me with more problems to clean up. All I want is a "Thank you for saving my butt Charlotte" or a "I'll do better next time Charlotte" but he can't even manage that." She tosses her arms behind her head and suddenly smells her arms. "I stink. I'm gonna go take a shower."

I get my clothes ready for the day and go to take a shower and walk by Johnny whose watching the TV.

"I'm taking a shower. The lock's still not working so don't come in." I tell him.

"Hey." He's about to warn me but decides not to. "Did you know Charlotte has a star shaped mole on her boob like Mikiru Asahina."

"When did you see that?" I ask him.

"She was wearing this one shirt a while ago and I saw it. It's pretty much exact."

"Cool."

Soft fabric slides down smooth skin as the door swings open. A frightened girls blonde hair flows in circular formation around her turning head as your eyes meet. I stand in the open doorway as the naked high school girls wide eyes seem to shimmer in shock. She snaps out of her sudden confusion and grabs the towel beside her.

"Get out pervert!" She snarls at me.

"Relax." I tell her as I enter the bathroom. "It was an accident." I poke her towel between where her boobs should be growing. "Like I'd want to see your scrawny half formed puberty body anyway." I turn around to try and find my toothbrush.

"I can handle your stupid mistakes." The emotion melts from her face. "I can take your teasing and pranks." She takes the towel from her body into both of her hands. "I can even get over you thinking you can just touch me like that without even asking." She flings the towel over my face and pulls back on it while pushing down on my back with her foot. "But to do all that and then have the nerve to insult me!?" Have you ever had your spine pulled back beyond its limits by a naked teenage girl with a towel? It's painful. I'm impressed she even pulled that off.

She lets go of the towel and my head slams into the bathroom counter. I fall to my knees and roll over. When I sit up the towel falls off of my face and, guess which way I'm looking. This time I'm at a much more embarrassing angle. I can practically hear the veins in her flushed face popping. But I can't help it.

I look up at her boob to see if I can spot that mole Johnny was talking about. It wasn't intentional but since he mentioned it my body just reacted on its own.

"Alex. What are you starring at?" She smiles down at me with such sadistic aura seeping from her as she pick the towel off of my chest and wraps it around herself.

I sigh in disappointment. "You're nothing like Mikiru. You're boobs don't even have the mole, let along the size."

I can hear a cracking noise.

"Charlotte." I reach up towards her as she walk to the door. "What are you doing?" She closes the door and a moment later I enter a world of terror.

I emerge from the bathroom an agonizing three minutes later and sit at the edge of the couch.

"How was your shower?" Johnny asks me with a smirk on his smug face.

I look over towards him, my body barely able to move from the pain. "You did this?"

"Figured you'd say something to get her worked up and if I mentioned someone having a Mikuru trademark you wouldn't be able to resist checking it out. Then in your disappointment you'd say something stupid and she would take revenge for my sandwiches."

"You sir, are an evil genius." I tell him and fist pound fallows. "I wonder how I'm gonna get you back."

"What?" Johnny gets worried.

"Psychiatrist." I point to myself. "A few offhanded comments and I could have you climbing a tree naked in the park. Or maybe while you're sleeping I could whisper some suggestions to you and have you think you're a six year old girl for a week."

"You wouldn't."

"We'll see next friday."

Somewhere in an Oscura women's prison facility a young woman sits in her cells and kicks her legs back and forth as she looks over the days paper.

"So cool." She giggles to herself. "I think I'd like to meet him."

A prison guard is doing the nightly rounds when she calls in for the prisoner. When she doesn't respond the guard walks up to the door and looks in only to be engulfed in darkness.

"Sorry Janice." The cell door unlocks and the young woman walks out. "But I can't let anyone keep me from seeing him."

My job's over for today and I'm on my way home. I stretch my arms in the air and let them fall back behind my head as I walk home.

"That was great." I say to myself. "They where just your regular stress related problems but that was an awesome day. Absolutely nothing could ruin this day for me. I could walk in on Charlotte naked ten times and this day would still be awesome." The shopping bag in my hand dangles as the box of ice cream sandwiches rubs against my back and I hum Guilty Beauty Love by Vic Mignogna and munch down on some mellon bread Charlotte got for me. I like his voice acting, especially in Host Club as Tamaki Suoh. I think this song describes me in a way.

As I'm walking around I happen to see some guys on motorcycles speed by with a screaming woman under one of their arms.

"Sweet." I smile through a mouth full of mellon bread. "This day just keeps getting more awesome."

I suit up and track the unfortunate individuals down to the park. They find a place by some kids jungle equipment and toss her under this slide in the shape of an elephant. The woman screams for help but there is no one around. One keeps watch while the other one gets in behind her and keeps her from struggling while the third grabs a knife out of his pocket and cuts a line down her shirt. She bites the one behind hers hand and kicks the third in the stomach but he slaps her across the face and starts to take off his pants.

"Hey." He calls back to the one on guard. "Gimme some light over here. I can't hold the flashlight while I'm f&*$ing this b#$%&. Hey, you hear me?"

When his friend doesn't answer he gets up to take a look.

"Where'd he go?" He looks around the darkness, lit only by dim street lamps. He feels a drop on his head and looks up to see his friend stripped naked and suspended from a street lamp. "F&*^."

He's about to run of but runs right into me.

"Hiya." I wave at him and he scrambles to get back to his feet. He trips and falls face first on the ground. He pulls his gun out and starts to fire. The bullets stop flat on my armoured suit. "Sorry, but the new model's a lot sturdier than those."

He tries to run but I toss one of my new X shuriken which entangles his feet and electrocutes him until he falls unconscious.

"Ouch." I pretend to flinch. "I hate myself for saying this but, shocking isn't it?"

"Oh s*&^." I hear the other guy come out from the elephant slide. He has the woman under his arm and a gun pointed to her head.

"And round two."

"You got no right to do this." He starts waving his gun at me, as if it was threatening. "Touch me and I''l sue you for assault."

"Then I guess I'll have to kill you before you can tell on me, wont I?" I start walking up to him and he puts the gun back to the woman's head. "I'll f&*^ her up, I swear."

"Swearing is bad." I say and toss some regular shuriken, knocking the gun out of his hand and landing some right into his arm.

He lets the woman go and screams like a b*&^% in heat. I keep walking up to him as I grab a shuriken from my pocket. He tries to run but stumbles and falls face first on the ground. I kneel down beside him and show him the shuriken.

"You see this? It's an explosive that's sensitive to motion." You do not want to know where I just shoved it. I click the button on the tip. "And this is a pill designed to give a person uncontrollable gas." I force the pill down his throat and pat his cheek twice. "If you move from this spot your mud cave is gonna explode, and you're about to have the worst case of gas you will ever have." I get up and begin walking over to the woman who is crying on the ground. The pill takes effect and an explosion engulfs the boy.

"Wow." I say as I walk over to the woman. "I guess someone had tacos. You alright?"

She looks up at me with tears pouring from her face and runs off.

"Your welcome." I call after her sarcastically. "No really, your safety makes this all worth while. You have nice milk sockets."

I take off my helmet and grab my stuff from behind one of the equipment things.

"That was amazing!" I look up and see some asian chick standing on the lamp post looking down at me with large purple eyes. She has long black hair down past her junk trunk. A prison shirt is draped over her enormous chest missiles and I'm absolutely certain she isn't wearing pants, but that stupid shirt's too long to see anything. She hops down from the lamp post, giving me the view I was looking for as she lands in front of me. "I can't believe it's really you." She pushes her giant rack against me as she talks. "Wow. You're cute." She smiles.

"Yes I am. And who are you?" I ask.

"I'm your biggest fan. I've read about you in the papers but I never imagined you'd have such amazing fashion sense. I saw your picture today and I just had to meet you. You're so tall in person. I think it's so cool how you only kill sex offenders. How old are you? What's your blood type? What's your favourite colour?…And do you have a girlfriend?"

"Twenty one, O, Red and no." I answer her.

She smiles when I say I don't have a girlfriend and tell her my age. "That's great."

"Yeah." I agree. "Why is that great?"

"That means your only three years older than me and since you don't have a girlfriend…" She blushes and throws her hands to her face, the crazy long sleeves cover the hands. She takes a deep breath and looks me in the eyes. "W-Will you be my boyfriend?"

"Absolutely." Straight answer.

She jumps up and down with joy. I'm surprised she can do that with twins that size. Her bras must cost a fortune.

"My name is Katrina Martin. I didn't think you would be this cute and cool. I totally knew you where cool but I thought you'd be some crazy looking dude. But after seeing all that and your face now, I totally fell in love." She holds out her hand and I shake it.

"Your only human. It's a natural reaction." I smile.

"What are you doing?" I look over and see Charlotte giving me a disapproving stare. "Prostitution is illegal, you know."

"Who's this chick." Katrina gives Charlotte a nasty look. "All competition must be eliminated."

"This is Katrina." I tell her. "I'm about to rock her bones. Wanna come? Her assets make up for your…"

"Since when do boobs like mine need to be made up for?" She looks at the ting tongs on Katrina and looses her confidence. "I see." She looks back up and me and pats my shoulder. "You have fun juggling her assets and I'll see you when you get home."

"Are you two related?" Katrina asks her.

"No way could I share genes with that." She points at me.

"Then what's your relationship?"

"R-Relationship?" Charlotte has to double take on that one. She folds her arms. "I'm his boss."

"My boss?" I ask.

"You provide a service and I pay you by providing meals and shelter."

"Provide a service?" Katrina wonders.

"I'd rather be sheltered from your psycho PMSing." I complain. "Who beats a guy with a curling iron. That thing was plugged in. I've still got the burns."

"You deserve it for peeking on me and then having the nerve to insult me you dirty dog!"

"Burns? Beatings? Calling him a dog?" Katrina stomps her hand into her other palm as she comes to a realization. "He's your love slave."

We both look at her, completely parallised. "What?" We both ask in unison.

"I don't mind sharing him if it's with someone so cute, but you shouldn't play to rough. Burning a lover is dangerous and you should use quick hardening candles so he wont get seriously injured and make certain you know how to tie the ropes correctly before you try it out." Katrina tells us. "And make sure that your partner is okay with everything you do."

"We're not lovers." I try to tell her.

"Do you really think I'm cute?" Charlotte asks.

"She's just my landlord."

"Your landlord?" Katrina looks Charlotte up and down. "Too bad. I was thinking about that threesome."

I grab her sleeve covered hands. "Will you marry me?" I ask her but Charlotte kicks me in the head, knocking me over.

"You are such an animal." She huffs at me. "And you." She points at Katrina. "And you. Have a little more self respect."

"Self respect?" Katrina drops her head to the side.

"Yes. Look at this thing." She holds me up by the neck like a dog.

"Hey there." I say.

"What part of this do you find attractive?"

"His face."

"W-Well, yeah." She can't deny it. "But I meant"

"His body?"

She goes red for a moment. "N-No! Not that!"

"But I find those things attractive." Katrina pouts.

"What about his personality?" Charlotte moves the subject off of physical attributes. "He's a jerk, and a total a$$. He rubs his IQ in your face every second and he loves being right. He brings weird people home and, oh yeah, he kills people."

"Then why do you hang out with him?"

"What?" Oh, backed into a corner.

"If he's such a bad guy, why do you let him live in your house and give him food like you said? And why do you care about him enough to worry about who he dates?"

"Yeah." I smirk up at her.

"You shut up." She tells me, trying to hide her red face. "Be-Because, I, um." She looks at me for help but I just look up and smile. "I do it because I…That's not the point! The point is that a girl like you shouldn't get involved with dirty gutter trash like him."

Katrina's face twists into an angry expression as she walks up to Charlotte. Her boobs push right up into Charlotte's nose as her purple eyes leer into her blue ones.

"Don't talk about him like that." She tells her.

"I'm just trying to do you a favour." Charlotte tries to explain. "He is a way bigger handful than you think."

"I'd just like to say, giggidy." I add in to the handful comment.

"He may look nice but he is total pervert and an otaku anime freak." Charlotte tries to convince her. "Anyway, you'd be better off without him."

I catch a bad feeling and begin to move as Katrina's lips curve into a dark smile and her hand begins to come up. I'm almost too late but Charlotte blocks the incoming attack with four metal prongs reaching out from her arm.

"Good thing I brought this along with me today." Charlotte smirks as she holds back Katrina's hand, which has transformed into a blade. "That move would've cost me my pretty head. And all over that dirty mutt."

Katrina pushes Charlotte back and transforms her arm into a whip. "You will not trash my beloved." Somehow I feel this is my fault. Oh well.

Charlotte ducks out of the way of the trashing whip and dives behind the elephant slide. Luckily she's been trained in a ton of martial arts since she was a kid in order to prevent her from being kidnapped, and that wrist piece she has on is a part of an armour she's been working on to be used in sub zero temperatures. Lucky for her because this girl seems to have the ability to transform her body into any shape she wishes. I noticed something about her before, maybe it was the eyes, but I really couldn't get far past the melons. Speaking of melons I have melon bread!

I sit down and watch the fight while munching on my bread.

Katrina has Charlotte cornered behind the elephant with a barrage of snake like whips which threaten to topple the plastic giant over. Diving out from behind the elephant, Charlotte fires a red laser from the wrist piece. Katrina dodges to the side and looses her snake arm transformation.

"Take that!" Charlotte jumps up and flashes a peace sign. "That's Sullivan brain power b*&^%. Bettcha didn't think I wasn't a real blonde, huh? This babe has brains and looks." What a sore winner. All she did was force her to dodge.

"It'll take a lot more than that to hurt me, if you can even hit me." Katrina grabs some gravel from the ground and forms one of her arms into a gun and fires them in rapid mode.

Charlotte ducks back down behind a giraffe shaped fountain.

Charlotte finds the right setting on her wristlet and jumps out from behind the fountain, punching towards Katrina. A big crimson X made out of energy appears from her fist and flies at the dark haired enemy. Katrina dodges out of the way, but it still connects. It doesn't kill her but takes a good chunk of her shirt's right arm with it.

Charlotte switches back to laser mode and fires at Katrina but the girl moves too fast and tackles her down. Katrina's hand turns into a blade again and she thrusts it down at Charlotte who roles out of the way in time to narrowly avoid the strike which cuts a line across the front of her hoodie. Charlotte blasts Katrina in the stomach, vaporizing a section of her right midsection. The flesh on Katrina's hip heals over but Charlotte gets out from under her in time. I can see that Charlotte's struggling, and she's not happy about it.

Katrina ties the remainder of her shirt together so it doesn't fall and grows her nails before slashing her hand through the air and launching the grown nails. They fly at Charlotte, cutting like a flurry of blades at each and every point they can reach.

Charlotte charges the wrist piece and fires at Katrina who jumps over the blast and extends her fingers like spears. Blood splatters on the ground as Charlotte's cheek is struck.

"That's it." She charges the piece and fires three blasts simultaneously. Katrina uses her blade arms to deflect them one after another.

"Hey." I call over to Charlotte who aims the piece at me. "She knows my identity. Let's not get to rough."

"Then we should kill her, right? Before she can tell anyone."

"If you can." I nod my head to the side. "Seems like a waste of tatas though."

"You kill people all the time but she's fine?" She asks me with this angry glare. "Are this cowgirls utters really that important to you?"

"Look at them. They're bigger than me." I point at Katrina who nods. "I'd like to douse em with syrup an get my face stuck to em."

"You are disgusting."

"Disgustingly awesome. And you're just jealous because she has a better body and she's a better fighter than you."

Charlotte's face goes pure red with rage. "You realize I'm doing all this because of you, right?!" She snarls. "It's your fault this psycho chick went postal on me! I was just out on a jog and saw you and though I might say hi. I wasn't expecting a fight! I don't even want to fight her!"

"You're right." I agree. "We're all just unfortunate victims of circumstance."

"I'm the victim!" She waves her arms in anger. "I'm the victim of circumstance! I'm the one whose favourite hoodie and pants are torn up so bad because of your stupid problems! I'm the one who has to fight crazy transformer chick! All you're doing is sitting there and watching!"

"I know. It's been a hard day for everyone." I put my hands on her shoulders. "But I'm sure that once you two figure it out I'm sure you'll see the error of your ways."

"Get your hands off of me or I will vaporize your seed sack." She tells me as the wrist piece points at my no no place.

I let go of her shoulders and step back with my hands still in the air. "All yours." I step back and let her start the fight again. But honestly, she's not being completely truthful when she says this fight is about me. For a girl like her who has more money than she can deal with, no parents to enforce rules and the capability of having everything handed to her on a silver plate, loosing to this girl in a fight with something she made specifically to help in these types of situations can't be easy. She's so used to getting everything she wants but now she's faced with someone who is not only as stubborn as her but a better fighter who is only one year apart. Katrina's just been playing with Charlotte this whole time and she knows it.

Katrina changes both of her arms into blades and elongates her legs into Jurassic looking ones. She comes at Charlotte at full speed and shreds what's left of Charlotte's hoodie. It falls off, leaving her with her with only her vampire smiling face shirt and torn pants. She converts all power to punching force and waits for Katrina to come back in for another attack. When she does Charlotte unleashes the powerful blow into her face but Katrina morphs her body out of the way.

Katrina changes up the game and turns her blades and dino feet back into her own hands and legs before turning them into metal. She rushes in with a flurry of steel packed punches which land flat on the Metalla surface of the wrist piece. Katrina grabs the wrist piece and smirks. She jumps back and the metal of her body changes.

"What did you do?" Charlotte asks, guarding incase she is attacked again.

"I can learn the physical attributes of any substance I come into contact with. That way I can imitate its structure. That metal was harder than anything I've ever been hit with so I was interested." She licks her new Metalla finger. "I've gotta say, I'm impressed."

Katrina dives straight at Charlotte who fires an X blast but the beam is deflected off of her new armoured arms. Charlotte moves her arm up to block the incoming attack when Katrina brings her fist down on her. The force of the connection causes Charlotte to fall on her butt as Metalla meets Metalla and the two of them collide. Katrina pulls her hand away from the device and smiles. Charlotte looks up in a mixture of emotions as she realizes what just happened. She brings her arm down and holds it to her chest. The wrist piece was broken. The force of the punch cracked the Metalla shell and rendered the xenothium lasers useless.

Charlotte sits there without a word, clutching the broken device before clenching her teeth and getting to her feet. For one moment tears fall from her eyes as their brilliant blue focuses on her target. She runs forward in a burst of rage and goes to punch Katrina in the face but the girl leap frogs over her head and Charlotte falls on her own feet from the extra weight, landing face first on the ground.

"Now all I need to do is kill you." Katrina forms a blade from her right arm and raises it in the air as Charlotte rolls over to look her attacker in the eye with defiance. "And my darling X is all mine."

Charlotte's glare locks with Katrina's triumphant smile as Charlotte tries to stay awake but slowly her eyes begin to close. The blade shimmers in the moonlight and comes down like a guillotine but it stopped in mid swing as it collides with my gauntlet.

I hold back Katrina's blade with my gauntlet as the weight increases to come down on me. Charlotte's eyes close completely and she falls asleep. Katrina eases up and returns her blade to an arm again.

"You stepped in front of my blade to save that girl. You could've been killed without your helmet. Just one move to the side and I would've cut you. But you did it to save her." Katrina says with a disappointed tone that soon turns into a happy one again. "You're so cool!"

"I think this fight is over." I tell her and kneel down beside Charlotte. "If you still want to fight someone then I'll be your opponent, but that's not why you came here. I'm really sorry."

"About what?"

I pick Charlotte up into my arms and stand back up to face Katrina. "You asked me a serious question before and I just made a joke of it. You wanted to be my girlfriend, is that right?"

"Yes." Katrina blushes a little with a smile on.

"I said I would, but the truth is that I never intended on actually going out with you. I'm sorry about that."

"Is it because of her?" Katrina asks me.

"No. Charlotte has nothing to do with it and it's nothing personal. I think you're beautiful, even without the massive honkers, and you seem really nice. It's just…" I look up at the moon and remember a while back before smiling at Katrina warmly. "I just got my freedom and I don't want to tie myself down to a girlfriend just yet. I'm having fun where I am, but maybe someday we could get together."

"Um." Katrina looks worried but gathers her courage. "Is it okay if I still keep loving you until then? You may not love me, or even take my feelings seriously now, but one day I swear I will make you love me."

"Sure." I tell her, happy to have reached an end to this.

Katrina sprouts wings from her back and flies off.

"What a weird girl…" I watch her fly off. "I shoulda banged her…d@#$it."

In a broken down apartment, covered in punk rock posters and empty beer cans a single man bobs his head as he twists and turns a series of knobs on his guitar. He grabs a vile of orange liquid from his bag and places it inside of the guitar.

"Time for my come back."

Preview Time!

Johnny: "Please tell me Punk Rocket isn't coming back. Hey where's Charlotte?"

Alex: "I dunno. She seems depressed."

Johnny: "You didn't, you know…do anything to her?"

Alex: "No, I didn't."

Johnny: "Hey, there where some ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. Do you know if she picked those up?"

Alex: "I dunno."

Johnny: "It was a full box. Did you pick those up to apologize for eating mine?"

Alex: "I don't know where the stupid ice cream came from."

Johnny: "You're such a tsundere. Why don't you just admit that you felt bad?"

Alex: "I didn't feel bad. I feel nothing! NOTHING! My heart is like a black pit of despair and agony. Only deep desires of the flesh may enter here."

Johnny: "Just keep telling yourself that. The day will come when you crack and start crying again."

Alex: "It was a sad part of the movie."

Johnny: "It was In The Land Of Women. A freaking chick flick."

Alex: "I like chick flicks."

Johnny: "You are such a girl."

Alex: "You simply have no soul."

Johnny: "So, how big where the morphing girls basket balls anyway?"

Alex: "I can't be absolutely sure, because she bounced around a lot but I think they where something stupidly big, like way bigger than he basic A, B, C, D. Hers was like, a bigger letter. Like N or something."

Johnny: "Would that be, like three D's on top of each other, plus a few?"

Alex: "All I know is that girl should not be jogging without the proper face protection equipment."

HumanX: "Could you guys please talk about something aside from boobs?"

Alex: "Don't blame us. You're the writer. Why are you so stuck up on doing an ecchi chapter like this? You should know that cat fights are hotter when you can see the cats."

HumanX: "It's not my fault. I just started reading Love Hina manga and got to a new story arch in Maho Sensei Negima. Plus To Love Ru Darkness came out with a new chapter a while ago. I'm all fanserviced up…"

Alex: "I don't even know why you're making excuses. You alway wright girl fights where their clothes are the only casualties."

Johnny: "You should watch some mecha."

HumanX: "But mecha anime bore me. I liked Full Metal Panic but that was mostly for Fumoffu."

Alex: "Yeah. Sosuke's awesome in the first episode. We like a lot of the same anime."

HumanX: "And we both like chick flicks. And cats."

Alex: "Stop basing character traits off of yourself."

HumanX: "The best ideas come form real life. Besides, I'm not a pervert like you."

Alex: "Only a pervert could write a pervert like me."

HumanX: "I just need to think of the lowest human being possible and there we have it."

Johnny: "Burn."

Alex: "When are gonna get some art done for our characters? You did those drawings for the New X Men Intersperse series but you never did any for us."

HumanX: "I do have some early stuff for you up but that has nothing to do with how you look now. I did try to draw western style comic versions too but they all just looked like more detailed anime so I tossed them in a drawer and redrew everyone. I'm just waiting on a scanner and Phototshop so I can get some of my drawings up. I really like how the drawings turned out, I just hope I can get better at Photoshopping them."

Johnny: "Seems like I'm the only one to remember this. Next time on Red X Oscura, Terror in the streets as Punk Rocket hist the town with his new gear. What is the secret to his new power? And why is Alex going to work on his day off? Wait, that's not his job. If you do that you'll get arrested for real. The next chapter is called Extra lessons, teach me sensei."

Alex singing: "High school girls. High school girls."

Ch06

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase (Safety First). 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 light of a TV screen flashes into glossed over blue eyes as a small hand runs through strands of golden hair. A sigh escapes her lips as she flips through channel after channel.

"We will now look back on one of America's most beloved television series, Oh That Baby." The hand grips the remote tightly as the theme song echoes through the apartment.

"I can't take this anymore." She turns off the TV and drops the remote to the ground. "I have to get out of here. I need something to take my mind off of this." Her eyes move to an article from the newspaper on her bedside table. A smile begins to form on her lips.

I'm turning a screw driver inside of a small unit of my belt when Johnny comes waltzing in through the door.

"So, this is the testing room." He says as he looks around the overly white and very empty looking room. "I thought it would be bigger."

"I'd love to burn myself with a that's what she said joke but I need to concentrate right now." I tell him as I place the component on a table. "This is a very delicate process." I take out a hammer and smack the living S#!+ out of it.

"Is that really a part of your new suit?"

"No. It's a burnt out Xenothium power core."

"I thought Xenothium was orange." Johnny looks at the crystallized remains of what I use for fuel. "Why's it red?"

"When I was in college I studied Xenothium and found my method of purifying it. In the process of converting Xenothium ore to liquid Xenothium there is a chemical reaction which causes it to take on a crimson colour. When it becomes red that means that the harmful radiation is gone and the liquid remains can be used to their full potential."

"I still don't get what your fixation with it is. Isn't it only good for some stuff? For the amount of money put into converting it into an energy source it would be cheaper to just buy another source."

"The Xenothium used for street drugs and energy sources are worthless in the conventional world because of the high costs and low output. But the real killer is the unpredictability to the chemical. Anyone can get a large amount of energy from Xenothium, but it's too dangerous. Mutations, explosions and tones of crap can happen if some idiot tries to use it. That's why it isn't considered a viable energy source. The difference between the leading scientists of the world and me is that I know how to eliminate the dangerous radiation. But the process is a secret I'll be keeping to myself. I've shared a bit with Professor Chang but nothing that wouldn't be obvious for any scientist just by looking at the system. I was surprised to find that the Depraved where using their own method of refining Xenothium, but it's obvious that their method is inferior since they still have random mutations and deterioration. Just remember that if the Xenothium is red then it's good. If it's orange then it will eventually kill you."

"But still. I know you're a bit of a"

"Genius?"

"I was about to say you have your head up your A$$." He leans on the desk. "But what's the point of refining Xenothium? Is it just because you like using something you created?"

I can't help but grin. "Actually, refined Xenothium is the single most powerful energy source in the entire cosmos." I hold up a vile of Xenothium ore. "This unrefined Xenothium may have the power to seriously injure someone like Superman if used to charge a ray gun, but this" I hold up a vile of my refined Xenothium. "has the power to do just about anything. I can make it so that it will appear as light then take a solid form or I could use it to create an adhesive that not even Darkseid's Omega Beams can destroy. I may be exaggerating but that's only because I've never had the chance to test it against him."

"So, it's the most powerful energy source in the universe?"

"And the most versatile building block, due to it's ability to change consistency almost like magic. When used right it can even cause strange effects on meta human powers. The energy output is so powerful that I could punch a hole through anything. Just a drop can power my new suit for a very long time."

"So, is this all you're putting into this new suit?"

"Of course not." Charlotte walks in with a few boxes in her arms. She sets them on the table beside me and grabs a piece of my new armour out of the box. "Meet Metallo version two. Or as I liek to call it Metalla"

"Metallo like the robot guy from Krypton?" Johnny asks.

"That's Brainiac." I correct him as I grab some pieces out of the box. "Metallo's real name is John Corbin. He ended up being placed in a body of metal, created by Lex Corp, so powerful he can go toe to toe with big blue."

"And the metal was named the same thing?" Johnny takes the piece from Charlotte. "Is this it?"

"Metalla isn't the same as Metallo." Charlotte explains as she hops back onto the desk behind her. "A while ago I was looking through some of the old business files from my dad's old partner deals. That was while I was trying to burry some Xenothium paper trails. What I found was a Lex Corp list of ingredients from back when my dad supported the company. Turns out that list had some of the ingredients to Metallo on it. Using my killer hacking skills and some old connections I was able to get an unfinished copy of Metallo which I used in Alex's old suit."

"You hacked into Lex Corp?"

"I'm more than just a nice body and amazing personality." She smiles.

"I'd make a joke about that but it's implied." I speak up.

"Get back to playing with your belt." Charlotte tells me. "Anyway, Alex noticed the deficiency in the metal right away. I gave him everything we knew about it and he brought it to that Professor Chang person. I've been helping Chang with it through email and we made this. It's light weight and breaths as easy like a light fabric but it's strong enough to take more damage than armour from Apokalips. I was able to figure out the details for making it bend when Alex moves. That makes it so that it wont impede him and allow for easier movement. Bullets can't touch him and it's so easy to move in it's like fighting crime naked."

"Which I've done." I point out.

"But wait. There's more." Charlotte grabs my new cape out of the box and twirls around with it. "This cape is made from a special techno-fiber created solely by me."

"That's right." I admit. "She really did good on that one."

Charlotte beams as she explains her invention. "Using a special energy based system a current is sent through the cape, causing it to become stiff." Giggidy. "In this state it can even deflect bullets and lasers. It's also made to protect against extreme heat and cold. Once wrapped in it a person will not have to worry about being burnt or freezing to death."

"So, how's my bike coming along?" Johnny asks us.

"I'm working on it." I tell him.

He sighs and goes to leave the room. "Whatever. If you techno geeks want some breakfast then I made some bacon and eggs."

"I was gonna cook breakfast today." Charlotte realizes.

Johnny nearly freezes in fear. "I, uh. Just didn't want to disturb you two while you where working." Why didn't I think of that excuse?

"Thanks a lot." Charlotte says with a smile.

"No problem." Johnny thinks he's in the clear but then the worst thing Charlotte could say was said.

"I'll make sure to cook you something extra special when this new suit is done."

Johnny looks like a man on his way to the electric chair as he sulks out of the room.

I sigh and get back to work. We didn't explain this to Johnny but I'm also going to instal a sonic wave system in my helmet that will be able to pick up objects and sounds like a bat. With it I'll be able to see past doors, wall, locker rooms, anything. Not that my skills need the help but it might come in handy.

Eventually Charlotte drops the last box of parts by the desk and flops her head down on the white surface.

"We've been in here for days." She grumbles as she tugs on the sleeve of my shirt. "Let's go somewhere fun."

"I've almost got the Xenothium conversion system ready for the new palm lasers."

"But I wanna go somewhere fun." She whines like a spoiled child. I guess she is a spoiled child, but still.

"Go with Johnny." I tell her.

"But if I go with him the police will pull us over again. I need someone there who doesn't look suspicious so the cops wont bother us."

"Go by yourself."

"I wanna hang out. I don't wanna do anymore science stuff. My brain hurts and I haven't had any fun in days." She keeps tugging at me sleeve. "Please. Please. Please. Please. Please." She just keeps going. What the H#)) is wrong with this girl? "I want to pick up the new Sgt Frog manga at that store by the restaurants. I'll buy you something with lots of pervy situations in it."

"How many?" I ask her.

"Six books or three box sets."

"Make it eight or four and you have yourself a deal. I also want something to eat."

"I'll make something when we get home."

"I meant something edible. Preferably wrapped in paper and topped with pickles, bacon and ketchup."

"Yeah!" She tosses her overworked arms into the air.

The store is surprisingly popular. Most manga stores I've seen in on the western side of the globe don't do too well since most people who are into them don't really know they exist. It's a pain the the A$$. Luckily, Oscura is high in asian culture fanatics. There are people here who are so crazy for the stuff that it has it's own scaled down version of Akihabara, the holy land of the otaku. It's really more of a two street stretch of asian restaurants, tech stores, game shops and manga stores. They even had a maid cafe until it was torn down…one week before I moved here! This place is more known for it's buffets and electronic stores than the manga though.

We find the store and start looking around. I find a few cool looking things but nothing special. A few Naruto figurines here and a Bleach cosplay there. Nothing special. This place is like a tribute to Shounen Jump. I do, however find the Lucky Star complete series there for half the online price and go to snatch it up. Unfortunately some heavy breather grabs it at the same time I do.

"Let go." He yanks on it. "I saw it first."

"Dude." I glare up at him with true vengeful passion. "Though I respect your choice of anime, my otaku soul will not forgive me if I was to let go of this series."

"Just let it go. I got it before you."

"You don't seem to understand." I look him in the eye. "If you don't take your hands off of my DVDs I will" I'm sorry but due to the graphic nature of this threat HumanX will not be releasing the words I use in this sentence. Instead, we would ask that you imagine a group of kittens playing in a field of freshly fallen snow because that is a much nicer image than the ones that would cause you to vomit violently for hours before realizing that you will never be abel to sleep again. We apologize for the inconvenience and now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfic.

I drop my new DVDs on the counter and smile up at the cash person. "I'd like to buy these please."

"Hey." Charlotte walks up to me with a bag of her own anime. "Did you see that guy who was running out of the store? I think he was crying."

"Dunno. Let's eat." I turn her to the door.

As we leave the store we hear a scream coming from one of the lower levels and Charlotte runs to the overlooking gap in the floor.

"Hey, damsel in distress." She looks over to me. "Come on. Do your thing."

"Why?" I ask her as I start to walk away. "I don't just come running like a dog when some random chick goes screaming for help."

"She's a babe."

My ears perk and I lean over the rails to see. She's a cutie alright. G level knocker bot with a crisp tan and flowing brunette locks down to her mid back. That hottie's got a body.

"Looks like it's time for the nobel hero to save the beautiful princess." I go get dressed.

The bazunga's chick runs through the crowds of people, ducking between two buildings. She runs out to the other side but finds out it's a dead end.

"Come back here Alexis." A small shadow emerges from the alleyway she came from. "You can't run anyway."

"Silence evil one!" My voice rings out into the square shaped space. In a blast of smoke I appear, standing strong against the cover of my own smoke bomb. I tilt my head up slightly and point towards the enemy. "Now, villain. Show yourself and I shall defeat you and end your pursuit of this innocent woman."

The figure begins to take form.

"No way." I can't believe this. A little blonde girl with a mask, about twelve years old, armed to the teeth with ammo and guns, walks out from the shadows. "You're just a kid."

"I'm not a kid." She tells me and raises one of her guns. "I didn't want to end up going against you but if I don't then she'll get away."

I feel a sudden impact against my head. She shot me. The freaking child shot me. This isn't the first time but D@^^&.

I shield the woman behind me from the stray bullets that little panty hamster fires at me. She's crazy if she thinks that none of these would hit the woman if my cape wasn't the new one Charlotte gave me. But I notice that none of them actually do hit her. This little S#!+ may have some skills.

"Alright pampers, quit playing around." I toss a shuriken and knock the gun from her hand. She whips out another one as I scoop up the woman and swing her to the top of a roof. "Sorry miss, but I have hero stuff to do."

I jump back down and walk up to the kid. Her bullets are stopped flat on my armour.

"That's enough of that." I say as I move so quick she doesn't even notice until I've grabbed the guns from her hands. "Now come with me to see some nice police men and I'll-" I'm cut off when she lets off a smoke bomb and slips out of the jacket I had her by. "Little brat." I reach out and grab her before she can escape.

"Miriam!" She calls out and I get a heel to the face as a lady dressed in a woman's suit with shades grabs the brat out of my hand. She brings her other foot down and leaps into the sky. The little girl drops some bubble gum balls which explode and cover their tracks, but she wasn't satisfied with that. The Miriam chick grabs up the boob lady before they split.

Charlotte runs down the alley after they left.

"Did you get them?" She asks me.

"Some amazon in heels nearly put one through my eye." I tell her. "How long until I have more than the new cape to work with?"

"Never mind that." She tells me and pulls out her phone. "I got a shot of the victim's face. Maybe we can get a motive from this."

"They're long gone." I take of f the helmet. "Why does it matter?"

"You're going to let a hot damsel stay in distress?" She gives me a look. "That's not like you. I thought you where all for that macho saviour thing."

"Except I'm pretty sure she's married."

"You know who she is?"

"I know someone who does."

"So, are you gonna do it?" She asks me as I put my helmet back on and start to walk away.

"I'll see."

Later that night when the blanket of stars would have been covering the city, if not for the first sheet of smog, I head over to a corner by the Oscura Police Station. I hook up my laptop and hack into the computers.

Inside the building a tall black man with short cropped hair and dark green eyes grabs his phone, holding it in place with his shoulder while he flips through papers.

"Good evening officer Walker." I say into a voice changing mouthpiece.

"Mr.Spot." He smiles and wipes the sweat from his forehead. "I haven't heard from you in a while."

"I've been busy." Timothy Walker is an upright cop who's stern beliefs in justice border on self delusion. He's a man who would dive head first into a burning building to save an old woman on the tenth floor without thinking about how he will get out. He's one of the only cops in this city not making a little distraction money on the side. I've been posing as mr.Spot and feeding him information about the crime in town. "I've been out. I have something I'd like you to take a look at."

An icon appears on his screen. He opens it and the picture of the woman from before shows up.

"Are you stalking people now? Hey, I know her."

"I've seen a picture on your desk before."

"When where you in my office?"

"I've been in every office. What is the woman's name?"

"Tammy Vance. I used to watch her show when I was a kid. That was ten years ago."

"Fifteen is hardly a kid."

"Can you blame me? She was hot back then too. And how do you know how old I am? Whatever." I can hear him take a sip of his coffee before continuing. "She was an actress on that old show Love That Baby. It was like Alf but no aliens. I'm assuming you know what Alf is."

"Furry alien that eats cats." I bring up Love That Baby on wikipedia. "The show was cancelled when the star left to pursue a dramatic acting career."

"Weird thing for a puppet to do." Walker chuckles.

"What ca you tell me about Mary Dahl?"

"Nothing much. I used to know everything about Tammy but"

"Thank you." I cut him off. "I'm sending you some drop off locations."

"When are we going to have a face to face?" He asks me. "I want to talk about this bloody X killer."

I shut down the connection and go home.

Charlotte is sitting at the table, eating some Captain Crunch and looking over some homework she brought back with her.

I walk out from my room with my laptop under my arm and grab the bowl as she shoves a spoonful into her mouth.

"I was eating that." She reaches for it in futility.

"And now I'm eating it." I grab anew spoon and munch down. "Besides, I've been up all night."

"Doing what?" She asks and I show her my laptop with a picture of Mary Dahl on it. "I don't care if you're a lolicon but keep it to yourself."

"This is the girl who attacked the girl last night." I tell her, ignoring the disgusted look on her face. "Tammy Vance, the girl from last night, was her cohost. Mary Dahl was the star. She went by Baby Doll." I show her a YouTube clip.

"This is…" She starts to tell me.

"Bad." I finish for her. "But like most stupid shows it was hugely popular. She quit to become a dramatic actress. That flopped."

"Why?"

"Because of her condition." I explain. "It's a rare type of systemic hypoplasia which stopped her body's growth at twelve years old. She was twenty when she did her character in Love That Baby. She tried to restart the series but the network turned her down since the series was too outdated for the audiences of the time. After that she dropped off the radar. I was able to connect her to a small apartment around town."

"What's she doing in Oscura?"

"The TV station was local. The entire cast stayed here aside from Dave Doll, real name Chester Partis, died a few weeks ago."

"Should we watch out for some of them?" She starts to get a little excited. "Am I gonna have to get a suit?"

"Nope." I smirk at her. "All but one have been kidnapped. With the expectancy of corpsie here we've had the mother, older brother and sister and even the stuffed dog taken through unknown circumstances."

"Then who hasn't been kidnapped?"

"Spunky." I show her a video of Baby Doll having her head crushed into a birthday cake by another child actor. "This one was really a child. He's the bratty cousin character who they wanted to revitalize the show with when ratings started to go downhill. He's the one we're watching."

"Since this girl's been capturing people in the day time does that make her a novice?"

"I wouldn't expect it. She could just be skilled enough to pull it off. She has a few times. She also knows that she can't really take me on in battle but has a bodyguard to handle interference."

"Whatever." Charlotte stretches her arms over her head. "I'm sure you'll figure out some way to save them."

"Tell me again why I'm doing this? If she wants revenge for not getting her show back then let her."

Charlotte takes my computer and smiles.

"Looks like Tammy has two twin children. I wonder how they'll feel when they learn their mother was killed."

"Fine." I get up.

"They'll probably cry."

"I said I'm doing it. Where's Johnny?"

Johnny and I stake out Spunky's place until the little Baby Doll arrives and her bodyguard tosses him in a truck. We fallow on Johnny's bike.

The truck takes us to the old set of Baby's show. When we break inside we see that the entire cast is collected together, with Baby's manager in place of the dad. The whole group is dressed up in their clothes from the show. We hide in the rafters and wait.

"Hi everybody." Baby Doll bursts through the door. "Baby's home!" She presses a small device in her hand which makes an audience clapping sound. "And I broughts presents!" Her hench-chick Miriam tosses the overweight ex-actor into the last chair.

"What are you gonna do to us?" Spunky asks when the tape is torn from his face.

Baby Doll smiles innocently. "We're all here for one reason. Can you guess what day it is?" Everyone shakes their heads, not willing to answer with words. "It's my birfday! Yay for me!" Miriam brings out a cake and places it on the table.

"That's it!" The manager/new dad character gets up and starts to walk off. "I'm not sticking around for this!"

Baby signals to Miriam who knocks the man off of his feet and tosses him back into his chair.

"Isn't Miriam just precious?" baby asks. "She's well worth the cash I spent on her. But now it's time for some fun!" She pulls a stick of dynamite from her pocket and places it on the top of the cake like a candle. She lights it and moves the cake towards Spunky. "Since I'm the nicest little girl eva I'll let stinky old Spunky blow out the candles." She glares at him for a moment, loosing her character. "I bet your wish doesn't come true."

At this point I should really have a plan but we're going up against a kung fu business woman and a half-pint has been. I toss a shuriken which cuts the wick before the flame can reach the dynamite and both Johnny and I fall down from the ceiling.

"Sorry to crash the party." I say and toss three shuriken. One takes out the bullets Baby fires at me and the other two explode into gas, giving me enough cover to knock the gun/doll out of her hand. I grab her by the back of her dress but I get kicked over by Miriam and loose my grip on the brat.

Baby takes her chance to get out of the place. Before she leaves she looks back at me and glares. "It's all your fault."

"Rancid." I call back to Johnny. "Take care of this." I grab Miriam by the leg and toss her into Johnny's arms.

"Well hello." He smirks and she brings her heel up and crashes it into his chin. Johnny wipes the blood off of his chin with his hand and licks the blood. "You're good."

"It's a living." Miriam shrugs and comes in for another one.

I make it out the door and see Baby hop onto some child's three wheeler toy. The thing starts spewing flames out the back of it and takes off like a rocket.

"Now, that's just stupid." I sigh and get ready to chase her. "Activate rollerblades." Wheels come out from the bottom of my shoes and I start to skate along the sides of the walls at incredible speed. Lucky me I finished the boots for the new suit before coming here. Too bad the incomplete Metallo in this old chest piece and helmet is loosing its mega impenetrable half life. That's one of the kinks Charlotte and I worked out for the new model. Looks like I'll have to be careful for a while.

Baby Doll leads me to an abandoned theme park. I fallow her in but she abandons her three wheeler and ducks into the attractions. "Come and get me mr.X." She calls out and I walk right into it.

I nearly have her when I find her behind the bumper cars but she gets a lucky shot and it goes right through a part of my armour. D@^^%it. The half life of this stupid copy must be at its limit. That's what I get for trusting Prof Chang's estimates. The bullet hits flesh and gives me a wicked peep hole through my lower side. Baby gets away too.

My manoeuvrability is down pretty freaking far since I've got a new circulation hole in my side. Baby leads me into a fun house. I get blasted with heat from some of the old water pipes that are showing through the cracked walls. Didn't anyone bother to turn off the stuff around here?

"Hey Baby." I call out. "If you come out here I'll give you some yummy candy."

"Liar liar cape on fire!" She calls out and bullets start to ricochet off the walls. "If you're not carefuls mr.Happyhead is going to get you."

I reach around the corner and almost get her but she dives down a slide.

She comes out on the other side and gasps when she sees where she is. An almost endless hall of reflections stare her in the face. A hall of mirrors. In one she looks like an alien. In another she resembles a fish. But the one she stares at is beyond frightening. She stares up into the mirror and reaches out to the reflection of a full grown woman staring back at her.

"Look. That's me in there. The real me." She reaches her little arm out to touch the mirror. "There I am." Her hand touches the glass and she pulls away, taking two steps backwards. "But it's not really real is it? Just made up and pretend like my family and my friends and my life and everything else!"

I come out from the shadows, having been watching her little rant. My image appears on all of the mirrors but the one her grown up body is reflected in. "No. It isn't."

She clutches her doll in her hand and begins firing at my reflections all around her. "Why couldn't you just let me make believe!?" The glass shatters until only the grown up version of her remains. She holds her doll up to fire but she can only pull the trigger again and again as no bullet answers her. She's spent them all. Her large blue eyes tear up and she bites her lip, still pulling the trigger as she stares into her contorted alter self. "Why can't I be normal?"

"It's a lie!" Her eyes widen as a gloved fist makes contact with the glass mirror. I punch the glass again and again.

"What are you doing?" She asks me.

"It's all a lie." The glass gives way under the force of my punches. I slam a hand against the reflection and turn to face her. "This thing isn't you."

"It's who I am." She quivers. "It's the real me."

"Bulls#!+!!" She looks up in a mixture of confusion and alarm at my response. "You're just using the image of what you think you should be to escape reality!"

"Look at me!" She screams, clutching her arms to the point that her nails nearly break the skin. "I'm thirty F&*(#ing years old! And I'm stuck in the body of a twelve year old! Is this normal to you!? You don't understand what it's like! baby Doll was the only time I ever felt normal! I can't go bak to reality! I can't!"

"So what!?"

"I look like a little F*$%ing girl! I'm a freak!"

"That's not what I see!" I clench my fists tightly. "I see a beautiful woman with a h*!! of a shooting arm."

"That's disgusting."

"What's disgusting is how you try to ignore what you are!" I grab my mask and tear it from my face. "Look at me! This is the face of abnormality! At least you can blame your condition! I dress up like the freaking grim reaper every night and fight crime or steal whatever I want for no frigging reason! I may be a genius and good looking and have a killer bod (literally), I have great taste in anime and did I mention how good looking I am? But I'm also an a$$hole and a pervert and all around just a lousy human being! But at least I'm honest about it and not hiding behind some fake self because that's the stuff that makes me who I am!"

She can't seem to say anything at the moment. Her tiny body is almost frozen.

"There's no such thing as normal! Everyone in the world is different!" I continue. "Your condition is no different than someone having blue eyes or brown hair or gigantic jigglers! It's just a part of who you are! Trying to change that is like getting breast implants!" I hate those. "It's an absolute insult to your individuality! So let it go!"

"I can't!" She cries out as the tears finally fall from her face. She shakes her head as her voice begins to crack under the pressure of her own emotions. "I can't! I can't! This isn't me! I want to be normal! I want a life and a boyfriend and children! I want to be like everyone else! I want to be the re-"

Her voice is cut off as my lips come together with hers. I pull her in and kiss her deeply as tears trickle down her cheeks. I let her go from the kiss and grab her by the shoulders.

"I told you already. You're beautiful." I look into her shocked eyes. "All you need to do is believe it and have confidence in yourself and not in some fake you that you think you should be. You are who you are. You're not a little girl. You're a thirty year old woman who has a lot more going for her than she realizes. And if you think it's wrong to be like that then change it instead of trying to run away. I hated being normal. My father would go on and on about his patients every day. To be my fathers son meant it was better to be crazy than smart. Maybe that's part of why I do what I do, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that I decided I liked my hair better black!"

"What?" She asks me.

"I dyed my hair black because I think it looks better on me than brown." I grab a bit of it for a bit of dramatic positioning. "Sure, it's not as big of a change as getting a body that looks more grown up but whatever. I decided to do it because I like how it looks, not to escape who I am. It used to be really dark brown but I decided I like it better this way. If you want to change your body so it's more like a grown up one than I'm sure there is some superhero who can do that for you, but trying to live in a fantasy world you created is pathetic!" I push her up to the mirror and show her her reflection in one piece that doesn't change how she looks, and then I stand up and go to leave. "Do whatever you want. I wont stop you if you try this again and I don't care if you do find someone with a power that can give you a new body." I look back for a moment before leaving. "But it will be an ugly imitation of who you really are."

Baby Doll holds her hand out to the mirror and places it against her reflected hand as she puts the fingers of her other hand to her lips. She steps back until she can see the image of her older body again, through the cracks I put in it. She laughs and grabs a bullet she forgot about from her pocket, placing it in mr.Happyhead and aiming at the mirror.

"He's right." She smiles. "I am much cuter this way." The glass shatters as the bullet pierces its illusion and the pieces fall into a beautiful shimmering heap on the floor. "But next time I see that pervert I'm going to punch him in the nuts for kissing me like that. I'm the perfect hight for it too."

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "You are a sick b@$+@&$."

Alex: "What?"

Charlotte: "You kissed a little girl. That's disgusting!"

Alex: "She was older than me. Just because I don't judge people on how they look doesn't give you the right to judge me."

Johnny: "Seriously dude. That was messed up."

Alex: "You're all over thinking it."

Charlotte: "Alex is a lolicon."

Johnny: "Why don't you like breast enhancements? I thought you'd be all for girls getting bigger noogins."

Alex: "I have very refined senses so it gives me an itchel in my satchel if some chicks baby bottle sweater pops are plastic."

Johnny: "You have the weirdest ways of saying boobs."

Alex: "It's part of my charm."

Charlotte: "…"

Alex: "What?"

Charlotte: "Nothing. Just wondering if we should be allowing you around kindergartens."

Alex: "Drop it unless you'd like me to show you how into women of legal age I am."

Charlotte: "I'd like to see you try."

Johnny: "Okay. Before this goes too far I'm going to preview the next episode. Obsession is a terrible thing. Stalkers can emerge at the worst of times. An old enemy emerges with a new song to sing and yesterdays foes are tomorrows greatest allies."

Alex: "Who knew I was so popular. Next time on Red X Oscura, my chocolate covered hell, sounds nice."

Alex: "Hey Everyone. HumanX forgot about the no swearing thing for fictions and needs help." 
Charlotte: "Because our series is heavy on swearing he had to go through each chapter and find all of the words to replace them with ^&(*&) stuff. But sometimes he's not that good at catching things." 
Johnny: "That's why we need your help. If you're reading anything from HumanX and you find swear words, please contact him and let him know so he can fix it and not be thrown off the vine. Thank you"

Ch05

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests (no more swearing) 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

Johnny Rancid pulls his bike up to a little shop he found that sells awesome Chinese food. Charlotte and I are coming too. We get off the bike and head inside. The place is decked out with chinese lanterns and music all around. I've been to some chinese restaurants where the decor was a little Chinese looking but nothing as blown out as this.

"You have hit the mother load." I compliment Johnny with a slap on the back. "Not a freaking ugly waitress in the bunch."

"Told ya." he smirks as we wait to be seated.

"You're both pigs." Charlotte sighs with her hands on her hips and her usual glare. "You made me ride on that crazy a$$ bike for an hour so you could eye rape the waitresses."

"Such a nobel endeavour." I pretend to wipe a tear from my eye. "I hope they have that chicken on a stick stuff."

"That your favourite?" Charlotte asks me.

"I think my favourite is the custard buns." I check out one of the passing waitresses. "But that may just be for the shape and texture. But I kind of wish I could get them in bigger sizes around here."

Since she's never seen or felt a custard bun she doesn't slap me for being a pervert.

I suddenly feel a danger coming my way and I grab a flying plate out of the air before it can hit Charlotte dead in the face.

"Alright." Charlotte grinds her teeth in pure rage. "Who threw that?"

We look over to see some dude with spiked up hair and a unneeded amount of facial pairings yelling at one of the waitresses. He has three lightning tattoos. Two coming down from either side of his forehead and another on his right cheek. He's got some spiky collar and the dumbest, trying to hard to be a punk, clothes.

"Now you listen ta me bird. I aint somebody to be traeten like some common customer. Now get your saggy a$$ inta that kitchen and fetch me sumthin ta drink." Aw man. he's got a terrible, fake, british accsent.

The girl he's yelling at looks like she's about to cry. She's on her knees and tears start forming.

"Whuts that? You cryin now?" He holds his hand to his ear and leans down towards her. "Ya should be thankin me. This ol' bloke jus elped you out. If I didn't say anything then ya wouldn't've known."

"Y-You asked for an ice tea." The waitress mutters. She looks scared out of her mind.

"Wat was that love?"

"You asked for an ice tea."

"I asked for an ice tea did I? What kind of rubbish establishment is this? Aint the motto of all restaurants that the customer's always right? So if I say I want ice tea then I want it when I asked for it. Not in three ticks. Not when you're ready. When I want it." He grabs her by the hair and pulls her closer to him. "I've been one patient bloke, waitin for my drink and you made little ol me wait even longa. Don'tcha think ya old ol Rocket sumthin in return?"

"Where the hell is our waitress?" I ask as I lean onto the front counter. "I'm freaking starving."

"You a$$." Charlotte snarls at me. "She's getting abused over there. Why wont anyone do anything about this? Wait a minute. Why are you standing here? Go help her."

"I hate sexual criminals." I explain. "That guy's just a jerk. Besides, it's none of my business. If he starts stripping her on the table then I'll step in."

"Now look at this." The spiky dude forces the waitresses head to his shoe. "You see this? You spilt all ova my new jeans. Clean it off."

She grabs a napkin and goes to wipe it up but Rocket dude slaps her across the face.

"Lick it up." He commands her.

She looks up stunned at the demand but lowers her head to do it anyway.

"What the hell do you think you're making her do!?" Charlotte walks up to them and gives the dude her death glare. "Look at her. She's almost crying. What kind of filthy maggot makes a girl do something like this. You're slime. Worse than slime. You're bacteria."

Rocket guy looks up at her, pissed. He gets up and grabs the collar of Charlotte's shirt.

"Now listen to be b!+(#. Punk Rocket aint someone to take crap from some little wanker like you. Go sod off back to your little home and play with your dolls."

Charlotte sighs and grabs Punk Rocket's hand, taking it off of her shirt. "Johnny. Would you be a dear?"

Johnny picks Punk up by the back of the neck. "Sure." He smirks as he drags the complaining Punk out of the restaurant.

I see a waitress who isn't still working and I call over to her. "Um, excuse me." I smile. "Could we be seated?"

"You're with the guy who" She starts.

"Afraid so." I smile with fake modesty.

"Then you can any seat you want." She smiles at me.

Charlotte and I are seated after she finished counselling the waitress who was being yelled at. We can see that Punk Rocket guy being tossed around by Johnny outside.

"You where pretty dumb back there." I tell her as I munch down on fried rice.

"What else should I have done?" Charlotte asks as she downs some general tao chicken. "If I left it alone who knows what he would've done."

"Except that I would've put a shuriken through his face before it got too far."

"You don't call that too far?"

"I call that bad parenting mixed with taking music too seriously. The guy's just a chaos punk. He's rebelling against a world that has been far too good to him because he believes the world isn't fair. It isn't, but that goes both ways. Where there are starving kids in foreign country's there are us. The fat pigs chowing on what used to be some animals a$$. See? Not fair."

"Are you hinting at something?"

"Nothing." I put on a fake compassionate voice. "Just that you are extremely blessed to be one of the richest people in the world."

"I donate to plenty of charities so don't tell me I'm selfish."

"When did I use the word selfish? I'm just saying that the world is full of people who have never eaten anything close what we're eating and here we are"

"Is there a point?"

"If the smiling face of a young child who hasn't eaten in a week after you give his family supplies for the next two months isn't a good enough point then I pity you."

"Eat your D@^^9 food."

Johnny comes back from beating the crap out of that guy from before and sits down.

"What I miss?"

"Apparently I'm destroying the world with my greed."

"Is this about the shoes?"

"I don't have too many shoes!" She snarls at him. "I'm a girl. We need to look good and have nice things."

"See what I mean?" I ask him. "Her greed shall consume the world."

Speaking about things being consumed. At that moment Punk Rocket was consumed with rage at what he believes was unjust treatment. He limps towards his apartment and flops down on a torn couch. He wipes his sweat covered face and grits his teeth.

"He's gonna get what's comin to 'im." Rocket groans.

"You where late coming into the country." Rocket turns when he hears the voice.

"Cripin." He tries to sit up. "You scared me old chap."

"Did you get into a fight?" The man holds out his hand and tosses a box of bandages at Rocket.

"If you think I look bad, you should see the other guy." He lies.

"Right. I've always enjoyed that confidence. Nothing in the world motivates a confident man better than their own pride." Crispin sits down beside Punk Rocket and folds his hands before continuing their conversations. "Have you considered our offer?"

"I've been mullin it over in my 'ead." Crispin hands Rocket a beer as he waits for his answer. "But you neva showed me who I'd be up against. I'm flyin' blind 'ere."

Crispin hands him a folder.

"There are two of them." He explains. "Red X and Johnny Rancid. Red X is the target we sent Rancid after but he turned on us and killed the Kabuki Twins."

"Hero and Keita are dead?" Rocket asks. "Good riddance to bad rubbish. All about teamwork, those two." He looks over the picture and he smiles when he sees the tattoo on Johnny's arm. "This bloke in the 'elmet. He's Rancid?"

"Yes. We've never seen him without that helmet. He would wear it for all of his jobs we've had him take. Real secretive, that one. Maybe he was planning on leaving us. Too bad. He was a fine addition to our team. Even if he never did take Xenotope."

"Speakin' of give and take. About my axe."

"It's ready and waiting. Your suit is ready too."

"Excellent. I can cause way more destruction with my darlin' Karen by my side."

"I don't care how you do it. Just take out either one of them." Crispin reminds Rocket as he drops two large cases on Rocket's table.

Here's the thing about Punk Rocket. He is not subtle.

Rocket climbed the tallest tower he could find and let loose a giant shock wave from his new guitar. The wave shatters the glass in the nearby buildings. It just so happens that I'm watching TV at the time.

"Hey Johnny." I call poke him. "Isn't that the guy you beat up yesterday?"

"I dunno." Johnny shrugs as he takes a sip of his beer. "I beat up a lot of people."

The TV shrieks in a shrill wave of sound as Punk Rocket calls out to a new copter. "I know yer out there you team killing Frag-tard! I want Rancid out 'ere this very second or I'll give this little burg the rockin' of it's life!" He fires another shock wave from his guitar, shattering the copters camera.

"So, by Rancid he means you, right?" I ask Johnny.

"Who else has that last name and attracts super villains?" He asks as he gets up.

"Want some help?"

"Yer still working on your new suit. This guy's mine."

"Cool." Fist pond and he's out.

Johnny got his bike and went to meet Punk Rocket. When he gets there Rocket is blasting wave after wave at the city. Johnny hovers up to Rocket.

"You wanted to talk?" He asks him.

"You humiliated me the other day." Rocket grins. "But now I'm gonna get my revenge."

Rocket throws his hand down over the guitar strings and lets loose another shock wave. This one hits Johnny's bike and knocks it back. Johnny hits a button and fires two missiles at Rocket which explode against the next shock wave.

"My Karen gives me a heavy duty shield." Rocket jumps into the air with super human hight. "An she's made out o the hardest steel money can buy." He brings the guitar down on him but Johnny turns his bike up in time to use it as a shield.

"So is my bike." Johnny grins and spins the bike around, tossing Rocket away from him.

Rocket's new boots charge up and he begins to fly.

"I can't be a big star if I'm stuck on the ground." He smirks and charges Johnny.

Johnny flies straight up and hits another button which fires a laser down at Punk who uses his guitar's shock wave to block it.

Rocket flies up and sends another shock wave at Johnny and shatters the glass in his helmet.

"What's the matta mate?" Rocket asks him as he sends another wave, crushing a segment of Johnny's front fender. "Can't stand the sound of chaos!?"

Johnny lets go of his bike handles. "What's this?" Punk Rocket gloats. "Givin' in already?"

Johnny's breathing starts to hasten as he looks down at his bike.

"Well, if ya aint gonna play with old Punk Rocket." Rocket tosses a few blast of his waves at him. "Then I guess it's nighty night for ol Johnny!"

"You b@$+@&d." Johnny grits his teeth. "Do you know how long it took me to repair my bike? Do you know how much love I put into her. She's my baby." He takes wave after wave without showing any signs of giving in. It's as if he doesn't even feel the blasts of sonic force pounding against his entire body. "You hurt my baby." He looks up at Rocket. "You will pay."

Johnny hits one of the switches on his bike and two turrets come out from the sides. The turrets unleash blast after blast of endless bullets, which Rocket barely deflects with his waves.

"Oy oy!" Rocket calls out when he's hit with a stray. "Jus let me pump up the beat."

He twists the level dial on his guitar to four and hits the strings. This time the sound wave takes the form of a cone and strikes the bike like a warhead. Johnny circles around Punk like a shark, waiting for his moment to strike. Punk sets his gage even higher to level six and lets the waves go out in a circular form. Johnny outruns the blast and circles back around, firing bullets from his side turrets. The bullets hit a solid wall of sound and Johnny waits for the moment Punk's hand reaches up for the next strike before he launches a grappling hook from his bike and it wraps around his enemy. He uses the opportunity to drag Punk into a building. The chain snaps when Punk's guitar howls again.

"I'm gonna have ta thank Crispin for this suit. Without it I'd be crushed." Punk smirks as he brings down another blast, stopping Johnny's charging bike in place for a moment. "Now you've entered the eighth level of chaos!" Punk blast is so powerful this time that it crushes the engine in Johnny's bike and he is forced to watch as it is shattered. He has just enough time and control left to crash the bike into a condemned building.

Johnny looks at what is left of his most prized possession. "My bike." He grits his teeth and clenches his fist in rage. "I'm sorry. I let you down. I thought the bike my uncle helped me build would last forever. Even Alex didn't hurt you this bad. But don't worry." He places his hand on the dead machine. "Your sacrifice wont be in vein my friend." He takes his crowbar out of a compartment in the bike.

Punk Rocket hovers into the building. "No bike anymore?" He lets his tongue hang out of his mouth for a moment before he licks his lips. "Too bad mate. But look on the bright side. Now I don't ave ta look at that piece of rubbish. It must've been embarrassing for you ta ride such a piece of crap."

Punk stops gloating when he notices a small laughing noise. Johnny's body jolts for a moment before he turns around and breaks into a full on maniacal laugh.

"In mourning are we?" Punk sneers. "I guess even turds like that thing have someone to love them."

Johnny smiles up at Punk and grips his crowbar. "I wonder what part of your body I should break first." He walks closer and closer. "Your face would be a nice start but I may injure the part of your brain that feels pain, and I can't have that. Not with what I have in store for you. Maybe I should break your legs so you can't run. No. You'd still have that pathetic guitar then wouldn't you? I know. I'll pin you down and break every one of those puny little fingers and then move up those scrawny arms. Then I'll smash your worthless guitar against the ground until it's nothing but splinters and make you eat it. That sound like fun."

Punk sends a blast from his guitar but Johnny slams the wall of sound with his crowbar, creating a crashing noise.

"What the hell?" Punk freezes in fear. "That's not possible." He gets his act together and sends two blasts of cone shaped sonics at Johnny but he leaps into the air in time to avoid them.

The crowbar connects with the guitar that lest out sonic waves as it hits. Punk comes in for a decapitating strike but johnny ducks in time and punches his fist into Punk's gut, sending his opponent hurtling backwards. Punk hits the wall but gains his bearings in time to send Johnny flying the other way with his sonic attacks. He sends two more attacks but Johnny side steps the both of them. Johnny comes in and strike at Punk with his crowbar but Punk ducks out of the way and it get stuck in the wall. Punk fires another blast straight up at Johnny, wrenching him free from the wall. Johnny lands on his feet and comes running in for another attack. Johnny takes out his gun and fires at Punk who deflects it with his sonics.

"This is pissing me off." Punk snarls and grabs a pick from his pocket. "Time for my specialty." With every strike of the pick a blade of sound is formed from the guitar and rips into the ground as it flies towards it's target. Johnny escapes each of them except one, which cuts into his left shoulder. Punk laughs out. "Do you feel it!? Feel my chaos! This is the sound of true anarchy!"

"You sound like crap." Johnny tosses the crowbar and it cuts through the guitar strings, putting a crack into the guitar behind it. "Your so called music sounds like Fraging crap!" Johnny points at him. "I'd rather listen to the Japanese voice actor for Koiyuki sing that full moon sway song again!"

"Don't insult my music you talentless-" He's cut off by Johnny's crushing hand grasping his throat. "And about my bike. Either you pay me the money I need to build a new one or I convert every bone in your fraging body into a fine powder."

"Do you take plastique?" Punk asks as he holds out a bomb. It explodes into gas and the little creep uses the distraction to run.

"Get back here you little tait stankle!" Johnny calls out as he takes on the chase.

Johnny returns to the apartment around dinner time.

"Did ya kill em?" I ask him as he slouches down onto the couch.

"No. He got away." Johnny groans. "He wrecked my bike."

"That sucks."

"I needed to tune it up anyway. Figured I might asks you for some pointers on Xenothium."

"Yeah, I could hook you up with an engine as soon as I get the solidification method figured out. Check this out. I'm working on getting a power conversion unit into my suit so I can send meta human energy back against people."

"Yeah, great. How long until I get the engine?" Johnny asks as he shoves his pinky finger up his nose.

"With that attitude I'd say about a month."

"You're a genius. I can barely stand in your presence." Johnny half heartedly sucks up to me.

"Insincere but true." I say with a grin. "I'll have your engine in a week."

Charlotte walks in with a plate of something I don't even want to describe.

"I made dinner." She says with a smile. I nearly drop the Xenothium power core I'm working on. I kind of wish I did because she can't force me to eat her cooking if I'm blown up. It's too late now. She places the plates in front of us. "Dig in." She tells us.

"Is this because I said you where greedy?" I ask her. "Because if so I will do anything you ask to redeem myself."

"Just eat it." She says through her teeth.

"I'll clean the apartment. The house? Your laundry? Anything." I try to convince her to et me off but she just stands there glaring at me.

"Hey." Johnny grabs a spoonful. "She was kind enough to make this for us. We should be grateful."

"Thank you Johnny." Charlotte says brightly. "I'm glad somebody appreciates me."

"I'll call the morgue." I get up but Charlotte death stares me and I sit back down.

Johnny takes a bite and the spoon falls out of his mouth.

"Wh-What is this? Some kind of soup?" He asks her as his body trembles uncontrollably.

"It's spaghetti." She says with a concerned look. "Do you like it?"

"If he likes it he can have mine." I tell her.

"Just eat it. I did really well this time."

"How do you mess up boiling noodles and pre canned sauce?" I ask her. "It's almost not even moe."

"Eat or die."

"I'll die no matter if I eat it or not."

"This is a worse feeling than watching my bike get trashed." Johnny places the plate on the counter and I swear, tears are pouring from his eyes. "I'm going to my room."

Charlotte tries to stop him but he just keeps walking. She turns to me as I am sneaking towards the door. She grabs me by the collar and sits me down.

"Eat." She demands and I spend the rest of the evening clutching my stomach.

Preview Time!

Johnny: "Why do you let her in the kitchen?"

Alex: "I swear that I destroyed all of the cookable food in the house."

Charlotte: "I'm not talking to either of you."

Alex: "Next time on Red X Oscura; Oh my gosh! She's so cute! Can I keep her?"

Johnny: "If yo do we'll get in trouble with the police. Besides, she has guns."

Alex: "I know. She's so adorable. I just want to take her home and keep her in a closet forever."

Johnny: "That's kidnapping."

Alex: "Can you say Oniichan?"

Johnny: Sigh. "Next chapter, Baby Doll. Stick around."

Ch04

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests (and shirts!), potty mouths 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 h(e only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already

The sun bleeds through thoroughly cleaned windows, reflecting off the golden lining of countless books stacked neatly on mahogany bookshelves. A regular patient lies in the leather seat, mulling over the past years of his life as he moves a black circular stone piece across a Go board. He hates the way the psychiatrist asks him the same questions again and again. Like he's expressed in countless hours of these trivial sessions, he hates to repeat himself when someone can't keep up with him. But that is a lie. His session comes to an end and his psychiatrist choses to leave but he asks to stay and finish his game. He claims to love the challenge but that is another lie. He move the white and black pieces into place one by one. He traps the white pieces with his black ones and prepares his invisible opponents inevitable defeat.

It was a simple act but one that would change a mans live forever. Being a volunteer I see a lot of people coming into the small psychiatric office every day. This man was no different from the others. I walk into the office to grab some papers his psychiatrist had sent me to get when I saw her down the hall a few moments before. I greet him politely and as I walk by the board I reach out and move one of the carefully placed pieces and leave without a second thought. That was what brought one man's decent into madness into overdrive.

Weeks later, Johnny Rancid sits across the table of a small burger restaurant from a glaring blonde girl who sucks at the end of the straw of her large diet coke.

"So, uh. Nice uniform." He tries to end the awkward silence.

"I had to stay at school late today to make up for some missed classes." Charlotte sets the drink down on the table.

Johnny nervously takes a bite of his burger and looks around the restaurant.

"If you're nervous about the cops thinking this is a date then I'll just tell them you're my father."

"Do I look like I'm old enough to be your father?"

"You're like, thirty seven? I'll just tell them you had me at an early age."

"I'm twenty six!" Johnny snarls at her. "Why did you want me here anyway?"

Charlotte folds her arms and crosses her legs under the table. She look Johnny directly in the eyes and tells him "I don't trust you. You tried to kill Alex and he just let you waltz into our secret base without asking me.".

"I thought it was his place." Johnny explains.

"Well, it's not. His house burnt down and he's staying with me for now."

"Oh, you his girlfriend or something?"

Charlotte goes red. "Of course not. I would never date that perverted creep."

"Then why do you care? You don't live there. You just spend all your free time hanging out with him."

"I'm not hanging out with him. I'm looking after my financial investments." Charlotte tries to explain her position to him. "He may not mean to help anyone but he's made the you know who's pretty angry. By taking out all of their assassins they send at him he weakens them and allows the local police force to do what they do better."

"But didn't you learn about the assassins the night you asked him to work for you? And isn't letting go off half cocked like that a little messy? For one thing, evil always copies good. If you have people owning things you get theft. If you have sex you get rape. If you have a crazy vigilante taking down the bad guys then you will get crazy obsessed guys trying to take out the vigilante."

As a matter of fact at that very time I was spread out on a bend underground waiting for the subway to arrive. Part of why I chose Oscura to make my home was because the subways remind me of the ones I read about in manga and anime. The issue I'm faced with is that they are far less crowded and that gives me less chances to trigger a flag. Things just don't turn out like they do in Gao Games.

The tunnel is pretty empty. I'm actually the only one here, at least until this guy in a big, white fur coat walks in and sits beside me. One of the subway trains flies past us before he speaks.

"So, you want to play a little game?" He asks me. He looks ridiculous. There's a giant red jewel dangling from a golden chain hanging over the tight black shirt under his big fluffy coat.

"What kind of game?" I ask him, intrigued.

"A game of life and death, the ultimate thrill ride."

"I do like thrills. But if this "game" ends with me not being able to sit down for a week I'm out." The guy's wearing a giant fur coat and tribal paint. Can you blame me for getting the wrong impression?

"Then let's play." The crystal around his neck begins to glow and an endless row of tracks appear behind the first. Trains begin flying through the tunnels so fast they blur against each other. "The goal is to reach the end of the tracks. It's a test of courage."

"Looks impossible." I tell him. "For amateurs. Can you get me something I couldn't do in my sleep?"

"We'll see." He says and we both stand up.

Johnny grunts when Charlotte's eyes meet his.

"What do you want from me. Just ask." He gives in.

"I want to know where you came from, how you got here and everything I can get out of you so I will know if I can trust you or not. And also, I will be doing background checks."

"For real?"

"Or I could just kick you out of my apartment."

"Fine." Johnny repositions himself and gets ready to spill. "I didn't exactly grow up in a good neighbourhood. My dad left us when he found out mom was knocked up. Can't really blame him. He was a sixteen year old boy. Not exactly the most reliable creatures on the planet. My mom tried as best she could but she never really got over the stress of raising me, you know. When I got into high school I got into gangs and stuff. Just stupid kids thinking we where fucking invincible. Especially when I was the one leading the charge. Turns out I was some sort of metahuman or something. Back then I thought I was just tough. Then my mom got shot. Some a$$hole from some other school figured out where I lived and he tried to kill me. When I wasn't home he found her in the kitchen. Caught him with my half naked mom, unconscious with the kid trying to get the rest of her clothes off. I slapped the gun out of his hand before he could even blink. One shot made it out though and put a little scrape right across my left elbow. I picked the boy up and put his face through a few cabinets, then I turned on the stove and seared him with it. I must've held his face against that burner for at least four minutes."

"I'm sorry."

"What for? I kicked the dumb s#!+'s a$$. I ended up breaking his arm and foot in the process. Now and then I still wonder if I shoulda killed him. I've killed so many other people."

"What happened after that?"

"Well, We got some very nasty looks from the kids parents and they threatened to sue us but we retaliated with rape charges and breaking and entering. Then my school kicked me out because I knocked some jerk out for some things he was saying about my mom. After that I took off. I know my mom was under some heavy freaking stuff with taking care of me and working three jobs. Her bosses where D!(*s too. But when I came home that was the first time I've ever walked in on her crying. She'd usually put on some happy face when I got home, but she wasn't expecting me so early. I was expecting her to get mad or something but she gave me a hug and then told me not to fight people for her."

I watch as the trains pass by me. The man standing beside me grins as he waits for the right moment.We both get ready and take off as the first train passes and we get through safely.

"The first one to get to the finish line wins." The man tells me as we hop through blurs of trains passing by us.

This game isn't about speed entirely. I need to use all of my senses or I'll be crushed by the trains. It's pretty simple but I do enjoy the rush of dodging the twenty six sets of trains. I reach the end before he does when I calculate the correct time to leap at the next car so that I will enter the first window in the car of the left side and come out from the last window on the right. One second sooner and I'd have been splattered all over the inside of that train.

"Excellent work." The man appears beside me and the trains disappear. "You have passed stage one. I would expect no less from the man who got lucky against me."

"Have we met?" I look over at him. "I don't remember meeting anyone with a fur fetish. I mean, you look like the freaking yeti with bling."

"Is it that hard to remember? Oh well. What matters isn't how we got here. It's what moves we will make to escape." The crystal begins to glow again. "And now for another game. Round two will be fun."

The ground falls around us and we are sent to the top of a building somewhere.

"Someone's compensating." I say as I look down at the city scape miles bellow us.

"This will be our next stage."

"By the way fuzzy." I look over to him. "I never asked your name."

"My real name is Josai Wormwood. But I have never liked that name. You may refer to me as the Master of Games."

"Well, Master of Games. That jewel around your neck. It reminds me of something from this show I watched before." I point to the red gem around his neck. "It was called Yugioh. Except that one was a puzzle. This situation reminds me of one from season zero, the one before the one everyone knows. He played a card game on a roof with some douche bag and the one to loose fell off a building."

"That is quite similar to what I had in mind. Let's play duplicate bridge on this roof, and since I like that idea bout falling to our deaths, lets try that too. Each time one of us gets a point they take a step up the wall. The game ends when one of us reaches the top."

"Since it's duplicate bridge instead of the regular then luck plays less of a hand. This will be more about strategy than who gets the better cards. Are you afraid of me getting lucky? Whatever, I accept."

Charlotte stares at Johnny. "You're not jut feeding me this sob story so I'll let you stay, are you?" She tries not to cry as Johnny tells her about his past. "Because if I find out any of it's a lie I will have Alex kick your a$$ so hard you'll need a machine to use the bathroom."

"On my honour as an unemployed mercenary." Johnny holds up a hand as if to make a pledge. "This is where the story gets better. Since my mom was pretty much abandoned by everyone else in the family we had no choice but to go see my uncle Glen. He was the only one who ever really supported my mom, since they where both sort of the black sheep of the family. But Glen had a job. He worked in a repair shop. A regular greece monkey. He loved the Sex Pistols. Great band. Meeting him changed my life. He wouldn't take any of my s#!+. If I stepped out of line for even a second he'd beat me in the back of the head with a wrench. Closest thing to a role model I ever had. And he was smart too. He taught me everything I know about mechanical crap. Helped me build my bike."

"A regular mechanic helped you build a flying bike armed like a freaking military base?"

"There's nothing regular about that mechanic. He's a simple guy. He likes living in a suburban town full of people who wave at you each morning and everyone knows everyone. That's why he quit his old job."

"What was his old job?"

"I'm keeping that secret with me. Find out if you want. I doubt you'll get anything though." Johnny smiles. "But, for how much I hated that town I loved that dumb old man. He helped me learn to stand on my own, instead of just acting like a spoiled kid."

"How do you go from that to working as a mercenary for hire?"

"Well, I was low on cash and killing people has always been something I was good at. This was all way after the old man's place. I never really thought about why I do what I do. I just do it. Kill a man, be a man, kill a man."

"Doesn't that worry your mother?"

"Scare her? She's though. Tougher than ever now. I don't know what is is about that old man but everyone around him, they just…It's like the world really is just right there in his garage. He just makes everyone see what's important to them. For me, I just wanted to leave it all behind. He helped me realize that I couldn't drag my mom down anymore. I needed to be free to be myself, but I had responsibility to her. I had to finish high school and then I would move out and get a job, so she didn't have to worry. Then I'd be free. And so would she."

"That seems kind of selfish." Charlotte tells Johnny before taking a bite of her burger. "Wouldn't your mother want you to stay? You could get a good job, or something."

"That's just it. I love my mom, but she is who she is and I am who I am. She knew I hated every town we lived in. She wanted me to be happy." Johnny pretends to wipe the hair from his face but it's obvious that he's tearing up. "Look, I uh. I live to be because that's what she wanted for me. She told me she didn't want me to be trapped like she was. She loved me so much but stuff kept happening and she couldn't stop it. She told me she didn't regret anything but she wanted me to grow up and be free. And that's what I've been doing."

The time came for the Master of Games to fall from the top of the tower. The world goes black and he reappears in front of me.

"Why do I have the feeling that if I fell we wouldn't be standing here?" I ask him with a smile.

"What makes you say that?" He smiles back. "I must admit, it has been fun toying with you until now."

"So, are we taking the gloves off?" I ask him. "Time to take your hand off your yam sack and end this."

"And we shall." He holds out his hand and a board game and two chair rise from the blackness. "Care for a game of go?"

Charlotte finishes off her drink and the two can finally go home. As they walk Charlotte asks Johnny a question.

"So, have you enjoyed your life until now?"

"No. Not until recently." Johnny answers her. "I thought I did. But something changed."

"What changed?"

"Some little ninja guy tried to kick my a$$ after I took him ramen. I guess that was how it started. Ever since then I've been enjoying myself a lot more. Are you okay?"

Charlotte tries to hide her tears behind her burger as she inhales mouthfuls. "I'm fine" She manages to get the words out through a mouth of beef.

"So, do I pass your tests now?"

"I'll think about letting you stay. But I'm still doing a background check."

I lean back in my chair with my arms crossed as I wait for the so called Master of Games to make his move. He smiles and picks a piece off of the board. He's playing as white and I'm playing as black.

The goal of the game is to surround the other players pieces with your own. The pieces which are surrounded are considered captures and you can capture any number of pieces as long as they are surrounded by your pieces. The winner is the one who controls the largest portion of the board. Right now that's him. He has surrounded most of my pieces without making many moves. The board is littered with sections of my pieces that have been captured.

"I wouldn't do that." I tell him before he places his piece on the board.

"Why not?" He asks me. "With this I will take my victory. You only have one move and I control all the pieces, where you have captured only one."

"Because I can still move two more time before the move limit is up. We agreed on twenty seven moves. This is your second last one. You can forfeit it if you like."

"Then I should make this a crushing victory." He places the piece on the board.

"You never said what you would give me if I win." I tell him.

"Stalling for time are we? You can take all the time you need, but if you really are curious. If I win I will take your intelligence."

"That jewel on your neck is a power absorber, right? With some kind of magic genie thing going on."

"That's right. Except, I will never take a person's abilities away from them unless they loose to me in a game. It's only fair."

"And this little shadow realm is"

"Created with the power of the crystal, yes. It can create anything I imagine. hence your genie comment."

"It is like the millennium puzzle. But if it absorbs powers then how will it affect me?"

"I already told you that your intelligence will be transferred to me. I will know everything you know."

"That is a b@$+@&d." I think it over for a second. "But the question still remains. What do I get when I win?"

"You make it sound like you've already won. I control the board. The only pieces I have left to move are in the corner over here. Too far for you to reach. Not that it would matter."

"I know what I want." I smile. "If I can win this will I get it even if I don't tell you?"

"It wont matter, but according to the rules of the jewel your wish will be granted." He folds his arms and waits for me to make my move.

"Alright then." I pick up one of my last pieces and place it in the middle of the board.

"No. NO!" The Master of Games stands up from his chair and stares at the board with terror in his eyes. "This isn't possible. How could I not see it?"

All those scattered pieces I had around the board have revealed their true form as the image of them weaving through his pieces create a twisted cage.

"Go is not a game, Josai." I tell him as I fold my arms behind my head. "It's a war. Like chess, it is a creation of war. Ya can't just sit in the corner pulling your junk when you think you've won. You used all of your troops trying to take me down as quickly as possible and scatter my forces across the board. But despite my current lack of numbers, you played right into my hands."

"All those chances." He looks up from the board at me. "You where playing me."

"It's no problem for me if a few foot soldiers die in order to draw out the enemy. I understand that this is more than just a game to you and that you want to beat me badly. The only problem is I'm too awesome for that. In order to weave my web and capture the majority of the board I let you decimate my forces and swooped in at the last minute with this guy. In other words I screwed you hard."

"But that is still only forty percent of the board."

"Do I really have to spell it out for you." I point at his side. "Those are your movable pieces at this time and they are, as you said before, too far for you to reach." I sigh. "Your move."

Sweat drops from his face. He grabs his only available piece and picks it up off the board.

"This can't be happening." He mutters. "This can't be happening! I wont do it! I wont loose to you!" In his fury he slams the piece down on the board. "Wait!" He says and tries to pick the piece up from the board but it wont budge. "What's happening!?"

"Don't you remember?" I ask him with a smile as I pick up one of my pieces. "In the game of Go once you've placed your piece on the board that ends your turn. There's no going back." I flip the piece in the air and catch it. "Too bad you didn't keep your cool. If you weren't so set on beating me you might not have screwed up your chance, buttwad."

"You left it their on purpose?" He stares at the piece he should've moved. "You left yourself open on purpose? You knew I wouldn't catch it. How?"

"I guest. I gambled that if I simply acted confident and pushed you to the point where you could only think about beating me then you wouldn't be focused on the game. Looks like I was right as usual."

"You could've lost everything. Your mind. Your knowledge. It would've been mine. You would've lost it all."

"Yeah. That would suck." I tell him as I place my final piece on the board. "But maybe I'd have more fun if I didn't know everything."

As I place my piece I disappear from the dark room.

The Master of Games stares at the board, tears pouring from his eyes.

"F^(*!" He grabs the table and tosses it into the darkness and falls back on his chair. "I will get you." He mutters as a dark laugh echoes in the darkness. "I swear, I will F^(*ing get you."

When I return to the real world I'm back on my bench, waiting for the subway. I unwrap my prize and take a deep bite.

"A weeks worth of mellon bread." I munch on the yummy yellow treat. "So worth it." Hey! Wait a minute! "Aw s#!+! I just realized something! I could've had anything I wanted!" I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner! "I'm such an idiot! I should've asked for a months worth! Oh well. Maybe that guy's a reoccurring character. Next time I'll ask him for some wagashi and sweet rice dumplings. Oh. And a beanbag chair shaped like Snorlax. I saw one on the internet earlier. That was cool."

"Mommy." A kid points at me as he walks by. "Why is that man talking to himself?"

"That's a crazy man, dear." She tells him. "Don't look at him."

I munch on my prize. "Mmmm. I love my brain."

Preview Time!

Johnny: "No fair! You got mellon bread!?"

Alex: "When you beat a super villain who can grant you any wish you want you can have mellon bread too."

Johnny: "You ate it all yourself? A weeks worth of bread?"

Alex: "Yeah. But now I don't feel so good."

Johnny: "That is just wrong."

Charlotte: "If you wanted mellon bread I could've just had some shipped."

Alex: "I want mellon bread every day."

Johnny: "You're a glutton."

Alex: "And you're…stupid."

Johnny: "How does this guy out smart anyone?"

Charlotte: "Can we please just move on with the preview?"

Alex: "I'll do it." Groan. "Maybe you should do it."

Johnny: "I don't want to do it."

Charlotte: "Then I guess everybody's favourite idol will have to step to the stage!"

Alex: "We have a guest star?" Punch. "Ow! Why'd she hit me?"

Johnny: "Just let it go."

Charlotte: "I hope you all enjoyed learning about Johnny because the next chapter involves his own villain. Hey! Why haven't I got my own chapter!?"

HumanX: "I originally planned on that but it became more about Johnny in the end."

Charlotte: "Are you saying he's more interesting than me?"

HumanX: "Of course not. I've just had your back story in mind for a while now and got too into his when I was writing. You can have your own flashbacks and stuff too. I just need time to write it in."

Alex: "Get back to the preview."

Charlotte: "Fine. A brand new punk comes into town in a familiar scene. Will his chaos reign or will he bite the dust? Find out next time. Really? That's what you want me to say."

HumanX: "Yeah."

Charlotte: "Whatever. Just read the next chapter."

HumanX: "You should really be nicer."

Charlotte: "Read the next chapter please."

HumanX: Sigh. "Goodbye everybody."

Red X Oscura

Picture Diary

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests, potty mouths and sexual content so readers discretion is advised (You have been warned).

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.

Alex: "What up!"

Charlotte: "Really? That's how we're going to open this?"

Alex: "Welcome readers! This is the first ever Red X Picture Diary! We're so excited to see you all"

Charlotte: "Out of the way. These people want to see the star attraction. This chapter was written at the request of ToadFan2004. The reason we have it as a picture diary and not a regular chapter is because our writer is too lazy to write the scenario into the story."

HumanX: "That's not true. I just thought it would take a long time to get ready for this story and decided to try turning it into a special chapter."

Johnny: "Face it. You're just too dumb to write it into the regular storyline."

HumanX: "I really thought it would be best as a picture diary chapter. It's like at the end of some Bleach episodes when they talk about what Rukia's jobs are as a Soul Reaper in the human world or what the special abilities of a"

Johnny: "Lazy F%(&."

Charlotte: "Johnny! Stop making HumanX cry!"

HumanX: "I'm not crying." Sniffle.

Johnny: "Look man. It's a great idea. I really like it, okay?"

HumanX: "You mean it?"

Johnny: "Yeah. I've only been around for one chapter so I'm not really used to this whole thing, so a chapter like this will help me get into it."

HumanX: "Really?"

Johnny: "Yeah. Now stop crying."

HumanX: "Okay."

Alex: "Wow. That was disturbing. Anyway, this is a chapter about later on in the future when I go on vacation and decide to make a little trouble for a local hero team."

Charlotte: "Seriously, last time we had a story in the future you stole Batman's suits. Now you're causing trouble for these guys. What is wrong with you?"

Alex: "I blame society."

Charlotte: "Look. We've explained the chapter so let's get on with it. Here it is. The Red X Vacation Picture Diary."

It's fun to take a little vacation now and then. I've decided to go to New York City and take a bit of a break from thrill seeking for a while. The only issue is that I'd be more into this if I was going alone, or at least not with the biggest big mouthed blonde in Oscura. On the entire plane ride over Charlotte's been bouncing in her seat and she hasn't shut up since we hit the ground.

"I'm so excited! Are you excited? Why aren't you excited? I'm excited!" Charlotte's rapid fire words practically break through my eardrums. If she wasn't paying for the trip I'd throw her out of the plane.

"What do you want to do now?" I ask anybody who will listen when we get out of the station.

"First we have to take our luggage to the Waldorf=Astoria hotel. Then we can visit Riverside park, Prospect park, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Square, Macy's Department Store, Fifth Avenue, Times Square. I feel like the kids in Glee!"

"I think I'll pass on the parks for a bit." I tell her.

"Are you just gonna watch anime on your computer the whole vacation?" She gives me a glare that says "There is no way in hell that will happen".

"Actually I was going to visit Roosevelt Island and check out their asylums. Then maybe look around St. Patrick's Cathedral or Brookklyn Botanic Garden and maybe spend some time on Coney Island if I still have any. I also wanted to check out some books at new York Public Library or the Jefferson Market Library."

"Wow." Charlotte looks at me with a new respect. "I didn't think you where that interested in that stuff."

"You don't become a genius from sitting around and doing nothing." I tell her. "I've always had an interest in psychology, science, physics and culture. How do you think I got so awesome? Japanese culture is my favourite but I do like Gothic buildings like St. Patrick's Cathedral and the American Radiator Building. I'm surprised you didn't get my Gothic interests from looking at my suit."

Johnny raises his hand. "I'm going to Little Italy. Hear they got good food."

Charlotte looks at him disapprovingly before grabbing me by the arm. "Fine then. I'm going with Alex." She starts to drag me along. "If you're not going to do anything but stuff your face with pasta then take our stuff to the hotel."

Johnny lights a cigarette and sighs as he breathes in the smoke. "We watch Glee once and those two suddenly want to go to New York. What a couple of idiots."

Charlotte drags me over to see the the Daily News Building.

"The giant globe looking like the one at the daily planet."

I get dragged to this Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, Sephora and a bunch of other stores.

"Don't you have enough clothes?" I ask Charlotte as she tries on some outfits and makes me rate them.

"It wouldn't hurt to expand your wardrobe a little." She calls over the change room door. "Don't you get tired of all the black and red?"

"I look good in black and red."

"Yes, but you would look good in other colours too." She busts through the door in a black, slinky, form fitting minidress with three-quarter length selves from something called Feriani or something like that. I have to say that for a seventeen year old she pulls off that look.

"Looks good." I tell her.

She does a little twirl as she admires her reflection. "You think so? It's cheeper than what I usually get." She asks as she opens her wallet.

"Oh, crap. I forgot my card in my luggage and my cash is all gone." She sighs.

I fish out my money and pay the three hundred and thirty eight dollars for the dress.

"You really don't have to do that." She tells me.

"It's fine. Consider it payback for buying me my suit."

"The suit was way more expensive than this."

"What do you expect on a volunteer psychiatrists salary? They don't call it volunteer for nothing."

She grabs onto my arm again and starts to drag me to the counter. I pay for the dress and she happily takes me to some store called Bloomingdales and buys me a black cotton zip hoodie for about two hundred and seventy five dollars and some black Calvin Klein Lounge pants since I told her I wouldn't wear jeans to save my nads and then an expensive long sleeved red shirt to go under the undone hoodie.

"Perfect." She hovers around me. "You clean up nice. If I didn't know any better I'd say you where a perfect gentleman."

"You judge me based on the clothes I wear. That's fair. Why'd you make me pay for this?" I ask as we leave the store.

"Simple. Since I'm low on cash in this great city of New York I need you to pay for my financial situations."

"You want me to buy your stuff."

"Yup. And since you're buying me stuff people could mistake us for a couple. Or they could mistake you for my gay friend. In any case I will not be seen with someone who looks like they came from the slums of a backwater city. The man people will mistake me for being with must look presentable. Do you understand."

"Sir." I salute. "My mission this day is to massage your ego, sir."

"That's right." She smiles triumphantly. "Now. If you're going to play the part of my boyfriend today you'll need to keep up with me. Now let's get going."

We wander around for a bit, picking up ridiculously high cost items at my new "master's" will. If it was okay to slap her in public she'd be so passed out by now.

We start to get hungry so I suggest that we go to One If By Land, Two If By Sea. I don't know why she starts blushing when I suggest it.

We're seated and Charlotte tells me to go nuts since she's going to reimburse me for all the money I spent today. I get the Steak Frites since it's the Brunch menu and she gets a market Chopped Chicken Salad.

"Don't you usually have a bigger appetite?" I ask her. "Why don't you order an omelette or steak?"

"I didn't think stuffing my face would be appropriate."

"You making fun of me?"

"N-No." She starts stuttering. "I'm just a little nervous."

"Why?"

"Tell me the truth." She looks up at me. "Are you playing a mind game on me?"

"What?"

"Buying me these clothes, fallowing me around all day and then taking me to this restaurant."

"Isn't this just a seafood restaurant?"

"It's the most romantic restaurant in New York."

"Oh." I get a little smirk as I start to get the picture. "Are you asking me if this is a date, little girl?"

"I'm seventeen you know." She pouts as the blush on her face grows. "You're only three years older than me."

"But I'm an adult and you're still a teenager. Which makes me your chaperone."

"When does the kid pay for the chaperone to go on a vacation?"

"When the chaperone is next to broke."

I look at Charlotte who's looking a little down now and I sigh. She may only be three years younger than me but she's such a child.

"Well, since we're here anyway, where would you like to go next on our date?" I ask her.

Her face brightens up a bit.

What is great about waking up New York? Breakfast at Tiffany's. So good. It is the bee's balls. I'm pretty sure that's the expression. Anyway, the first night was fun but what really got me excited was what happened this day.

Johnny ditched Charlotte and I to go visit some more New York food spots so we ended up shopping together again.

"I really don't know why we have to go shopping together twice in a row." Charlotte is back to her usual self as she walks down the street with me by her side. "I'm not spending a fortune on you today."

"How do you spend a fortune at a library?" I ask her.

"Just incase I brought my card this time." She holds up her bag but as she does some guy reaches out and snatches it out of her hand.

He starts to book it down the street.

"Well?" She looks at me.

"Yeah. That guy runs fast." I tell her casually. "It's really too bad that he's using his skills for theft instead of joining track and field or running in the Olympics. I think we should start a public service announcement."

"Get my bag." She demands and I sigh before taking off.

"Fine. I'll get the D@^^* bag."

I catch up to the little S#!+ in a flash. Running up beside him I give him a friendly wave. He sneers at me and tries to run faster. I pick up enough speed to keep behind him. He darts into an alleyway and jumps over a fence. After that he runs through the alley and ducks into a little cafe, sitting in one of the seats and hiding from view of the window.

"Hiding from someone?" I ask him while I wave from the table next to his.

"F%(&!" He jumps out of his seat and pulls a gun on me. "You some sort of ninja?"

"Oh no no no. Well, yes. In a way. I'm more of an assassin." I reach out my hand. "Just gimme the bag back and it will all be cool."

"Like hell, man." He waves the gun at me. "You get on the floor, now."

"Look at this." I gesture to the people watching us. "He thinks he's threatening."

"I will shoot you man. I will shoot you."

"Looks lie somebody has some unresolved mother issues. If you want we can talk about it. Not enough hugs? Are the other kids bullying you? Did daddy's friend with the candy touch you?" I slip a shuriken down from my sleeve, into my hand and get ready.

"Shut up!" With the shuriken not painted red and me just being some random guy in New York there is pretty much no way killing him will tip people off to me being Red X.

"Did I touch a nerve?" The issue comes with the people taking videos. It could come back to haunt Alex Arkham if I do this wrong. I'll hit his hand and get rid of the gun. I'll have Charlotte forge records of me having training in some local dojo, or something. Play myself off as a self defence nut. I could say I bought it from a store around here. There are three in the area between here and our hotel.

"Get on the floor now or I'll F%(&ing"

"Do nothing." A woman with flowing hair, like orange fire and golden skin floats down between us. Her eyes glow with brilliant green as she fires a blast of energy from her hand and melts the gun the boy is holding. "Unless of course you wish to return that bag to this man."

The frightened boy throws the bad at her and begins to run off. He's stopped as his body becomes weightless and he is lifted up into the air. Another woman in a blue cloak appears from an alleyway.

"Starfire." She looks to the golden skinned woman. "I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"I can't come see by best friend a day or two early when she's left to look after headquarters all on her own?" Starfire flies over to Raven and pulls her into a hug. "It's been a while, Raven. How have things been?"

"Not so great actually." Raven brings the kid she has held in the air with her psychic powers closer. "But we'll have time to catch up later. Let's get this person to the police."

"Thank you for saving me." I say to Starfire with a warm smile. Not too friendly now. This girl is a perfect ten at the least. With milk mounds like that strapped back by whatever type of foreign bathing suit this poor girl mistook for a costume and a face that (pardon my wording) is out of this world, I'd say she's about a seventy six on the bazanga meter. I can't get too good of a look under the hood of that cloak but her little chicky friend's got some luscious lips going on. From what I can see and judging by the shape of the glow from her eyes, under the shadow of the hood I'd say this is one foxy goth girl. Gold skin goddess is a Titan if I remember. Alien with emotion based abilities manifesting as flight, energy blasts and I believe some form of endurance. Short stalked and gloomy is a demon spawn with a crap load of psychic abilities. I think I just found something fun to play with. I just hope my "date" is feeling up to a little fun with New Yorks finest.

"I hate this plan." Charlotte tells Rancid as she dangles from a chain in his hand which he is holding out over the roof of a thirty story building.

"I get why I'm the villain but he didn't have to make me do something so stupid." Johnny sighs. "Whatever."

He thrusts the hand holding Charlotte out and screams towards the onlooker bellow. "Alright F%(& tards! I want to get me some ransom money! I know this chick is loaded so fork over the green!"

It doesn't take long for Starfire to float down from the night sky.

"I think that's enough." She holds out her hand as if to take Charlotte from him.

"Finally." Johnny whips a chain out from behind him and it wraps around Starfire's leg. He pulls down and slams her into the concrete of the rooftop. He goes in to take her out but she spins around and fires star bolts at him. He's knocked back but before he can retaliate she dives into him with a powerful burst of speed. Johnny gains control before she can get him off of the building and tosses her off of him. "If I can't get my money this chick is just in the way." He picks Charlotte up and prepares to toss her off the building. Starfire tries to stop him but he knock her back with the second chain and throws Charlotte off of the building.

"NO!" Starfire calls out as she is held back by Johnny. He kicks her around a bit as she fights to get to Charlotte.

"Looks like I was passing by just in time." I call out from the next building as I heroically hold Charlotte bridal style in my arms. I'm really hoping that the dark costume design doesn't give her any ideas about me being a villain. I cut the chain around her and let it fall to the ground. "This looks like a job for Red X."

I fire my grappling hook and swing over to the building with Starfire and Johnny.

"The girl you tried to kill is fine now." I look at Johnny and point. "Now it's time for justice to be served."

He goes to punch me but I duck under it and flip him over my shoulder.

"You bad guys never learn." I tell him as I tie him up with wire. "That should hold you until the proper authorities arrive."

"Thank you for your help." Starfire thanks me.

"Not a problem." I do a little bow, like I just finished a broadway play. "I was in the area when I heard about this guy from one of my friends who was in the crowd."

"I'm Starfire of the R.E.B.E.L.S."

"I'm Red X. I don't really have a team."

"Are you a loner?"

"I just haven't found the right fit. Right now I'm just traveling and doing a little crime fighting while I'm at it. Actually, the reason I'm even in town today is visit my grandma."

"Puke." Johnny groans so I kick him.

"Aren't you supposed to be waiting for the police, mr.Drunk?"

"Shut up." He pretends to slur. "I only had a few."

"Anyway." I turn my attentions back to Starfire. "I should really be getting home. Grandma worries when I show up late. I'll have to call her as soon as I get to the hotel."

I get ready to take off while counting down in my head. 3, 2 and "Wait." Bingo.

Starfire walks up to me and look me eye to whatever super strong plexiglass thing Charlotte had these eyes made out of. "Do you want to come see Titan Tower? It's a little more comfortable than a hotel. You wont have to worry about your secret identity either."

"I don't want to be any trouble." I tell her.

"It's no trouble." She smiles so brightly I almost don't want to go through with this. "My friend Raven is on watch duty and she can get pretty lonely." I have a remedy for that. "I think it would be nice if she had someone new around. She's been going through some personal things lately." Score. Absolute score.

"I guess I could stay a night." I pretend to give in.

As soon as Starfire and I have left the scene Johnny undoes the rope and grumbles to himself. "Honestly. Like that guy needs this to add to his ego."

Now, here's the thing about every fun loving easygoing babe with a tendency to be a little too trusting. There is alway a polar opposite best friend who hates me. When I was brought into Titan's Tower Raven was concerned. Very concerned. After all they are two women alone in this tower with a strange guy who wont leave his costume. The others are out on mission in space or something. However, three days pass with no incident and she is surprisingly less suspicious of me when she learns that I have no powers. The real breaking point doesn't come until Raven brings a matter to Starfire's attention.

"I can't seem to open this book." She tells her. "It's under a magic spell I don't know. I've been trying to break it for a while."

"What is so important about it?" Starfire asks as she looks back over the couch.

"Why aren't you wearing clothes?" Raven suddenly realizes.

"I thought that since the boys are away I wouldn't have to get dressed after I woke up."

"Did you forget that your brought something home with you a while ago?"

"He doesn't wake up until late."

Actually, that day I was really happy I just happened to wake up early and come out of my room.

"I'm sorry!" I spin around.

"I made him blush." Starfire snickers. I didn't think dying my hair blonde and wearing these contacts would pay off like this but now I'm glad I went undercover for this.

"I was just going to get some breakfast before going out."

"Visiting your grandmother again?" Raven asks me.

"Yeah. She's having a birthday so I wanted to buy her a present."

"That's so adorable." Starfire says as she slips into a shirt Raven brought her.

"What's that book?" I ask.

"Raven's having trouble getting the spell off of it."

"May I see?" I ask.

"You know about magic?" Raven asks me as she hands it over.

"I had a teacher who was really into this stuff. He helped me learn a few things about advanced magics. It's not much but I can figure out the rest."

I place the book on the coffee table and draw a chalk symbol around it. "Hesfilis de magica. Noronose roa." I command and the seal on the book bursts open.

"Thank you." Raven says as I hand her the book.

"No problem. If you want, I can help you with some of these Setario characters. They're pretty rare so mostly no one knows abut them in the magic realm."

"I'd like that." Raven tells me as she moves her hair from her face. Oh, I like her.

The next day or two is spent teaching Raven about the magic I used. She begins to show me less and less distrust as time goes on. It's your old teacher student relationship thing I'm going for. But, finally the day comes when I decide it's time to get down to what I was planning from the beginning.

Raven walks into the bathroom, not knowing I'm just getting out of the shower.

"I'm sorry." She swings the door back closed before I have time to pretend this wasn't planned.

"He's got a nice body." Starfire says over Raven's shoulder.

"I didn't notice." Raven mutters.

"Hmmm." Starfire smirks as she considers the options. "He kind of reminds me of Dick."

"I guess so."

Now that everything's in place it's time for the spark to ignite.

Starfire calls me out from my room when the alarm goes off.

"We're going to fight crime. Do you want to come?"

Of course I do. This is perfect timing.

We suit up and head out to take on whatever it is that's attacking. Apparently it's some electric dude. It's not too  hard to take him down. Raven gets knocked around a bit and Starfire and I team up with my plan to set off a few charges that reversed his electrical signal and caused him to revert to human form. No biggie. What was important was when I took a hit for Raven. Which would seem like I was just trying to get more on her good side but that is just a part of what I'm trying to do.

Starfire is impressed with how I handled the monster situation, especially with the save I staged. If there's one thing that stuck out for me about her race, aside from the thing about evolving from cats, is that they are almost ruled by their emotions. They get angry when they want, sad when they want and they get with whoever they want. So it comes at no surprise to me when she confronts me in the weight room. Just a few little modest words on my part about the battle and a warm smile is all it takes at this point to have her wrap her arms around my neck and bring me into a deep kiss. Maybe us earthlings should try some of this unbridled emotions thing. It definitely helps in the kissing department. She pushes me down onto the weight bench gently and…let's just say HumanX will get in trouble if we don't skip on that.

When we leave the weight room Raven is coming in to work out. Her face takes on an odd expression when she sees us. Lucky for me Starfire acts precisely as I predicted and kisses me on the cheek before flying off. I knew it. She's completely unaware of the situation I'm putting her in.

"I'm glad you're getting along." Raven tells me in a transparent attempt at seeming uninvolved.

"Yeah, I guess." I smile. "Are you ready for your lesson?"

"I'm actually not feeling too well. Do you mind if we do it another time?"

"Sure."

Setaro characters are an incredible thing. First of all, they are powerful spell breaker. But the price of using them is that you have to have a mark of Setar somewhere on your body. Pretty simple? Except that the mark not only uses a person's emotions to power the spells it also increases them ten fold. The emotion Raven is feeling now as she writhes in her bed, unable to sleep. Jealousy.

The three of us go out the next day because Starfire thought it would be nice if I had a look around the town. I've already been around town but she doesn't know that. While we walk by a fountain in some shopping centre I give Charlotte the signal and she walk out from her hiding place with johnny. They're both wearing disguises like that one night before. Charlotte trips and almost falls into the fountain. I grab her and return her to Johnny.

"Thanks. My daughter's a bit clumsy." Johnny shakes my hand.

"I am not." Charlotte groans and they walk away.

Around the corner Charlotte rips off her wig and glasses.

"This is stupid. Do you think he can really get these two to fight?"

"He better." Johnny grumbles as he runs his hand back through his hair. "Or else he owes me two hundred bucks."

"That's why we're doing this?!"

"He said he could get any two girls in New York to fight over him and I accepted the challenge. He's a good looking guy but there's no way he can make those two fight each other. Besides, I get all my money back if Raven looses the fight."

"My awesome vacation in New York that I've been looking forward to for weeks was ruined because you jerks decided to play with a couple of girls emotions?" Charlotte begins to fume anger. "You two are disgusting, irritating, putrid pigs! You should never play with a woman's emotions!"

"Don't you want to know which one will win?" Johnny tries to calm her down.

"Do you want to know what I want?" He eyes are almost glowing with crimson light.

"N-No. Not really."

"I want to wake up to a nice meal in a fancy hotel! I want to have friends who don't ignore me for days because they're trying to score two chicks and get them to fight! I want to have a romantic walk along some historic monuments with some hot guy I met here!"

"Don't you mean you want to go to the libraries with Alex?" Johnny grins.

"Oh, blech." Charlotte cringes. "Cutting people up I can overlook, but he's trying to break up two good friends who really care for each other. And how the hell did he learn magic!?"

"We never said anything about breaking them up." Johnny tells her. "Do you think he could do that?"

"Honestly? Yes."

Starfire was really impressed with how I helped "that clumsy girl" that she plants a sweet one on my lips right in front of the fountain. And now the time has come.

"Stop it!" Raven yells out. "Just let go of him!"

"What are you" Starfire begins but is cut off by a blast of psychic energy.

"Raven." I reach out for her shoulder but am blasted off by her anger.

"Stop this!" Starfire calls out but is grabbed by a black claw which rips into her bright white sun dress. "I don't understand!"

"Shut up and fight me!" Lucky that mark I gave Raven also works as a seal which keeps the level of her power under control or Starfire would be crushed to death.

Starfire blasts the claw with her eye blasts and escapes.

` "I don't know why you're doing this, but I know something is wrong." Starfire circles around Raven. "If you can fight this then please do your best and I will try to help you."

"I don't need your help!" Raven unleashes a flurry of psychic birds which cut through Starfire's clothes, totally shredding them.

"Should I help?" I call up.

"No." Starfire tells me. "She is my friend. I'll take care of her."

Starfire blasts Raven with a star bolt which she dodges just in time to avoid having her chest ripped open, but not her shirt. I love cat fights.

Starfire tackles raven down to the ground but Raven retaliates with a mind blast and pulls herself on top of Starfire. She grips her hair and pulls as she gets a blast ready to fire but Starfire flies straight up into the air and grabs Raven by the skirt of her dress and swings her until it shreds and she flies back down to the ground.

Starfire goes in to see if Raven is okay. Raven reaches out with her powers when Starfire gets close and slams her into the ground over and over. She then wraps a psychic wire around Starfire and tightens it, trying to crush her. Starfire can't help but yell out as Raven gets back to her feet and closes her hand as the wire shrinks and tightens around Starfire's body.

I way towards Johnny and he holds up the cash. I win.

I walk up behind Raven and place my hand on the small of her back where the symbol was placed. "Novardes dawa retractio." The symbol fades and Raven returns to normal. I clap my hands together and take a deep breath. "Well, looks like I'm not as good with magic as I thought I was, but on the bright side you don't have hot burning feelings for me. That was the symbol maximizing some little flirtatious urges you had. So, you two can go back to being friends now and we can all let bygones be bygones." And pow. That was one fast slap. I really should've considered Starfire's amped rage as well as her other emotions.

"Noly Guck Mfat urt." It is hard to talk with a alien fist imprinted on your face.

"I say it's time for some pay back." Starfire's eyes glow brightly.

"I agree." Raven's face disappears behind a hood.

This is turning into one craptastic situation.

I'm able to drop a smoke bomb before they can get their hands on me and duck into a bathroom in some restaurant. When I come back out I'm suited up.

"Let's do this."

I walk out of the restaurant and am immediately tackled by Starfire who drags me into the air and tosses me. I'm caught in a big bird claw which closes in.

"This is gonna feel good." Starfire crunches her knuckles and goes to punch me in the face but I activate a nozzle by my face which sprays her with a special gas. I use that time to point my palm at Raven and blast her with an X shaped beam. That makes her let go and I start falling to the ground.

"Don't stop. Don't stop. We're in luck now." I sing as I plummet towards the streets. I get close enough to two buildings and activate the device in my suit that lets me walk up walls but much higher and all over me. "Don't stop. There's so much to be found." I land softly on the ground. "We can find paradise. All we have to do is go." I see Starfire flying down at me and use this cool new reflector beam thing Charlotte gave me to fire beams from both of my hands in opposite directions at the walls. They reflect off of the walls and hit Starfire in an X formation. She falls to the ground and I start running.

Raven appears from a shadow on the ground and I use an extending X shuriken to pole vault over her. Raven and Starfire both get ready to blast me but I grab one of my own little toys out of my belt and toss it between them. The little X glows red and surrounds the two with it's light redirecting their energy towards each other.

"Looks like you got your wires crossed." I tell them as I blow a kiss and get ready to take off. Starfire gets pissed and tackles me into the next building. I'm about to get up but she stomps on my back. Thank monkey scrod for metalo armour. I let the electrical circuit in my costume send high voltage through her body and knock her back with a kick. "Normally I'm into the rough stuff but I have a clean two hundred to collect."

"Playing with people like they're your toys." Starfire gets ready to blast me but I dodge from side to side so fast it almost looks like I'm phasing. "That's absolutely criminal." As she's flying around me I hold out my palms in her direction and put my hands together, triggering a cool little gadget. An X forms and it takes off like a rocket, smashing into Starfire and digging it's tips into the wall behind her, trapping her.

I walk up to her and move some of the hair from her face. "You know cutie. The only crime here is that you and I haven't gone out on a real da" And light beam eyes to the face.

"Okay. I deserve that." I get up.

"And you're going to get get much worse." raven tells me as she tries to pull a sneak attack. I flip out of the way and activate the Chameleon Circuit. I move behind her and reappear, punching the ground. An X lights up on the ground and it explodes. Raven finds me in the smoke and comes in for the kill shot. I fire another X, which stretches its point out towards the walls and suddenly pulls in, breaking the sections of the walls it's attached to and threatening to crush raven. She uses her powers to hold them off but that distracts her enough for me to try a new getaway.

I slide under the first star blast Starfire sends at me and then I hop over the next. "Babe." I call over to her as I fire another X from the palm of my glove. "You really need to chill out."

She blast the X with her star bolts but it's a devolving X which turns into red goop. The goo covers her and expands, sticking her to the floor. She fights to get it off of her but it spreads all over her body.

"What is it about me that make girl end up on their backs?" I ask. That stuff is crazy strong. She's out of the game. As long as I get out of here within the next hour. Raven doesn't want to make that easy.

Raven got out of my wall trap so now I need a new one. I toss a shuriken at her. It lands on her chest and expands wrapping itself around her and pinning her arms to her back.

"At least I never let you get close enough to me" She starts.

"To what?" I ask? "If it's see you naked I have X ray vision in this thing."

Her soul manifests in that bird form and she tries to swallow me up with it.

"You're always so dark Rave." I tell her, going invisible and then reappearing in front of her. "You need to lighten up." I put my hand in her face and she it hit with a bright light. She chants something weird, which sucks because I wanted the light to knock her out or something, and I end up being slammed into a wall.

"Why would you do this?" She asks me. "What did we do to you?"

"Nothing." I tell her as I nod my head to the side. "I just wanted to have a little fun. No big deal. No one got hurt. You don't really love me so you don't get your heart broken. Starfire wont mind since we really didn't go that far and in the end I didn't even steal anything. Although, since we're on the subject of theft you should take a look at a new lock for your pantie drawe-OW my spleen!" I guess talking about a girls panties is just asking for a psychic punch to the spleen.

"But seriously, this was all just a stupid bet." I tell her.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because I like the challenge. It's fun."

"It wasn't for me. I really felt" She glares at me. "I really felt like I was in love."

"You weren't. It was a combination of magic and my taking advantage of your weak emotional state. You can hate me if it makes you feel better."

"I don't need your permission for that." She raises a psychic fist and punched my gut.

"Oh, baby. I love it when you do that." I choke. "But in all seriousness, I gotta run. And you're really going to have to work hard to get those stains out."

"What stains?" Next thing she knows she's covered in X goop.

I look down at her covered in the red glop. "This stuff is pretty erotic. I should talk to the guys in productions about it. Anyway, I'll catch you later." And I turn on my Chameleon Circuit and take off.

Soon after I leave Dick Grayson, in his Batman persona, shows up on the scene. He sees Starfire and Raven stuck to the ground.

"Had a little trouble?" He asks.

"We tried to take on a jerk named Red X."

"Stop right there." Dick sighs. "I've run into him before." He takes out a small pocket laser from his utility belt but it has no effect. "You guys are stuck."

"I am going to hurt him when I get loose." Starfire grumbles.

"You're going to have to beat me to him." Dick tells her. "He's a tricky one. Not even Bruce could keep up with him last time."

"In that case we'll leave him to the Justice League." Starfire move for a moment and the goop hardens and crumbles.

"It looks like our hour is up." raven says as she gets up.

"What are we going to do about X?"

"Knowing him, this was some sort of prank." Dick tells them. "He probably wont try anything again. What did he do anyway?"

"Shut up Dick."

I'm glad to be rid of the contacts and blonde hair. I just don't think it's me. Johnny paid me the money and me him and Charlotte go get breakfast at Tiffany's the next morning.

"I still can't believe you covered them in goo." johnny laughs as he rips into a pancake. "They'd have to have stayed their for at least an hour. I'd love to see that, especially Starfire. Oh yeah." He high fives me.

"I still think you're both pigs for doing that." Charlotte tells us. "Those poor girls where head over heels for you and you broke their hearts."

"For one thing, Starfire wasn't head over heals. She just felt like getting it on with the cute new guy. It's an alien thing. That's why it was so easy with her." I explain. "And Raven was under a spell."

"A spell that made her love you. Did you really think that wouldn't hurt her? What if they can't get past this whole thing?"

"Starfire got over Raven mind raping her boyfriend and it even strengthened their relationship. I think they'll live."

"For a psychiatrist, you are hopeless with how girls think."

"Guess not."

"Guess not." A bit of an edge on that.

"Are you on your period?" I ask her and get another in the series of well deserved slaps I've been receiving over the past while. "It was just a question."

"There are certain things you can't say to women."

"Are you on your period? Yes, I am dating your for your looks. Yes that does make you look fat. Your sister's prettier. I don't want children. No, I don't think about what our kids will be like. Is that it?"

"Forget it." She goes back to eating her meal.

"You want to go out later? I've got things to do so we'll have to go out late."

"I wouldn't be caught dead with you."

"Please." I put my hands together and fake beg. "I really want to go somewhere super special today. It's our last day in New York. You can't tell me you're going to spend it alone."

"Because I don't exist or want to go hang out or anything. That's cool." Johnny pretends to be jealous.

Charlotte glares at me and looks away.

"If you don't go out with me I'm taking naked pictures of your and putting them on the internet." Charlotte grabs her forks and stabs me in the forehead. "That was unnecessary. Come on. I really want to go out with you tonight."

She blushes and caves. "Fine. If you're that adamant about it I'll have to humour you. So, what library are we going to?"

"It's a surprise."

The time to take Charlotte out has come. I get dressed in the clothes she bought me before and go to her room to pick her up.

"Let's get this over with." Charlotte is a true tsundere. Looking at the clothes she picked out she's been anticipating this the whole day. She probably had that scowl on the whole time she was picking those clothes out too. "Are you coming?" She asks me with a snarl.

"Yes mistress."

We begin walking across a few places until it begins to get dark.

"Where are you taking me?" She asks. "This better not be the way to some sleazy hotel somewhere. If I get raped it will be somewhere expensive."

"It's just a little further." I tell her, practically dragging her along by her wrist.

We start moving into a place with a little more people. I bring her up in front and stand her beside me.

"Now watch." I tell her.

She pauses for a moment. "What am I supposed to be looking for?"

"Just trust me." She shuts up and waits.

Suddenly lights start up and the Lincoln Centre illuminates against the night. The lights dance in the air and the fountain we're standing in front of sparkles like crystal.

"How do you like it?" I ask her.

"It's amazing." She says with a smile, unable to take her eyes off of the sight.

"The first time I came to New York I ended up seeing this. I knew you'd like it."

She looks up at me, tears about to pour from her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"It's nothing."

"Come on."

"It's just that I've always been able to go anywhere I wanted for vacation but I never had any friends to go with. I've never been close enough with anyone to want to go. So I was really looking forward to this. Then those girls showed up and"

"I already said I'm sorry about that."

"No you didn't. I really wanted to spend time with you guys. this is my first time going out with friends."

I grab her and pull her into my arms.

"What are you doing?! Let me go! If you do anything to me there are a ton of witnesses around!"

"Shut up." I pat her head. "If you where lonely you should've told me."

"I'm not lonely." She says into my shirt.

"Either way, as a last day in New York gift I am all yours for the rest of the day."

She looks up at me.

"From today until tomorrow we are spending every second together. Late night shopping, late night restaurants, late night bathing"

"Someone help me! This guy's a pervert! I'm only in high school! Please help me." She calls out.

I put my hand over her mouth. "Shut up before I end up spending my last nigh here in prison."

"That was payback for ditching me." Her lips move into a warm smile and she grabs my hand. "Now, how about some shopping. You will be my pack mule of course and we are not going to stop until I drop from exhaustion. In which case you will be carrying me home. Watch out for the cops. Then tomorrow it's back home. I am going to love this."

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "And so ends our vacation to New York. I got a ton of new clothes and we got to see so many beautiful things."

Alex: "Yeah. And did I thank you for the X ray vision?"

Charlotte: "I didn't mean your pervert quest."

Johnny: "When does this storyline happen anyway? The next chapter has me and Charlotte getting to know each other. And what's a Picture Diary chapter?"

Alex: "I can explain. There is no set time for this chapter to happen. It's like an OVA where a character has a power they have after a certain development but he flash backs to that development during the OVA episode."

Johnny: "Can't we just say it's an alternate reality?"

Alex: "No. This is a fan fiction written by an otaku. We are using otaku terms and styles. Why do you think everything second thing out of my mouth is a sex joke?"

Charlotte: "Is Picture Diary an anime term?"

Alex: "That's just something HumanX came up with on the spot so he wouldn't have to look up what this kind of story is called."

HumanX: "I'm so sorry. I just got into Love Hina manga and got super lazy for a while."

Alex: "You're always lazy. go back to sleep. Anyway, the next chapter is still the same one done in the preview before. I get a villain that is obsessed with me. I hope it's a chick."

Charlotte: "Ha!"

Alex: "What?"

Charlotte: "No girl would go near you if she just went through a bad breakup and you where covered in chocolate ice cream."

Alex: "For one thing, I've been in that situation and it ended very well, thank you."

Charlotte: "That is disgusting."

Alex: "Well, enjoy the next chapter when it comes out. I totally get to show off my brain skills…If HumanX can pretend to be smart enough to make a reasonable challenge."

HumanX: "I'm working on it. I hope everyone enjoys the next chapter."

Ch03

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests(Yeah Mutilation!), potty mouths 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 h(e only tweaked them for this story).

Let's get to the story already.

It's a common anime scenario. The hero of the story is sleeping peacefully and slowly wakes up from his slumber to see a beautiful girl standing by his bed, about to wake him up. I've seen it a lot of times on TV but waking up to it is a different story. Especially when the girl is a blonde underage rich brat who really shouldn't know where I live since I didn't tell her my secret identity.

"Holy Christmas!" I hit my head off of the wall when I see Charlotte standing over me.

"You don't have to be so rude." She sighs. "A little hottie like me comes to pay you a visit in this dirty little apartment and all you can do is scream like a little girl. Looks like I have a lot of work to do."

"What are you doing here…Lady I do not know?"

"Give it up." She tells me with her confident smile. "I know you're Red X, mr.Arkham. And I've known it for a while. What really gave it away was that thing you said about "knowing insane" last night. It's not hard to figure out how many geniuses took psychiatry around the time Red X started to appear in town. Then there was the fact that you fall off the grid before that. Being rich I can donate quite a bit of money in exchange for information. Anyway, get up. I made you breakfast."

I've learnt how to stay aware in my sleep but last night I was poisoned by the blade on that Ghoul guys scythe and ended up more tired then usual. What happened to all of my booby traps? I learn the answer to that when I walk into my living room/kitchen and see the pile of wires and darts on the floor.

"The darts where a nice touch." Charlotte tells me when I sit down to eat and she drops a plate of what I'm sure was supposed to be eggs and waffles. There might have been bacon in it too. "Silent and tipped with a sleeping agent designed to keep a target down for about thirty four hours. I knew you where a pro."

"What is this?" I ask her as I try to get some of the charcoal onto my fork.

"That is breakfast a la Charlotte. Bon appetite."

"I can't eat this." I tell her as I stare at the concoction. I swear she burnt the orange juice. How do you do that? "I'll die."

"Look. A cute high school girl cooked you breakfast. Feel gratitude."

"I'm going to feel sick. Maybe if you show me the cute high school girl who made it"

"Me of course, you jacka$$!"

"I thought you said cute."

"I've spent the last two years looking for you and I spent all of last night hunting you down and learning to cook those eggs. Eat or die."

A few moments later I am spread out on my couch with a terrible ache in my stomach. "I'm dying!"

"Anyone would be dying with happiness after trying food cooked by my beautiful hands."

"Actually, I think it's the indigestion."

"Food wasn't why I came over here anyway. I wanted to bring you to see what I've got for Red X."

"And why should I honour our agreement?"

"I tried to be nice." She sighs and walks over to my window, opening it and turning back to me. "I guess I have to tell the world that you're Red X. And you can't kill me here since you don't know if I've told anyone or recorded it somewhere. Maybe I have a letter written somewhere that says something like "I learnt that Alex Arkham was Red X and he threatened to kill me if I didn't entertain his sick fanatics. I'm afraid for my life but he says he'll kill me if I don't do what he says"."

"Where are we going?" I pull my aching body off of the couch.

"To our secret lair."

Dadadadadadada! Meanwhile in the "secret lair". Charlotte took me to this apartment overlooking the city.

"My daddy built this place before he passed away. He said it was a testament to man reaching for the sky against impossible odds, or something like that. This whole building is part of my inheritance. I've had it modified with state of the art security equipment which is fully automated but I can give you the run down. You can see the whole city from the window and we're right by the train station. Since the building is located near the middle of the city it is a great place for a watch tower." She brings me over to a wall. "But even though it looks like an expensive luxury hotel room. It has tones of hidden rooms and stuff in the walls." She presses her hand against the wall and it drops down to reveal a secret room full of weapons. "Now, I heard you liked to use shuriken, like Batman's boomerangs so I had a lot of those made up with different abilities. This one over here explodes and this one is a gas bomb. When you hit the switch this one is set to become electrified after ten seconds. These grappling hooks are set with a special surface structure that uses electrical charge to stick to any surface. We've been working on a way to make you invisible too but that will have to wait a while."

"How are you keeping this hidden?" I ask her.

"My parents where big supporters of Wayne Enterprises and believe it or not, a lot of the parts needed for the equipment where ordered at a time from that company. We just asked the providers to double their shipments of what we needed and send it to us. My parents did some weapons testing for safe arms. They had this goo that would go from a solid to an adhesive and was supposed to trap an enemy but they could never get it to work. My dad said that if we made bullets out of it then we could eliminate the need for police to use lethal weaponry. Because of that he would also buy a lot of weapons like tanks and guns so he could one up them and make his non lethal stuff more efficient than them."

"He sounds like he was a good person. I'm sorry for your loos."

"He and my mom died about two years ago, so I'm over it. Right now I need to focus on my first and only issue. You need to try some of this stuff on and get fitted for a new suit."

"I like my suit."

"I'm sure you do. But if you're working with me you do it in style. And no hood. It's too easy to grab."

"But I look like death."

"You look like a tacky biker fetish villain."

"A tacky biker fetish villain with kick a$$ style."

"But what you need is body armour. I have a light weight armour that will not add weight or bulk to you but it can stop bullets flat from at least three feet away."

"So two feet is the limit for letting them get close? Wheres the fun in that?"

"If you're not going to take some precautions then there's no point in going out and kicking a$$ in the first place. The toys you use and the suit you wear in part of the fun."

"Look." I sigh and get to the point I've been wanting to get to for a while. "Why the hell do you even care? Why are you doing all of this? A seventeen year old girl has no reason to help me out with my life or death games. Especially not one who has all of this to live for."

"Maybe I'm just bored. With all this money I can do just about anything I want so it's hard to find something challenging."

"Bulls#!+. There's something else. I wont dig into your past but if you're just using me for some revenge against the scum of the Earth plan you've been thinking up because of some scar in your past then count me out. Go ahead and tell the world Alex Arkham is Red X. I can find another secret identity and another name." I pick up one of the special shuriken and spin it in between my fingers. "You seem perfectly healthy and your life looks like somebody's fairy tail. What's your angle in this?"

She swallows before turning to me and looking at me in the eyes. "I agree with you." She says.

"What?"

"I agree with you. You have your own rules and live by them. You protect people who need it and punish those who deserve it because you think it's fun and you're not hurting people who are innocent. It's the perfect outlet and the perfect thrill." She walks up and touches the zipper of my jacket. "Thrill me. Let's see what you can do to stop my boredom."

I sigh and take her hand off of my jacket, surprising her. "Liar." I walk further into her hall of weapons. "If you don't want to tell me then don't. Just don't pretend to be some slutty teenager looking for a free bone jumping from some dangerous guy."

She smiles up at me with a far more genuine smile than she's shown me before. It's actually kind of cute.

"Alright, Arkham. Then from the girl who isn't pretending, I want you to try a new suit design. I've based it on some of the Batman and Robin suits at first but then I thought I could use Nightwing and that sort of took over. You're using this design but with some modifications to look like your old one. But no hood."

"Can I keep the cape?"

"You can keep the cape."

"Score."

The whole conversation with Charlotte took a bit out of me. It must've been that food she gave me. Either way I'm hungry. It took me a long time to find a store in Oscura that serves ramen noodles but now I will finally get the chance to try it out. It's this tiny little place on the way to my work.

I order and wait for my bowl of steamy deliciousness. Three long months of searching will now be culminated in this one single act of glutinous awesome. The bowl is set down in front of me and I clap my hands together.

"Itadakemasu." I reach out for the bowl but out of nowhere comes the hands of a person ready for death. My eyes dodge over to the insolent fools face. "Who the fu-You are tall."

I stand face to somewhere around the mid-chest with some crazy jacked looking guy with long black hair that flies back in all direction. A drop of broth dribbles down his unshaven chin as he devours my meal before my eyes. His skin is pale, nearly white. He sets the bowl down after finishing it up and wipes his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket and leans back in the chair beside me, letting loose a belch. His emerald green eyes turn to me and he pats me on the back, hard.

"Thanks for the meal, bra."

"Your welcome." I say with a smile. "You treat me next time. Oh, and also."

I move fast. My leg comes up from under the table and comes so close to his face but a massive pressure comes down on me as his hand grips my ankle.

"What's your problem?" he asks me.

"If you'd like to apologize for eating my food I'll gladly tell you."

"Hey. It was just sittin' there. I don't let food go to waste."

"I was gonna eat it."

"Law of the jungle."

"There's another law of the jungle you should know about." I pull back for a punch and we will now skip scene to outside the restaurant.

And I go flying through the window. I get up to my feet and crack my neck. "This may not be my greatest moment."

The a$$hole walks out and cracks his knuckles. "It would be rude if we fought inside."

I let him come after me first. He rushes me and I hop over his head, spinning on the ground and knocking him off his balance. I take the chance to jump up and kick him in the stomach.

"That was dirty." He tells him.

"I know."

He grabs my leg and tosses e into the wall behind him. D@^^9 he's strong. I barely have time to move before he punches at me. I swear he bent the wall for a moment. I hop up behind him and spin kick the back of his big dumb mellon. He turn around but I don't give him the time. I punch his gut moving up to an adams apple strike and then another spin kick to the head, knocking him right down again.

"Guess I gotta play dirty too." He says as he clicks a button on his belt…wait, that can't be good.

A freaking bike comes around the corner and drives full speed straight at me. I hop over it in time.

"Dude. It's a freaking ghost bike." I say as it pulls up to the ramen jerk.

"Actually it's my bike." He says as he gets to his feet. He looks like he's about to do something but his cellphone rings out some punk rock song and he puts it to his ear. When he's done he puts it away and gets on his bike. "We gotta finish this some other time." He says before driving off.

"Don't run away! You a$$!" I call after him. "Get back here and pay for my ramen!"

The manager of the store comes running out. "What have you done!? Look at my store!"

"Oh, yeah." I pull a wallet out of my pocket. I totally jacked it off that jerk while we where fighting. I love being me. "That guy who just left is a good friend of mine. He said he'd pay for it it." I toss him the wallet and walk off without my precious ramen…This is not turning out to be a good day.

"So, you stole his wallet and gave the money in his bank card to the restaurant?" Charlotte asks me as she sucks on a popsicle.

"That's how it went." I bit the end off of mine.

"And you thought that since it's been such a bad day you'd come running to me for comfort. That's so sweet. You're like a little puppy." She teases.

"Actually, I just ended up running into you and I spent my last spendable cent on that ramen. I needed some comfort food."

"Didn't you tell me earlier that you have some big money supply?"

"Yeah, but if I hock that stuff all at once I'll get caught by the police. I really don't want to leave some big paper trail. Secret identities are hard work."

"I could lend you some cash."

"In exchange for what?"

"Originally I thought you would be living in that apartment, but you turned that down flat. My school is having a dance I wasn't planning on going to. If I show up with an older guy I'll definitely gain some popularity."

"Except that high school kids make me want to puke. I graduated when I was fifteen just to get away from them."

"I guess not. You don't seem like you'd be fun at a party anyway. So, how about moving in?"

"There is no way in hell I'll…"

Have you ever seen an apartment go up in flames? No? Neither have I. But I have seen the aftermath. My house was gone. Dead gone. and with it goes my independence from this brat.

"So, how about that apartment offer?"

It's amazing how in the same day I get woken up by little miss pubescent and attacked by some psycho punk rocker at my favourite restaurant some jacka$$ with a thing for setting peoples homes on fire decides to set his sights on my apartment. Luckily I keep all of my more secret items locked away in a very secure little safe. My suit and a lot of my cash is absolutely safe. The issue in front of me now is…

"So, where do I sleep?" I ask Charlotte, who has this big grin on as she helps me move what few possessions I have into the new apartment.

"You can have any room you want except the one to the left, closes to the window. That one's mine."

This girl has something wrong in her head. "You're sleeping here?"

"Don't get the wrong idea." She tells me. "It's just incase I end up working a few late nights. This is close to my school and it would be easier to help you out if I had constant access to you. I'm not expecting anything physical."

"And you think with an arrangement like this that would still be your choice? Nice logic easy target."

"Oh, where you thinking of doing something to me? The locks in this house are all state of the art and you have no clearance access to my room. So you can keep your fantasies in your own pants."

"My fantasies tend to involve girls with much better bodies than yours. especially in the chest."

"I'll have you know I'm an E cup."

"I'll have you know, I don't care."

"You should be a little nicer to the woman who's putting you up. Oh, yeah. Your new suit is finished."

"Let's see it."

I have to admit that the pubescent pipsqueak knows her stuff. I can barely feel the costume on me. There is almost no extra weight added onto it. The new helmet design for my head is awesome. The skull isn't a halloween mask anymore but a design crafter right into the helmet and she even had the X on my chest engraved into the armour. I can make it glow too. I can't wait to take it apart and rewire it. The cape is made of an almost unbreakable fabric steel fusion which can withstand bullets. The night vision and inferred make running across the city's rooftops a lot like a video game. There's only one thing I'm not happy about.

"How's it handling?" That thing would be the intercom inside the helmet. I really don't like having that chick in my head.

I do a flip off of a beam for a building half way through construction. "I don't really need some of the systems in the helmet. The positioning systems is kind of unneeded since I don't have bad aim. and why is it telling me my temperature?"

"How about a little gratitude? Hey. I've got someone fallowing you on the scanner."

"I noticed them several buildings ago. Two of them from the shadows and a third one coming in faster, from the sky."

"How did you notice them first? I had your suit made to let off an ultrasonic wave that could be read through the computer back here like sonar."

"You made it so I could see like a bat."

"Yeah."

"Too bad. I can already see better than a bat." I jump over the alleyway between the next two buildings and toss a few shuriken back as a little present. They land near their targets but the two I aimed at notice that the shuriken are not normal and jump away before the explosion. By the time they come after me I've already made it down to the bottom of the alleyway and started running through the hobo infested streets. Too many stinking bums in this city.

I don't know where the third one went but I'm getting too much attention on the ground so I make use of those electro-whazits on the souls of my feet and run up the side of the building.

"Do you think these people fallowing you are from the Depraved?" Charlotte asks me.

"Dunno. But if they are assassins they suck a$$. Maybe I should give them a break and hold up a flag to let them know where I am." Just as I say it the wall under my feet begins to give way. I notice the sudden change and jump off before anything happens.

Debris flies everywhere as a massive tricked out motorbike breaks through the wall. The gas guzzling monstrosity roars its engine as its rider twists the handle.

"Well, well." The rider looks down at me with piercing green eyes and a wide smirk. "I was just looking for you."

He pulls a gun and fires at me but I dodge out of the way with a series of dynamic flips and summersaults. I have to use the special cape to block the next one and swat away the bullets in one swipe. Next I pull out my twin pistols and fire on the enemy. He turns his bike up and it acts as a shield. The bike turns the exhaust pipes towards me and fire comes streaming out of it. I retaliate by shielding with my cape then tossing some shuriken out from under it. The shuriken explode into a cold mist which freezes over the exhaust pipes.

"Nice one grease rag." I make smug remarks at the guy I just now recognized. "You should always remember to winterize your vehicles."

He gets to his feet in time to block a kick with his arm. He grabs me by the chest and tosses me over his shoulder, grabbing his gun and firing at me, but I grapple the closest building and swing off before he can get me.

"Who the hell was that?" Charlotte asks me.

"I dunno. Some food thief." I tell her. "I ran into him a little earlier today, before my house burned down. Real strong. Could be a Xenotope user but I doubt it. He shows no signs of deterioration and aside from a little problem with manors he doesn't show any mental signs either."

"Is he a metahuman?"

"Could be. Maybe an alien. I remember someone who looked a little like him fighting Superman at one point."

I look back and see that biker boy is fallowing me on his stupid flying cycle.

"Sometimes you just can't get rid of a bad date." I swing in between two buildings which he blows through with his hog. "Now, that's just inconsiderate. Do these people come by your place of business and fly through it on their flying motorcycles?"

I notice that the headlights on the motorcycle have moves out of place and two rockets replace them.

"That is not fair…" I flip up before the missiles fire and start running like a mother F^(*er across the rooftops. "Some days you just can't get rid of a heat seeking missile…Heat seeking. Duh."

I hit the dirt and lower my breathing to almost non existent and have Charlotte cause the suit to power down everything. Then I toss an exploding shuriken back at my unwanted guest which attracts the heat seekers and makes them explode around him.

"If you can't stand the heat" I point up at the explosion. "Something something I'll kick your a$$ with missiles."

"Nice one!" Charlotte chimes in my ear. "That was awesome!"

"He's not dead yet." I tell her as I watch the smoke clear. A loud laugh rings over the rooftops as my enemies silhouette gains form and he decent from the smoke.

"Aw, man that was awesome." He laughs as he gets off his bike. "Looks like my baby's out of business too." He pats the bike and smiles over to me. "You are one crazy son of a b!+(#. If that didn't work you'd be blow half way to Star City. That was like, Sousuke Sagara bada$$. I'd like to see what you could do in an Arm Slave."

"Twas nothing. Merely genius." This guy may not be so bad.

"Too bad I havfta kill ya." He takes out his gun and points it point black at my head.

"Guess so." I sigh and out my hands in the pockets of my suit. I love that my suit has pockets in the pants. "So, what are they paying ya to take me out?"

"About thirty mil." He gives me a peace sign as he thinks about the cashola he'll be rolling in. "Pretty sweet deal for taking out a cape no ones heard of. But now it seems I've been ripped off."

"Yeah. Too bad about that. If you let me go you might have some time to renegotiate your money issue."

"Nice try skull man but I aint as dumb as I look."

"Can't blame a guy for trying." I toss my body backwards and drop off of the building before he can fire. That was close. From that range he would've gotten me.

"Huh." I look up and see that crazy b@&+@%d falling down the side of the building after me.

"You got a plan to survive this?" I ask him.

"Not really." He calls down. "Just figured I'd do whatever you do."

"Got a grapple?"

"No."

I use my grapple to swing out of the fall. He punches his fist through the wall and almost dislocates his shoulder. He whistles and his bike flies down to get him.

"You done charging?" He asks it as he hops on.

"You have got to be kidding." I feel a sudden bad feeling when I reach the end of my swing and let go just in time to avoid being cut in half by a massive bladed finger. I begin to fall but sense another danger and avoid a second pair of claws. Avoiding these two assassins keeps me distracted long enough for stupidly overpowered bike man to ram into me. He takes us through the wall and into the building.

He gets off his totalled bike. "Maria." He rubs its seat and takes his gun out. "I will totally have you back to normal once I finish this job."

"That was so not my fault." I say as I back up from him.

"Yeah. But without my check I'm pretty much broke and you are my only meal ticket. Some douche bag stole my wallet."

"S#!+. I'm an idiot" I'm out of bullets in these worthless new guns. I'm down to ninja equipment.

I knock the gun out of his hand with a shuriken and use the time it gives me to leap at him but he swats me aside and goes for his gun again. I explode the ground bellow us with an exploding shuriken and we fall away from his weapon.

We fight through a few floors. Sometimes I get thrown through a wall and others he gets a bomb to the belly. Either way we fall far from where we used to be. We're both enjoying this throughly.

"You should really get out of there." Charlotte tells me.

"Shut up." I snap back.

"If you don't leave he could kill you. You're wearing obscene amount of my company's technology and if that ends up in his hands."

"You'll regret every decision you've made these past years. If you want to work with me it's on my terms. And I'm having fun, so stay out of it." I jump up and get back to fighting while I can hear Charlotte punching the wall through the speaker in my helmet. I toss a few more exploding shuriken his way but the guy just keeps on coming at me. He an't get a hold of me though, since I'm so much more acrobatic than him. The issue comes when I suddenly realize where we are after a stray exploding shuriken hits a barrel and the result blasts me into the wall.

We just had to be fighting inside of some dumb chemical filled warehouse. A least if I'm lucky this guy will breath in something toxic. My head is pounding and my vision is blurred. The stupid visuals in the helmet are blinking on and off. Figures that the only thing still working is the d@^^9 intercom. Charlotte should really learn when to shut up. The enemy comes up and picks me up by where the cape meets my neck and slams me into the wall behind me. I activate a new toy and my suit becomes electrified, making him let go and giving me a clear shot for a kick to the face. I guess I can't afford to use anymore bombs. Luckily my visuals are coming back online, just in time to see the enemy running at me with a crowbar. He smacks me so hard my helmet comes flying off my head.

"No way." He smiles a wide, toothy grin. "The ninja boy from the restaurant? You gotta be kidding. I knew there was something messed up about you."

"Guess you know my secret." I smirk. "I can't let you live anymore."

"Guess not." He runs at me with the crowbar and I duck under his first swing and dodge to the left as he brings his next attack down from above. I backflip away from him and get my helmet back. I slip the health hazard back on my head and thank crapping goodness that the visuals are still online. Since I can't risk anymore explosions I have to try close range weapons. The X's on the tops of my hands extend into blades and begin rotating like buzz saws.

This bugger is just as fast as he is strong. He may only be human but hell is her resilient. I cut his crowbar in half with my saws and go for the throat but he leans back in time and grabs me by the leg when I try to go over his head. He swings me into the wall. Lucky for me I have this armour. He tosses me to the ground and is about to try to finish me.

"Bye bye." I wave as I press a button on my wrist. The little rocket pack I planted on his back starts up and flies him backwards, out the hole in the roof.

I was able to use the rocket pack to escape to the rooftops again but am met with two asian dudes in red wetsuits. Both of them have these ridiculously large blades extending like claws from their fingers.

"The Kabuki Twins." I sigh. "The Depraved is really underestimating me if they sent low level assassins like you after me."

"We will see."

"Once we have your head."

Oh, great. They finish each others sentences. That wont get old.

The two of them rush me with a flurry of swipes and slashes. I avoid each attack with fluid movement.

"You almost had me that time. Oh, so close. Who trained you? You couldn't hit the broad side of your moms a$$." I taunt them as they try to hit me.

"This man is"

"Infuriating."

"But at least"

"We have backup."

Don't tell me. Suddenly biker maniac jumps up from the side of the building and comes running at me. I dodge between the strike of my three assailants. I'm backed int a corner but I avoid the blades of one of the Kabuki's and kick him away, defending myself from the big guy by spin kicking his face, but I miss the second Kabuki and he gets a lucky strike on my back. I fall to the ground but the Kabuki stops on my helmet.

"Let's tie"

"him up."

The two Kabuki's use chains provided by the big guy to fasten me up and kick me against the entrance of the rooftop.

"Now you will feel incredible pain"

"As we carve your body into a million pieces."

"You know I love it when you talk dirty." I tell them. "The chains are a good touch. Kinky." That one gets me a kick to the helmet, putting my head through the wooden door behind me.

"Enough of this foolishness."

"Now we kill you."

"Can'tcha at least tell me who sent you?" I ask them. "What's your bosses name?"

"Why should we tell"

"A dead man?"

"Come on. Just tell me. I just want to know the name of the guy who hired you to kill me."

"Crispin Curser was the one"

"Who hired us to kill you." They raise their claws.

"One more question." I tell them. "Then I promise to let this play out. How much do you make again?"

"Our pay"

"Is none of your business."

"Not you." I tell them as I gesture towards tall dark and punk rocky. "I mean this guy."

"Thirty million."

"Thirty million dollars. And how much of that will go to fixing your bike?"

"Well, you froze my exhaust, causing internal damage around a couple thousand then there's the missiles and bullets along with fuel and some other damages. The whole thing practically went to hell so around twenty eight million."

"That would leave you with only two million as a profit. That's not much for taking out a cape. I may not be Superman but a nice a$$ like mine isn't cheap."

"What does this" The Kabuki's start but this guy raises his hand to stop them.

"Go on." He tells me.

"Actually, since my skills alone put me on as an extreme danger I'd say that your base pay should've at least been three times as much as what you where given. That's only for what the Depraved seem to know about me. In the end I'm actually much higher than that. Also, your bike and bullets should've been written off as a work related expense and provided to you by the people you're working for. Sure, most assassins don't use weapons given to them by a client but you should have at least had them pay for what you used. That way you don't get screwed on those fees. Also, when did you get your money?"

"I'll get it after I kill you."

"No no no." I shake my head. "Always get the money up front in cash. Have it checked out incase of forgery and never under any circumstances believe that the person you're working for is going to pay up later. They could totally screw you and just fire on ya when you deliver. Also, are these two getting their own thirty million or are you sharing? In that case you would only get ten million and would actually be in debt after you repaired your bike."

"What is"

"the point?" The Kabuki twins ask me, irritated.

I look up at the muscle man. "Twice the pay and replacement parts for your motorcycle."

"Free ramen?" He asks me.

"Three bowls is my limit."

"Six."

"Five and I'll throw in an ice coffee."

He punches one of the Kabuki. "We got ourselves a deal."

I stand up and let the chains fall to the ground. "Pretending to be helpless is so annoying." I sigh as I do a few stretches. "I hope Charlotte doesn't mind me borrowing a couple million dollars."

One of the Kabuki attacks me but I avoid him again and again. We back up to the others and I flip up over my new comrade's back.

"Swap ya." I say as I extend the X's on the top of my hands and slash a line down the other Kabuki's back. I dodge two of his strike before slashing down once and then wait another two before slashing him again, leaving an X mark on his chest.

"Insolent." He stabs at me but I bring my blade up and cut off his hand. He screams out as crimson liquids hit the air. He swipes at me furiously with his remaining hand. I dodge it as easily as I dodged him with two hands. He lunges forwards and I step to the side, avoiding the blades, but I grab his arm and bring it down on my knee, breaking his bone. "You took my arms." He curses at me.

"Settle down man." I dodge one final strike and put my blade through his neck, decapitating him. "No need too loose your head. Ha. Decapitation pun."

My hired help is fending off his attacker pretty easy. He's already broken his enemies left arm and right leg with his chain.

"You shouldn't leave him hanging." I tell him.

"Don't tell me how to do my job." He tells me as he kicks his enemy off of the roof. The chain around the Kabuki's neck tightens and then crushes his wind pipe. We've won.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Charlotte yells at me. It's the day after the Kabuki incident. The apartment's a little messy and I have a house guest laying on the couch in his underwear. "I am not having that thing in my apartment!"

"Well, I kind of offered him six million in cash and new parts for his bike if he'd help me."

"And ramen." He points out.

"I don't care! I am not letting him live here! He stinks! He scratches himself in inappropriate places and he's walking around in his underwear!"

"I think I broke your DVD player." He tells her.

"We don't have a DVD player in here."

"Well, I broke something."

"Please kill him." Charlotte looks up at me.

"I was actually thinking I could keep him. Like a pet."

"I'm up for that." He air fist pounds me.

"I would rather be thrown naked into Black gate prison."

"And I would watch." He raises his beer.

"Shut up…What's your name anyway?"

"Johnny Rancid." He tells her. "I work as a mercenary now and then but my real love is freedom."

"Whatever." Charlotte sighs. "Even if I did let him stay here, what good would he do us?"

"He could create a helmet that wont get me killed."

"How many times do I have to apologize for that?"

"Once would've been a good start."

"Whatever. He's not like us. He does what he does for the money, not for fun or the thrill of it."

"That's not true actually." Rancid calls our attention. "I just did that job before because I needed the money. The only reason I came here was because Alex told me about what you guys plan on doing and I want in. I just need a roof over my head and a few parts for my bike."

"Great. Just great." Charlotte mumbles to herself. "Now I have a hairy motor bum living in my apartment. I can deal with that." She pulls herself together. "I'll give you the money you need but we are going to have some ground rules starting with one shower every day and from now on pants are a necessity when you leave your room, which is on the opposite side of the apartment to mine!"

"Is this how she talks to you?" Rancid asks me.

"All the time. I think she has some daddy issues."

"Sounds like she just needs to get laid to me. Hey, you got those To Love Ru disks?"

"In my room."

"Bring them out here! We'll put em on the big screen!"

"Wait." Charlotte's eye twitches. "Another anime geek."

"Rancid's an ecchi fan." I explain.

"I just like the boobs." He tells her.

"What have I done?" Charlotte mutters. "Where did my life go to hell?"

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "What have you animals done to my house!?"

Alex: "Honestly, it's just an apartment. It's not like you actually live there."

Johnny: "Like I said, she just needs a good ride on the love wagon. The girl's wound up way to tight."

Charlotte: "I'm not wound up!"

Johnny: "Hey Alex, you where holding back through our fights weren't you?"

Alex: "You could tell?"

Johnny: "Yeah. You got tossed around like crazy."

Alex: "Yeah. It was all a part of my plan to get you on our side."

Charlotte: "You wanted this animal on our side?"

Alex: "If offering a better deal worked on Firefly I thought it might work here."

Charlotte: "Do you ever not have a plan?"

Alex: "I guess we'll see in the next chapter."

Charlotte: "Don't you dare! I get to announce this one! You did it last time! Anyway, the next chapter will be a daring attempt on the life of ALex Arkham by a man who truly believes in brains over brawn…What the hell does that mean?"

Alex: "Don't question the script."

Charlotte: "Fine. Alex will have his brain put to the test by a fearsome foe yadyada…Arrogance or blablabla. Am I even in this next chapter!?"

Johnny: "If it was a manga we'd start off with you in a shower scene."

Charlotte: "I am not just sex appeal you know."

Alex: "I thought I was sex appeal."

Charlotte: "I don't even know what to say to that."

Alex: "At least I don't wear animal print underwear."

Charlotte: "I don't wear that."

Alex: "Then what are these?"

Charlotte: "Give those back!"

Alex: "Johnny catch."

Johnny: "Aw, cute. The kitty says you're purrific."

Charlotte: "It doesn't say that! Give them back."

Alex: "We should probably wrap this up. The next chapter is Alex verses the master of games. We are really taking a different direction with this guy than the cartoon. See ya then."

Ch02

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests, potty mouths and sexual content (Chika bow wow) 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.

Let's get to the story already.

No matter how many times I come to this rusty old observatory on the outskirts of town I always feel a little unclean. The place is practically rusting through and rats crawl over every surface. The stench of melted steel and chemicals. The flickering lights, hooked up to a small battery, don't help.

"Prof!" I call into the flickering darkness. "Freaking old man." I walk into the shadows and under a the toppled telescope equipment. "Hey, Chang!" I find the old man hunched over a desk in one of these mould infested corners.

"Ah, Alex." He greets me without removing his eyes from his work. "I had a feeling you would be showing up at my little old doorstep. How are things?" He's a decrepit old man. Chinese, I think. I've never seen him without those glasses on his wrinkled old face. His leather like skin hangs off of aging bones. and his stupidly long beard is the only remnant of hair left on the old ghoul. Years of genius have taken a tole on him.

"My belt's low." I toss the thing over to him. "I'll need the Xenothium for the new lasers I want in the hands and some gadgets I want to start up on."

"Alex." He rubs his eyes under his glasses and turns to me. "You know I can get you anything. Any power source in the world. Why something as unstable as Xenothium?"

"I was the one who found out how to make it stable. I might as well be the one to work with it."

"But until it is stable it is still dangerous. I don't mind if you want to take unnecessary risks. I just don't want to loos my best customer."

"I'm your only customer."

"No one wants to take smuggled goods from a former Lex Corp employee." He takes my belt and takes out the Xenothium core. "You know, if I didn't owe you my life for rescuing me from that bald maniac I would sell your method of purifying Xenothium to some rich jerk like Luthor or Wayne. I only wish it was before the lobotomy."

"But then, if you stole from me I'd kill your a$$."

"And that is why I like you so much." He passes me the belt. "I can't wait to see your new toys. Promise me you'll let me take a peek at them the next time you have a power outage."

"Deal." I shake his hand and take off into the night.

A long way away from the abandoned observatory, in an unknown mansion in a secret location, a collaboration of sinister minds discuss the latest topic of crisis.

"Red X." One of the seven people gathered around the overly dressed table sips from a glass of red wine he rocks back and forth in his left hand. "Does anyone know who he is?"

"There have been several sightings throughout the past few months, but we believe that he may have been operating under a different alias before his recent endeavours."

"Does it matter?" One of them folds his hands under his chin. "Why don't we just kill the b@$+@&d and be done with it?"

"He's not your ordinary cop."

"If he is a cop at all."

"Great. Now our town if full of flipping Batman copycats."

"He's obviously been trained. I'd say military."

"No military brat is that unpredictable. He has to be in the League of Assassins."

"Why would one of them be here?"

"Who gives a s#!+? We have assassins too."

"This shouldn't be our problem. Curser. He's in your territory. You deal with him. We will help you if you need it."

"I don't think I will." A man with dark, long hair and foggy blackened eyes gets up out of his chair. "He's just one guy. If he's anything special Baldanchia will give me strength."

So there I was, hanging outside the window of this college sorority change room. I mean…Helping an old lady out of a tree…d@^^% it, I meant cat. Anyway, I heard this awful noise. It was apparently a flash bomb. Before the light hits my face I shield myself with my cape and close my eyes, keeping my ears open for the son of a b!+@# who a$$ I'm going to kick all the way to Star City. I feel the presence of something big coming my way and I swear I see a clown in a pink leotard flying towards me. I leapfrog my way over him and toss back a shuriken which bounces off of his flabby body. I go in for another hit with something a little more spicy but I have to flip back to get away from a blade coming down on my head.

"S#!+ on a cracker. What the hell was that?" This scrawny looking guy dressed up like a scarecrow with a ripped pumpkin shirt and this big a$$ scythe looks down at me like he's a zombie out for my sweet sweet grey matter.

"Red X, right?" The skinny guy asks me. "My name's Ghoul. We're assassins from Crispin Curser." He raises his scythe to attack but I dodge to the side before he can get to me. D@^^% the bugger's fast.

"That is just adorable." I tell him as I flip over his attacking friend. "You think you're people. That is so cute."

I just manage to get away before this furry thing grabs at me.

"That's Animal." Ghoul tells me. "And these two are the DeeDee twins." I suddenly feel legs around my neck as I am flung backwards.

The two twins look like gogo dancers at some cheap tata bar. Honestly, I dig the whole twin thing but d@^^% these girls got some skill to sneak up on me.

"Looks like he's scared DeeDee." One of the twins smirks at me while the other puts a finger to her lip.

"Maybe we should play a little nicer DeeDee."

"That alright ladies." I give them the thumbs up. "I like a girl who plays rough."

"Then you'll love us." One of them jumps up over the others shoulders and comes in for a kick but I block it and wrap her head up in my cape.

"Hey!" She squirms but I've pretty much got her.

"This is all the Depraved can handle?" I ask grabbing her by the bulge in her shirt. "I mean, look at this. This can't even fill an a cup."

"I'm a C, you b@$+@&d!" She kicks up at me and I let her go, only to be flung into Ghoul as he tries to attack me from behind.

"I don't think so. I could barely tell if you where out of elementary school with that surfboard." The other DeeDee is coming up from the right but I grab her by the arm and fling her into fat boy, who keeps running at me. I flip him over my shoulder and have him land on Animal. "Look. I'm a growing neutral chaotic vigilante. I need my villains sweater puppies or it will stunt my growth. Think of the fan service."

I flip over a slash from Ghoul's scythe and toss a flash bomb which goes off in his face. "I guess the mosquito bite thing does go over well with some audiences, and big bizangas do only go over with a certain level of fan bases. Maybe you could tray being a maid or waitress in your spare time."

"This guy is really getting on my nerves DeeDee." One of the twins gets up.

"Lets rip his balls off DeeDee." They pulls a gun from their pockets and start to fire.

I dance between the bullets making more and more crude and unsavoury comments. If there's one thing I'm good at it's groping women who want to kill me, or will want to kill me because I groped them. What was I taking about? Oh yes.

Eventually one of them decides to toss a grenade at me for some bloody reason and I get seared by the d@^^% explosion. A piece of shrapnel gets my leg and I have to use my grapple to escape. I hide in a bush, my chest moving up and down with each breath. This is just the thrill I've been waiting for. I pull out my gun and get ready incase one of those Ghouls come after me. I'm guessing that hyena guy overdosed on that Xenothium drug these Depraved idiots have flowing through the city like blood veins. The Ghoul guy is too fast to not be on it. They must all be loaded on that crap.

It doesn't take long for the stupid Hyena to catch up to me. He comes in from the other side and triggers the mine I planted a second ago. At least their hound is in as bad shape as I am. I take the opportunity to ditch over the gate wall.

In one movement I leap over the gate. Looking down I notice that blonde from the bus, looking up at me. The hell is she doing here? I fire my grapple in time to avoid knocking her over and hop into the next yard. She was watching me the whole time.

Ghoul climbs over the fence and sees the blonde too. "Well well." He grins maliciously.

It's too quiet. They must've figured out some sort of plan.

"Hey X!" I hear Ghoul call out to me from on top of the school building through a megaphone. I look out from my hiding bush and see that he has the girl by the arm. "Come on out or I'll be forced to do something crazy!" He taunts me.

"LIke I care." I call out. "I don't know her. Go ahead and push her off the edge if you want."

The Ghoul grins as he holds out his scythe. "How said anything about tossing her down?" In one swift slash he cuts a line straight down the front of her shirt. "You're call Red X. Come out here and face us or the little princess here gets to be our animals new toy." I can practically hear the hyena boy slobber. The DeeDee twins are waiting for me to show so they can snipe me from the nearby buildings. Animal is keeping his eyes out for me on the ground. So's the fat clown. b@$+@&ds got me cornered. "I know you've got a thing for pretty girls in these dirty situations. Out of all the people you've left beaten and bruised you always go that little extra mile on the ones who committed sex crimes." Ghoul laughs at me from his well guarded stage. "You act like you don't give a f^&* but when it comes down to it you're a bleeding heart pussy, just like any other hero."

"He flips out on any perv he finds but he was hands with me." One of the DeeDee's mutters from her hiding place.

One of my shuriken flies by Ghoul's face, scratching the loose grey flesh. He lets go of the girl for a moment, giving her the time she needed to kick him in the stomach and knock him off the roof. I use that distraction to toss a few knockout gas bombs out into the streets to throw off fat boy. The ones on the ground are taken care of but now for the DeeDee's.

DeeDee number one is easy since she left her hiding place and all I had to do was set a trap before I threw that shuriken before and now she's stuck in a fibber/steel net.

The second one starts freaking out that all her comrades are downed and starts shooting like a freaking berserker. That makes it too easy for my awesomeness to find her and toss a special shuriken up at her little perch. She notices a little too late that the shuriken has a nozzle of sleeping gas attacked to it and ends up fast asleep.

I think it's all over but I overlooked a minute detail.

I'm about to take off but the girl calls over to me from the roof. "Hey. Thanks for saving me again. I have something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Not that I'm not into talking to half naked girls but these guys should be up in about half an hour and you look like a talker so" I try to shake her off but the shadow behind starts to take familiar shape as it reaches out for her.

I don't have much time to move. One shuriken flies from under my cape and cuts Ghouls hand. That gives me enough time to grapple my way to the roof in time to get between him and the girl before he can swing his scythe down on her. I catch it between my palms. "I am starting to like that persistence." I compliment him as he tries to bring the blade down on my head.

"Thank you." Ghoul inches the blade closer to me.

The girl circles around me and kicks Ghoul in the face, making him let go of the scythe. He goes to get up but she's already on him with a drop kick. He rules over in time to avoid her and comes in to punch her in the face but she flips backwards, onto her hand and pushes up, kicking him in the face with both feet and getting back up all at the same time. The whole stunt made her let go of her shirt and the handstand gives me a nice view but this is not the time for underaged knockers. Ghoul reaches in his jacket for his gun, he probably should've been using the whole time, and aims it at the girl.

"You're not gonna shoot me." She tells him.

"Why not?" He asks her, the gun ready to fire.

"What do you think?" She asks me with a confident smile on her lips. "Stage three? I thought maybe four."

I know what she's getting at. "No. The animal guy was sage three. This guy is about two. I'd say three seconds, considering."

"Three seconds to what?" Ghoul asks us.

"You use Xenotope to get that enhanced strength, speed and reflexes you have, right?" Blondie sighs, tying her ripped shirt up in a knot so she wont flash anybody. "You look like you're in the second stage of mutation. That must mean that your body has already started to become dependant on the stuff."

"We've been fighting for a little over two hours." I tell him.

"And the time it takes until someone with a deterioration like yours is about five hours." Blondie starts getting to the point. "How long where you waiting for Red X to show up?"

"No!" Ghoul suddenly realizes he can't move his arm. "Not now! I still have three hours!"

"It seems like you're the kind of person who has very little to eat away at." She paces around him, mockingly. "Your body is breaking down much faster than normal."

"The animal guy is already dead and the fat guy dropped a few seconds ago." I point down at the bodies. "Looks like you guys where big time junkies whose bodies just couldn't take the transformation. Just the luck of the draw. That's why I was going so easy on you. I even gave you that injured leg as a handicap. But now our game of manhunt has ended and you haven't killed me. Too bad jerk wad."

"I'd say you have about four minutes before your body rots to a gross stain on the ground. It'll hurt a lot." Blondie rubs it in.

"No. Please." Ghoul begins to cry. "I can't die like this. My mom. Oh s#!+. Oh s#!+! No!" He starts to get his situation.

I walk up to him and pull out my gun. I aim it at his forehead. "It wont hurt." I tell him. He looks up at me, tears streaming from his withered face. His eyes look so young and full of life. But the life is hidden by a smoky tinge, left by the years of Xenotope. His insides have already frozen solid. It must be agony to move. But he still manages to say two words.

"Thank you."

In a squeeze of a trigger and a flash of light he was dead. All that remained was a motionless statue with a hole in its head. "Idiot." I sigh and put my gun away. "That's what you get for messing with unstable stuff like Xenothium."

"Your belt is made of Xenothium, right? The power core, I mean." The blonde girl asks me.

"What's it to you?"

"It looks like it was made well despite the rest of your suit."

"What's wrong with my suit?" I growl, genuinely insulted. "I happen to have put a lot of thought into my identity."

"Well," She pauses. "I'm just saying you could've gone a little classier. You kind of look like a 90's cartoon villain."

"That's what I was going for! And I got the hood and skull to look like the grim reaper!"

"Isn't that a little tacky?"

"There's tacky and there's class. I happen to have class. Besides, I'm not taking fashion advice from a half naked chick."

"It's you fault my clothes got messed up. If you where half the hero you seem to think you are that guy wouldn't have gotten close enough to me to ruin my new outfit. Which you're paying me back for, by the way. It was a set for $4000 dollars since I had it custom made in France. He broke my broach too and that was a $50000 dollar piece I had brought in from space. It had real Kryptonite in it. That stuff got expensive after villains started using it against Superman. It gets even more expensive when you have it purified of radiation. When you add that to the cost of my shoes which where broken when you knocked me down to get to that guy your total is $58000."

"Oh, sure. Here's my invisible chequebook." I tell her before taking out my grapple and firing at a tall building. I get ready to swing off but she stops me again.

"Wait. That wasn't really why I wanted to talk to you." She tells me. "The thing is that I've been searching for you for a long time. I've really wanted to meet you in person. The thing is that I'm sort of a fan."

Great, now I have a rich groupie who wants money from me. Who the hell wears expensive clothes like that anyway? I should strip her naked just to teach her a lesson. Yeah, that's what that urge is.

"Listen babe. I'm not a superhero. I don't just go around saving peoples lives or anything. If you want to go all gushy over someone then I'm sure you can afford a ticket to Metropolis. If you're working on some angle then just leave me alone. I'm just messing with the pweebs in this town who like to cause trouble. I'm really just as bad as any other criminal."

"I know." She tells me. "I told you that I've been searching for you. The Depraved are devoted to chaos and most of the freaks in this town aren't as subtle as you are. If something goes missing, like that Xenothium droplet a while ago from that one vault, then I know it was you. I know about how you carved those X's into the chests of those guys who committed sexual crimes. You're a thief and a murderer who protects innocent people like those girls who where being targeted by that one guy online and kidnapped. You punish the wicked and protect the innocent but you have your own ideas about what is good and what isn't. But when you steal the things you take don't always make sense. That's because you do it for the thrill, instead of the prize. Am I right?"

"Yeah. I'm a thrill seeker. I just love stealing things because it's fun. And I love carving up dung f^&*ers like that piece of s#!+ you where talking about because it gives me a sense of satisfaction." I tell her as I wait to leave. "I know what insane is and you're looking at it. I'm a sociopath who likes cutting down perverts and yet I think anything I do is okay. I feel no remorse for killing any of the twelve pedophiles, eighteen rapists and that one guy who was talking during the Ironman movie. And why do I do it? Because it makes me feel good. My daddies job ended up messing with my head and now I'm bonkers. What does that have to do with you?"

"I want to finance you." She tells me with a serious look which is kind of funny on jailbait like her. "I think that you could really do some good, even if you don't mean to. But I want to support you in whatever way I can. Your actions don't tend to hurt innocent people and you're already in deep s#!+ with the Depraved. They wont stop sending people like this. You might want a few new toys."

"I can handle anything they throw at me. I was trained well. Besides, a thrill seeker like me loves the challenge."

"Alright then." She walks up to me and presses herself up against my chest. "Then, how about a bet. I'm a bit of a thrill seeker too." She pushes away from me and walks over to the ledge. "We're about seven stories up. That's one nasty bruise. This guy only ended up as well as he did because of his mutation from the Xenotope." She stands at the edge facing away from the long fall and holds out a hand to me. "On the count of three I'll lean back and you'll catch me. When you grab my hand you've agreed to let me finance you."

"And if I let you go splat?"

"Then I go splat. And the two years of my life have been a waste. Actually, I guess my whole life would've been a waste if I died form this. Or maybe I'll live but end up in a coma where I'm still conscious and some doctor molests me when no one's around. not that I could blame him. I am irresistibly adorable."

"Huh." I sigh. "You have fun with Doctor Hands and I'll take off as soon as you drop."

"That's all up to you isn't it?" She smiles at me as she leans backwards and begins to fall.

Her body falls backwards over the college campus as her feet come out from under her. Her golden strands of hair flow around her face and she takes on the appearance of an angel descending. She's completely calm. It's as if she was not falling to her death, but simply playing a game. A game she knew she was going to win. I think it must've been that confidence that did it. Yeah, her confidence in herself and that everything would turn out as she'd hoped. I can tell that she's someone who is used to having her own way. She's a pampered princess who takes everything she wants no matter what the cost. She's the kind of person who doesn't see failure. Only options. I will grab her hand. That's the only option open to her. Sometimes I think to myself, what would she think if I don't catch her. Will she be okay with death, or will she deny even him and return to life to try again? In this moment I think "I hate this girl". So demanding and full of herself. Maybe that's why I did it. Because I had no other choice.

My hand grasps onto hers. She looks up at me with her large blue eyes and a triumphant smile on her face. "It's a deal." I tell her. "But you have to do something for me first."

"That's fine." She tells me. "But could you pull me up? This is a lot higher than I thought it was and I think I might've peed my pants."

What have I done?

Preview Time!

Charlotte: "I can't believe you almost let me fall their! What's wrong with you!?"

Alex: "I'm a sociopath. You're lucky letting you jump off a building is all I did to you. And what was that about owing you money? Aren't you rich."

Charlotte: "I didn't get rich by letting people get away with ruining my stuff."

Alex: "Whatever. Look, HumanX forgot to do this last time but we have to do the preview of the next chapter."

Charlotte: "Great! Since I'm the cute moe character I'll announce it!"

Alex: "How are you moe?"

Charlotte: "There are lots of hot rich girl in anime who become big hits with the readers. Besides, since I'm the cute high school girl character too I give out tones of fan service, like in this chapter where I had my clothes ripped off. If this was a manga I'd have tones of creepy stalker guys like, "Charlotte-sama is so kawaiiii! OMG I love her" and stuff like that. I'm like the mascot, like Mikuru Asahina."

Alex: "Okay, you are not Mikuru. You act more like Haruhi anyway."

Charlotte: "Haruhi's hot so I don't care. As long as I get to be a fan favourite and all my ecchi moments don't go to waste I don't care what I have to do."

Alex: "Tramp."

Charlotte: "What was that?"

Alex: "I said that's the spirit."

Charlotte: "Of course you did."

Alex: "Anyway, because I'm the main character and our airhead writer decided to go all blank on us and forget to do this in the first chapter I'll be doing the preview. Next time on Red X Oscura we've got a little trouble when I get a little surprise when I come home from work. Then…Who is this hairy guy stealing my ramen!? It took me three weeks to find a shop that will sell me awesome ramen noodles and this guy rides in on his crazy revved up bike and takes it from me. I'm gonna have to kick his rancid a$$. And who the hell are the Kabuki Twins? I'm really getting tired of these guys thinking they're hot s#!+ and trying to pick a fight with me."

Charlotte: "It looks like we'll be getting to know each other more personally in the next chapter. Look forward to my next appearance!"

Alex: "Peace off!"

Ch01

This fiction will be rated FR21 just incase. We've got ripped open chests, potty mouths and sexual content (0o0) 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.

And now on with the story.

Oscura City, a crime infested filth in which only the hunters and prey can call home. There is no right or wrong on the streets of this city. Politicians are doing the dizzy with common criminals…hehehe. Sex joke. Convicted rapists go free within minutes of the judge slamming down his cute little mallet as if it means s#!+ when it's just a countdown until that guy goes back to his job as a fracking daycare supervisor. This place is the closest thing to hell one can find. Here even an act of malice, an unjustified lashing out from a mentally disturbed and often frantic lunatic can be seen as a blessing. Here there are very few who are innocent. After all we are only human. It's perfect.

I've been tracking down the local organized crime, if you can call it organized. There is a large organization trafficking Xenothium drugs called the Depraved. They have their reasons for doing what they do. Money, power, a sense of self worth, protection but they are mostly out for the same thing I am. A little excitement. That's why I do this. I'm not in it for truth or justice, but an adrenaline rush. I track down a small group of the Depraved who are jumping from rooftop to rooftop. They always overdose on Xenothium drugs. It's how they get a kick and how they do their jobs. Tonight's group seems to have all gained heightened human abilities. They backflip over alleyways and swing off of anything sticking out of the buildings. Just some overhyped teenagers on a job in a bad city.

I start off with a smoke bomb and the idiots start running like little pansies.

"Howzit goin' a$$ nuggets!?" I call out to the paranoid druggies as I tackle one of them off of the roof and into a garbage bin bellow.

"The hell is that!?" One of them calls out.

"It's Red X!" Another of them whips a gun from his pocket. "He's been taking down our guys one by one!"

"That's right moron!" I take down the one with the gun.

"Dude! Dude! If you come near me I'll jump." The last one backs up towards the edge of the roof. "I'll f^%*ing do it!"

"Go ahead." I call out to him as I walk out from the smoke so he can see me. "I don't really care if you live or die." He backs up a little too far and falls off of the roof, landing on a pile of cardboard that was stacked up in the alley. What a dumb a$$.

Anyway, my name is Alex Arkham. I'm an unstable nut bag who happens to have a thing for anime and comics. I'm also a genius, like L and Kira mixed into one. Maybe a little Near but no Mello. I do like chocolate but I'm not sure I could handle pants that tight. Anyway, this is a little before the story you probably finished reading by now. That's the one where I kicked Batman's leather touchy all over Gotham. I'm in the first of my two years of training hours before I can fully graduate in psychiatry. I'm the youngest person to graduate and get my psychiatry PHD so that's gotta look good on a resumé.

As for my suit, I thought the identity up while watching some cartoons from the 90's. I don't want to leave any large paper trails behind right now so my tech is pretty limited. Gotta keep the cops off my a$$ until I get a foothold on this secret identity thing. I mostly have a couple of guns I've spray painted black and some red shuriken but it's more than enough for common criminals and those Depraved morons. I was going for a bada$$ biker/grimm reaper look to my suit. It's pretty much just leather biker gear with a red X painted on the chest and a hooded cape. I did find a ski mask and a skull from some halloween costume. I really wanted to make a big scythe too but that's not really functional. I mean, where would I keep it. I do the whole utility belt thing too, just to be a copy cat.

Because of my scholastic history I could get a job anywhere so I decide to take one that wont miss me if I end up gone every now and then. The one I choose is called Reincrest psychiatric institute. It's one bus ride from where I live and it's pretty tame for a place like this in a town that resembles hell's armpit. That's actually where I was coming from when I met someone who would be a big player in my life.

It was a chance meeting, completely by accident. I always take the train around the same time after work and tonight is no different. I work a lot of shifts that get out at night since crime in the day is boring and it's no fun when you don't have the extra "Am I gonna loos him" feeling. How was I supposed to know at the time that the girl who had to stay at school late that day would be so useful to me later on.

She walks in through the door of the train, like any other person. I wouldn't have known she was late or that she was the single heiress to a multimillion dollar fortune. She's a seventeen year old blonde with her hair cut around shoulder length. Her hair is dyed. I can see the darker portions growing in at the root, where the colours begun to fade. If it weren't for that one wouldn't notice. That's how I know she has money, if she can waste it on the high class products it would take to get hair that naturally blonde looking. The other sign is in the clothing she's wearing. You usually wouldn't notice with the prep school uniform on but I can see an expensive pendant around her neck and a jewelled bracelet on her wrist. Both of which are out of range for a girl with a reasonable allowance.

I notice the guys across the train point in her direction and snicker to themselves. I can see a half empty bottle of beer in two of the guy hands as they begin to push each other around playfully and make gestures. I understand the signs immediately. These guys are your classic teenage scum buckets. I can see these guys in a line up for who knows what some day simply because they thought it would be cool. I know I'm only twenty right now but I already hate teenagers.

The girl seems exhausted and bumps into me. She drops her bag on the floor and the contents spill out.

"Sorry abut that." She tells me as I bend down and help her pick up the strewn books.

"No problem." I say with a smile and pass her her books. I notice something I can use. "Is that Overman?" I ask as I point to a comic with a caped superhero on the cover.

"Y-Yeah." She stutters and takes the book back from me. "I'm a comic book fan."

"Me too." No bulls#!+ting. I lucked out on this one. I don't even have to make up a lie. "Isn't that the one where he fight Dax Dillon for the first time?"

"Yeah." She's getting into it now. So easy. "It's a classic so I had to go through a ton of stores to find it."

"They came out with a collectors edition with some artist notes in it."

"You're kidding me."

"Just yesterday."

"That sucks." I notice she starts to play with her hair.

I glance over to the guys across from us and as I expected, they are watching me pretty close.

"Don't you hate how they do that?" The girl asks me. "As soon as you go out and buy something like a season box set or something they come out with the complete series."

"That's why, when it comes to DVD's, I only buy complete series. Unless they have the entire collection online. Then I just make sure I have some free cash for the rest coming in soon."

The doors open as we make it to her stop.

"My name's Charlotte, by the way." She tells me as she scribbles on a piece of paper she ripped from one of her note books. "Call me sometime." She hands me the paper and walks out the door. The guys from before fallow after her, just as planned. I get off on the other side of the sub way and disappear into the crowd.

Charlotte notices the guys fallowing her a bit too late. She's been trailed from the station to this dark residential area. Two of the guys circle around her and cut her off from the front while the other three continue fallowing her from the back. She's trapped when the two from the front come in. I'm watching from on top of one of the roofs. Charlotte backs away from the men surrounding her and ends up with her back against a wall. The men close in towards her and one of them grabs her by the arm.

"You're going to regret this." She says with a smile. The guys around her laugh as one of them reaches out for her chest. She sighs before pulling straight down on the arm around her shoulder, tossing the man into the one going for her boobs. They fall to the ground and hit hard. Charlotte spins around and kicks the nearest one to her in the face, knocking him off balance and to the concrete. The two on the ground stand back up and she still has the other two who are untouched to finish off. They pull out guns and she suddenly realizes her predicament isn't as comfortable as she would like.

"Alrighty!" I call out from the shadows. "I think this has gone on long enough."

The attackers look around for who the voice belongs too. I drop a line around one of their necks and he is yanked into the air. His friends start shooting but only hit the lamp post I attached the rope too. The group together like nervous rats.

"Awe, look at you." I taunt them as I set up my next trap. "You're all so cute, cuddled together like that."

Another line tightens around two of their feet and drag them into the darkness. All the remaining two can hear is the screams of their friends.

"I'm out of here man." One of them takes off, falling on his face in his urgency to escape. As soon as he's out of sight he screams out and is silenced.

The last one runs over the Charlotte and grabs her by the neck, placing his gun to her head.

"Come out of hiding you chicken s#!+!" He screams as he presses the weapon to her temple. Charlotte flips him over her shoulder before he can fire and knocks him out with a direct punch to the face.

I toss one of my red shuriken, as a signature. She picks it up and smiles.

"It seems like you're always watching out for me." She smiles and places the shuriken in her pocket before walking off while humming a tune that, to me, is both familiar and far away.

I look down at my belt, which is running low. "Guess I need a tune up."

Chapter 15

"No More Mutants"-Wanda Maximoff

When I woke up I wasn't dead like I thought I'd be. Lucky me. My eyes open up to one of the single cutest sights I've ever seen. Abigail's sleeping by the side of my bed in the hospital room of the mansion. this is the same bed I was in when I first came to the mansion. She looks so cute like that. I usually see her running around like mad trying to get stuff together or yelling at someone. I never see her so relaxed. I can't resist the urge to let her sleep but she's must've been worried about me this whole time so I wake her up.

"What time is it?" Abigail says, sleepily before realizing I was the one who woke her up. Her eyes burst open and she practically tackles me off of the bed when she hugs me. Her hands grip onto my shoulders tightly and she squeezes me as hard as she can. "I thought you died."

"Yeah, so did I." I look around the room. "How did I get here?"

"Andy brought you back." Abigail tells me. "He covered your wounds in snow so Bobby's powers could start healing you and then he picked you up onto his back and dragged you all the way back to us."

"No. Really." I don't believe it. He's the first person I'd have guessed would leave me for dead. I guess he is a decent guy. Abigail stands up to leave.

"Since you're up I'll go tell the others." She tells me.

"The others?"

"Everyone else has been waiting outside." She smiles back at me. "Aren't you mr.Popular."

I honestly can't believe it. At my old school I could die and nobody would know. Here I get into one little fight and everyone stays up waiting for me to get better. I'm feeling pretty lucky right now.

It's been a while since that day. No one has any idea where the clones could've gotten too. I should feel worried about it but I'm not. Training sessions with Logan have gotten more intense. I've even beaten him in a few matches. He told me that if I put more effort into training my head as well as my body I'd have known to use psychics on 60 earlier and saved everyone a heart attack. But I think what's really keeping me calm is Abigail. She's been really attentive lately. It's almost embarrassing…almost. I guess nearly loosing my life has a few perks. Almost all of my free time is spent with her. I get up enough confidence to become a full fledged X Man. Everything was just going my way. I really wish these days could've lasted. But that's when M Day happened.

90% of the mutant population lost their powers in an instant. Only Andy, Alena and I remain powered. Now the school wants to send us all home. It sucks, but I'm sure we can handle it. Everyone loads onto the busses but I'm stopped before I can get on.

"What's up?" I ask mr.McCoy who motions to the Blackbird.

"Looks like a few mutants who have kept their powers are causing problems. We could use your help."

"Understood." I spin around and plant a quick kiss on Abigail's cheek. "I'll see you later."

"You're still going to visit me." She says.

"Of course." I tell her with a smile but she grabs me by the collar.

"That wasn't a question, Skylar Medley." She pulls me in and kisses me. "You are going to visit me, or else."

"Yes mam." I salute as she gets on the buss.

The mission itself was nothing. We stopped a few attacks and with more control over my psychic powers I was able to be a real help. I had no idea. I can still see Emma's face when she calls me to her office and sits me down in the chair which feels so much bigger than normal. Andy is standing my the door, refusing to look in my direction. I have no idea. No idea that my whole world is about to come crumbling down under me.

"Have a seat." Emma tells me. "This will be hard for you."

"What's wrong?" I ask her, a sudden feeling coming over me. I must've known, somewhere in my heart, I must've understood what this was.

"Earlier today the busses taking students back home where bombed by anti mutant terrorists." Emma looks me in my widening eyes. "We tried as best we could but there where casualties."

I can feel my lungs closing in and my heart begin to beat. I can't feel anything. It's like body is made out of ice. The only thing that's still flesh is my pulsating heart. I don't want to believe this.

"Alena, Macaulay and Abigail." This is a joke, right?

"They both died. Alena tried to stop the missile and was too close. Abigail got caught in the explosion."

I sit silently, without breathing, without thinking and without feeling. I know that if I feel anything at all right now it will destroy me. I can't think. I feel empty.

"Who did it?" I ask.

"Skylar." Emma begins but she is interrupted.

"William Stryker." Andy tells me.

"Impact!" Emma yells at him as I turn away. "What are you planning on doing?"

"Does it really matter?" I ask her. "You can't stop me."

Before going after Stryker I go see our survivor in the hospital room. Cora's sitting in the waiting room with a huge scar across her face.

"Skylar!" I can tell that she knows.

"I know about the others." I tell her and she looses her grip. She throws her hands up to her face and begins to cry bitterly. I lift her hands from her face and put my fingers on her scar, healing it back to the way it was before.

"I'm going to leave soon." I tell her. "I don't think I'll come back to the X Mansion."

"You can't go." She grabs onto my hand. "You're going after the person who did this, aren't you?" I don't say a word but she knows. "You can't."

"I can do what I want." I tell her and try to walk away but she grabs my arm and with her full strength she slams me into the wall behind me. It cracks under the pressure.

"Do you think you're the only one suffering here!?" She yells at me. I've never seen her so mad. "We all lost friends but if any of us goes out and does anything about it then more people like him will show up and use that against all mutants!" Her tone becomes softer as she loosens her grip "I know how you feel. I want to get back at the people who did this. But that's not what we where taught. The professor"

"The professor is wrong!" I snap back at her. "We need to protect ourselves! And we need to protect the people  we…" I stop for a moment and readjust my anger. "We need to protect the people we love."

I take her hand from my arm and begin to walk away. "What give you the right to take revenge for the rest of us!?" She calls after me in tears. "What give you the right?"

I use my psychic powers to fly towards a massive number of minds which turned out to be a rally of Purifiers. I break through the roof during his speech. As I descend the crowd boos and tosses garbage at me. I don't hear any of it. I don't see the crowds. All I see is Stryker.

"William Stryker." I walk up to him and grab him by the shirt, lifting him up into the air with me. "You bombed a bus full of students earlier."

"Filthy mutants." He spits in my face, but it evaporates off of my psychic energy.

"Disgusting piece of S#!+." I sneer at the little man and drop him to the ground. I fully descend to the floor and walk up to him and he tries to crawl away. I lift him up with my mind and drop him facing me. "Three of my friends died in that buss."

"All of you mutants will share their fate." She glares up at me.

I place my hand on his forehead. "First I want to go inside your mind. maybe I'll increase your tolerance for pain. Maybe I'll take away your ability to feel pleasure or happiness. I could make you experience what they felt. I've been blown up enough to know how it's done. Or maybe I could just kill you here. Burn you to death in front of all your followers and then take them out so no one calls in for revenge. No, the best deaths are always personal. I'll learn everything about you and then take it away. Love, family, joy and everything your little brain could want will be turned against you." I reach into his mind. I see his life as if it where my own. I see everything from his time in weapon X to the second he pulled the trigger. I let go of his mind and sit back on the ground. I can't help but laugh.

"Stryker." I look at him with a compassionate hatred. "How can you live with who you are. You're pathetic." Stryker attacks me but I toss him over my shoulder, still with a dark chuckle. "I was going to kill you Stryker, but now I see that would be too good for you. Live as you are. Die as you are."

"I don't need generosity from a mutant."

"Generosity?" I ask him. "I'm not being generous. I'm sentencing you to live a a worthless pile of S#!+. I'm leaving you to live in a world of mutants. The people you hate most. You tried to kill us, but we are alive. You can come after us all you want but we will live on and we will prevail. But don't think that give you the ok to go and attack us again. If I ever see you in battle, or catch you trying anything on mutant kind I will end you." I turn to leave but look back at him. "Oh, and Stryker. I can come back for you at any time. Just keep that at the back of your mind." And I take off.

When I return to the X Mansion Andy is waiting for me at the front gate.

"Did you kill him?" He asks me.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Nothing I could do to him would bring them back."

"Yeah. I guess not." He looks up at me. "You're a better man than me. I'd have killed him."

"You wouldn't." I tell him as I walk past. "The guilt would tear you apart. I'm the only one of us who could do it."

The next morning Cora came to my room with Andy and Bobby. They found me with my bags packed.

"You don't have to do this." Bobby tries to convince me to stay. "You didn't kill him. Any of us could have done the same thing you did."

"No you wouldn't." I tell him with a smile. "You would have if that where true. I'm the one who freaked out."

"You had reasons."

Andy steps out of the way for me to leave.

"Good luck." He tells me.

Cora grabs onto me in a hug.

"Come back soon, okay?"

"I can't promise that." I hug her back. "But I'll come back."

When I'm gone Bobby looks over to Andy.

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"Look at him." Andy sighs. "There's nothing we can do to stop him. He lost his girl and best friend all at once. I know that guy's got some issues. It must've taken a ton of self restraint for him to not kill Stryker. But he's still a good guy. He blames himself for not being on the buss and for going after Stryker. With his powers he could have saved his friends but he wasn't there."

"It's not his fault."

"To him it is. Something tells me Skylar's used to being alone. He's just returning to what he knows best. He'll be back. He said he would be and I haven't seen him go back on a promise yet."

I ended up hitching a ride in a truck.

"So, where you going?" He asks me as he shoves half of a sandwich in his mouth.

"California." I tell him.

"Visiting relatives?"

"No. There's just someone there I'd like to meet."

The End.

Skylar: "Wait. the end? You depressing B@$+@)D!"

HumanX: "What?"

Skylar: "you killed off half my team and send me on a trip to California and then say "The End"?! Explain!"

HumanX: "I felt like this was the best way to wrap it up."

Skylar: "You killed my girlfriend. This whole chapter has been nothing but a huge disappointment. What was the point of it all!?"

HumanX: "Have some faith in me. I do have ideas for what would happen after but for now the story is done. You've completed your life as Intersperse and now your series is over."

Skylar: "You ruined my life."

HumanX: "Yup. And I was planning to all along! MWAHAHAHA! Sorry for your loss. Actually, I may pick this series up later but for now I'll be focusing on breaking my writers block in the new Red X series."

Alex Arkham: "Hell yeah! We take priority!"

Skylar: "Who the hell are you?"

Alex: "My name is Alex Arkham and I totally gain priority over your series."

Skylar: "How? Your series is just a bunch of characters used in the DC animated universe adapted by HumanX to work in your world."

Alex: "Yep. We have Baby Doll from Batman TAS, Johnny Rancid from Teen Titans, I think we have some guy from Superman. And I get show off my awesome assassin skills."

Skylar: "You're an assassin? Why are we talking about this!?"

HumanX: "As I said before this series has finished but it may or may not pick up later. I apologize to those who are unsatisfied with killing off three main characters in the end but…I got nothing. I'm sorry and please enjoy Red X when I get the first chapter done."

Skylar: "Why? My live sucks."