Catalysts: IC (Oh the thread is slowly dying...)

Nox stayed in the ruins, luring in and slaughtering foot soldiers. He was powerless outside. Outside was full daylight. Suddenly, the rubble shifted. Some dust fell from the ceiling. He began to run. A fall of rubble blocked the surface exit. The only way out was down.

Steph eyed the distance for a moment. "I dunno, give me a moment." Stepping back, she undid the button of her jeans and took a deep breath. In a weird ripple, the scales around her waist swept down around her legs, eventually forming a very long snake body. Coiling herself up, she leapt across and pounded through the door, quickly pulling herself in before anyone had the chance to attack. "Just grab my jeans ok!"

[glitch, disregard{

"I!" Aeron screamed first. He rolled backwards and back on his feet. "AM!" He grabbed the nearest car. "NOT!" He spun around, giving himself some momentum and let go part swing sending the car flying at one of the helicopters which exploded in a mass of fire and debris. "A PUSSY!"

Winter started, but in the insanity of the moment was quick to adjust. She grabbed Steph's jeans and ran across the no-man's land; thankfully, the policemen were occupied with everyone else, and did not take much notice of two girls dashing across the street.

"Nice move, girl. Let's keep moving; we should be safe from here on out. They're not looking for us, poor bastards..."

"PROOF IT YOU WEAKLING SHIT, SMASH THOSE TWO CHOPPERS RIGHT THERE INTO EACH OTHER SO THEY MAKE A NICE, THIN SHEET OF PAPER! UNLESS OF COURSE YOU'RE TOO PUSSY TO DO IT!"

He ran into an alleyway out of the way and continued spewing out insults.

"MURDER THEM YOU CHICKENSHIT, YOU HIDE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T EVEN FIT IN! YOU'RE WEAK IS WHY!"

Steph looked around frantically, quickly taking her jeans back. "Where do we go now?" Spotting a tattered sheet, she wrapped it around her waist and hastily resumed her human form. It suddenly occurred to her that she had forgotten her shoes.

Aeron let out another guttural scream and whipped his hands up and then down again. Bones shot from about where his hands should be. They weren't like the standard sharp bones though, they were more like small bones all linked together by tendons and strung together to form a kind of whip. He swung one of them violently. It wrapped around the metal bar that hung under the helicopter and stayed there. Aeron whipped downwards swinging the helicopter into the ground, smashing it, and then back up again. The bonewhip shattered and sent the remains of the first copter into the second one.

He laughed hysterically in awe then noticed the vehicular enemies were taken down. He began to draw energy back carefully but then figured "let him have fun with it" and noticed some shoes on the ground. He picked them up and ran for where the escape plan was, shouting out behind him.

"GOOD JOB, JUST MAKE SURE THEY ALL DIE YOU FUCKIN' FAILURE!"

He jumped in and smiled at the ladies, half covered in blood with a decent ammount of glass shards in his right arm. He panted and almost fell backwards, taking energy back quickly from Aeron, his other bones turning to dust so he was back in his regular form. At this point, most of the police should've left. After all, lots of shrapnel and broken helicopters does NOT bode well for the remainder.

Pandora approached the military depot well laden with equipment- she had jury rigged timers by breaking into an electronics shop, and had used those to create gunpowder grenades and napalm grenades. She only needed one more thing to complete her equipment- C4. and this place happened to be storing a large amount- she was always aware of where explosives were stored, mostly because she had a habit of knowing where military officers homes were.

She slipped easily over the high fence, managing to avoid the razor wire at the last moment, and used shadows and walls to mask her approach. When she finally reached the storage areas, she took out her last chunk of C4, saved for exactly this purpose, attached it to the wall and backed up. With a slightly muted boom the wall crumpled under the directed blast, and Pandora stepped over the chunks of wall and bodies of the rooms guards. on the far side was her payout- more C4 than she could use in, why, almost a week! she loaded the thousands of pounds of C4 onto a loading truck ready and waiting for her, before the guards started to arrive. She threw her knife into one, rushing forward to retrieve it from his neck where it had neatly severed the carotid, before taking his gun and turning it on his friends. A radio squawked about shots fired and updates on intruders. She picked it up and cleared her throat before answering "Neutralized, sir. Two casualties."

satisfied that would delay responses, she hopped into the cab of the truck, her cargo covered by a large tarp, and took off towards the fence, and then straight on through. She needed somewhere safe to store her excess explosives... the perfect place occured to her, and she smiled.

She was going to meet up with a friend...

As Aeron's extruded bones turned to dust he found himself falling to his knees, he had bruises everywhere, his skin and muscles were wrecked. His cheeks had holes in them that allowed you to see his face. His hair was clumpy and gone. His skin looked like gum that someone had stretched too much. Aeron just blacked out, that was sort of it. He lay on the floor where previously his immense weight was shattering the ground. His body could better repair if the rest of him wasn't active.

Steph ran to Ragnarok, keeping a tight grip on her temporary tunic. "I'm so glad you're okay." She looked at the glass shards in his arm. "I think I can inject you with some of the painkiller I produce, but later." She hugged him tightly again.

His face turned a deep shade of red; Genuine kindness? Hell, even a sense of love? From another..? He hadn't felt this.. In forever. Or it seemed like it; damn his amnesia. He hugged her back, tightly, and took it a step forward pressing his lips to hers.

"Damn, now that was impressive." Ray's amazing shades reflected the brilliant fireball. Two copters, one bonewhip. Those officers are probably thinking 'Shit shit shit' And probably doing it too. And now the crazy hedgehog guy is prolly gonna run in there and tear them up. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. He swallowed the last few pieces of popcorn. Welp, time to stalk these guys like a bad ass creeper. Steal their stuff if they had any, and disappear. He jumped down and missed the action where the officers all got slaughtered, and disappeared into the ruined buildings still smoking with helicopter pieces. "Heh, that was pretty cool though."

Steph stood there, entranced by his kiss. Still, she kept a tight grip on the top of the material. Releasing the contact, she paused for a moment, speechless. "Later, when we're not in public, and I have my jeans on." She smiled softly and made her way back into the building. For the moment, she didn't mind if he followed.

Nox sighed and walked into the dark basement. He flicked on the lights. The room was a decent sized copy room. There had to be a way out. Hopefully. He needed to get out before the power went out. Once it went pitch black he would be alone. In here. With the eyes.

He nodded slowly and let her get dressed, waiting patiently outside the building. He laughed in his mind and shook his head slowly.

Guess just those two are the ice queens.. Maybe Nox'll have better luck with Bloom? Oh.. And we've not told Pandora about his re- HOLY SHIT NOX!

He got up and panicked, running quickly for where he saw Nox run off. He searched about but couldn't find him, and returned shortly back to the building, almost shouting at Bloom.

"NOX IS GONE!"

Quickly changing back into her jeans, she returned to the street and hurried to one of the new arrivals, who had seemingly passed out on the street. The one who had grown all the bones from what she could tell. "Over here, he needs help!"

Ragnarok ran as fast as he could and found the man, bruised, beaten, practically torn apart. He put his hands over his mouth in shock at what he saw and grinned behind his palm. He had created a WMD for a short period of time.. Amazing.

"Right. We'll take him to HQ along with you. Bloom has her home here, so we needn't worry."

Steph nodded, standing up once more. She glanced at each of the 'catalysts' in turn, assesing them as best she could. "I'm sorry I couldn't help much back there. People I can handle, cars and helicopters are out of my league."

"It's fine, I did most of the excessive work.. Hell without me.. He might not've been in this state. But.. Enough of that. C'mon, I hope you don't mind a bit of a walk. Our base's off lockdown, so lets just head towards the main Plaza"

He began walking, carrying Aeron -- with much difficult-- towards the metro entrance no further than a few hundred yards away.

Steph helped support him on the other side, no longer having trouble with a walk. "I guess I needed excitement to get me going again." Supporting him wasn't much trouble for her either. Adrenaline was still coursing through her body, giving her that extra strength she could've used earlier.

“Go on, go to the house,” Lieo whispered as one of the bees buzzed off towards the direction in which the dormant house where they had previously took shelter in. “Bring everyone. Wreck the party.”

The police that was at the edge of the street seemed confused as to what to do: leave the bee man where he is, or tell him to come closer, as he could be dangerous in either position. However, it had been established that if he were to stay where he was, shooting him would be far more difficult if the situation were to come to that. So after some heavy decision making, one of the officers took a megaphone and called out to Lieo: “Put your hands in the air, and walk forward slowly, or we will be forced to shoot.”

Lieo did as he was told and put his hands in the air, slowly pacing his way towards the array of police vehicles. A chain link fence separated the street from the land in which the building was built on, and the land in which the company the news station belonged to owns. He was about fifteen feet away from the fence, and the officers on the other side were a mere five feet away from the fence. A moment of silence took place, the officers unsure of what to do with the catalyst; with half of them thinking they should just kill him. Lieo simply stood there, biding his time; and perhaps he could strike a conversation while he did.

“Does anybody here remember a Damon Vicous?” Lieo asked, his voice echoing through the still air. “Anybody?”

There was hesitation in the crowd, but one of the officers cautiously raised their hands, with his eyes never leaving the catalyst. Lieo's face would have lightened, and a grin would have painted his face. “Officer Jones!” Leio chanted, “What was your name again? I think I remember a Charlie Jones in my youth, how have you been?”

Charlie was a boy that used to come by and throw stones at him, but always too afraid to get close to him, because he was a freak, and because he was always surrounded by bees. “What happened to you, Damon? You're a monstrosity.”

Lieo's head tilted to the side. “There are many fallacies in your statement. First off, Damon is dead. His innocence was ruptured, cleansed. His guilt was liberated. And second... haven't you always thought him a monster? Me, a monster? Well guess what? Apparently that's what I am now, Charlie. I'm a monster now, Charlie... are you still afraid of bees... Charlie?”

His voice slithered up the officer's spine, trying his very best to ignore the provocative words of the old alley kid, that used to cry and curl up in a ball beside a dumpster looking for heat. His gun was still pointed at him, still, but slowly beginning to shake the more Lieo spoke. “Shut up! You have the right to remain silent!”

Lieo paused for a second, detecting a slightly ever-growing trace of pheromones in the distance. In the distance, a massive swarm of bees swept over the old abandoned distract of the city, swiftly flying directly overhead Nox, Aeron, Winter and the others, ignoring their very existence, only being concerned in getting back to Lieo, whom was continuing to humor himself with the cop. “Are you still afraid of bees, Charlie? Guess what Charlie?” He antagonized, making his voice slowly fade into but a whisper. “…I’m a bee now.”

The cop, hardly able to take it anymore squeezed the trigger causing the explosion of the gun to echo above all other noises. The cops eyes remained squeezed and his finger was still pressed against the trigger, however un-cocked. The bullet met its mark with Lieo’s chest causing him to stagger backward slightly, and a couple of bees hit the ground, dead. The small hole in his chest refilled itself and Leio looked back at the crowd, and not a single sound was made. The silence dragged on for an agonizing five seconds which felt like forever. What broke that silence… was the massive swarm of bees that sweeped through the streets, knocking men and women over, coating them, biting them, stinging them. Clumps of bees could be found of every person in the area unless they were sealed inside a car. Lieo, if he were able, would have smiled. He simply paced forward some more, walking straight through the chain link fence, hardly even noticing it were there. Pushing a couple of men inside he leaned inside a police car and grabbed the radio. Holding the button down, he placed his would-be mouth next to the mike. “We’re going to need more back up, over,” before taking it and ripping it out of the car. One of the cops ran up to him to hit him with a baton, and Lieo moved his hand up to block it, but the amount of force that was in use made it move straight through his arm and hit right against his head, causing it to snap to the side for an instant, and Leio paused, and looked back over at the horrified image of the man.

Lieo moved forward with what was once the radio in the car and wrapped the chord around his neck before pulling back as tightly as he could. At first, the cop seemed to be simply choking to death, but as he was getting strangled, the chord was digging into his throat. Soon, that chord cut through the skin and broke the esophagus pipe, disabling any hope of getting air and making him drown to death in his own blood. Lieo dropped the bloodied chord and stepped over the mangled corpse, chanting some estranged song of his. “Let me pluck your eyes out, so I can see it for myself! Hope you don’t need them, these lies aren't for your health! Speaking of eyes… oh Chaarlliee! Excuse me dearests, can you direct me to the nearest Charlie? Keep him alive for me if you can, please.”

Bees swirled around a body that was laying on the ground, who happened to be screaming in agony as poison pulsed throughout his body. Lieo paced over and lifted him up by the shirt of his uniform. “Hi Charlie.” He said, watching fear crawl back into the cop’s eyes. “I recall you being afraid of bees. Is it just how they look? A lot of people seem to be afraid of insects based on their appearance; those people always make me laugh though.”

Charlie only groaned.

“I’ll do you a favor since we were such great pals, you fucking douche bag. You see these two fingers?” Lieo said, flashing a peace sign in front of the cop’s face. Damon’s conscious seems to be seeping through, as his emotions are starting to affect Lieo’s already erratic behavior as well. “Yeah, this is a great big ‘fuck you’ to you and the rest of your family.” Without hesitated, Lieo dug his fingers into the eyes of the man that once threw the stones at him so long ago. The bees bit at his eyes, the pupils, the irises – all with the muscle force of an angry catalyst. Charlie screamed, reaching pitches never heard before in a man, blood trickled down his cheeks and puss oozed out from between his eyelids. “Now you don’t have to see them anymore while they eat you alive. Dig in my lovelies, this one is bound to taste good. Don’t worry about it going to waste; we have a whole city we can take over.”

And more on the way as well; from what he heard, this was starting to sound big. Lots of cars, helicopters. This was almost like the movies on the telly! Oh, but you know what would make this even better? Some fancy-smancy hero with misguided intentions trying to stop him! Ha, that would be something. Though that would spice things up a bit. To just think about it… another catalyst. These cops certainly weren’t giving him too much of hassle, it was almost too easy. Boring.

"Fuck me, right?" Aeron chuckled with his eyes closed. "At least I'm not chicken..." He muttered before falling quiet again. He was alive, barely, at best. It would take him a while, half a day at least, a full day tops. Somewhere between.

He entered through the metro tunnel and led her to an empty room with a cot, placing Aeron slowly down on the cot. Stretching out he suddenly coughed out a few drops of blood and fell to the ground.

"FUCK! Oww... Still not healed from.. from THAT..."

He panted and smiled up at her, hoping she wouldn't worry much.