Jump to content

Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Chapter 2: One Step at a Time


jameson (ST)

Recommended Posts

The hood ran off into the night screaming. Ozzie and Wally watched him run, the boy would probably write this whole experience off as a bad acid trip or some such. Ozzie picked up the scattered money and counted it. Barely a hundred dollars, at this rate they would be shaking down drug dealers and muggers for years before they could free their father. Still it was progress, baby steps though they may be, they were steps forward still.

They headed home, it was late, or perhaps very early, and the sun would soon banish the dark that allowed them to hide their features. They were a block from their home when a voice called out, "Why do you do what you do? Why steal the money of the drug dealers and the muggers, and the pimps but do nothing to rid them from the streets?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ozzie jump at the sound of the voice, more so at the fact thathe had be taken by surprise than anything. Peering into the dark gave him little clue as to the identity of the voice. Ozzie pulls out his 'rang and swings his head trying to pinpoint the voice's location. "Why are you concerned about our deeds. You trying to stick up for those scum."

Click to reveal..

Can you make any needed rolls for me jameson?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Easy there, mate," Wally said to Ozzie, shuffling over to give his shorter friend cover from the direction the voice came from. "Doesn't sound to me like that's what he's asking."

"Ay there, whoever you are. If you really mean why don't we turn them in to the police, then maybe you haven't had a good look at us. Best we can do is scare 'em off so they don't come back."

"As for the money...well, that's personal, mate. Think of it as taking up a collection for a worthy cause."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is whispering that the two cannot make out sounding almost like the quite squeaks of rats or mice, the sounds seem to come from all around the pair. Finally the voice replies, "Perhaps then we can be of mutual assistance. We have money, lost and discarded by the people of this city, we have collected it for years now. We have need of help, there is a creature, it hunts us, kills and tortures us. It eats us. If you slay it we will give you our money, our support for your worthy cause in exchange for your support of ours."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally glances at Ozzie, then grins into the darkness shrouding the voice and holds out his paws.

"I think we can work with that!"

He then scratches the back of his head, between his ears, abashedly.

"Er...and mind, not that I'm negotiating because this sounds really important, stopping killing and torturing and all...but just so we can plan, about how much money are we talking about here?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Hang on a second," said Wally as his ears ticked around, trying to follow the little pattering noises.

"Are you a rat? Stop running around for a second, it's distracting. Come out into the light."

To encourage this, Wally takes a step backwards to give the owner of the voice an extra cushion of space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sound of tiny feet and voices became louder for a moment before fading away, "Here." Wally and Ozzie turn toward the voice but see nothing. Ozzie, looking confused, open his mouth to speak but is cut off by the voice. "Hey! Down here!" The two look down and see a mouse, perhaps eight inches tall on his hind legs, standing by a sewer grate. He is carrying what looks like a box cutter, its narrow blade extended and pointed at the two of them in a defensive position. "Don't call me a rat again. That's just rude."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally chuckled and held out his hands as if to ward off a blow.

"Easy there, mate. Just messing with you. Course you're a mouse. Right then, why don't you show us whatever clues you've got, and we'll get on the case?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Clues?" The mouse turned back to the sewer opening and the squeaking chatter between he and his companions started again. "Well, umm ... like what do you want to know? The creature eats us so we can't really show you any bodies. What are you looking for?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally scratches his head at that. Truth was, he wasn't entirely sure how this sort of thing went. He tried to think back to the TV shows...

Ahh, sweet telly, you've never let me down.

"Well, first, are there any witnesses?" he asks, trying to assume an air of authority. "That means those of you what saw what happened. Secondly, we should go to the scene of the crime."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"You'll have to come down here," the mouse squeaked back at Wally.

"We don't like to go up to the top place unless we have to." He indicated to the sewer cover which Wally could pry up and probably squeeze down past. It wouldn't be clean or pleasant but it would do the trick if need be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Hmm..." Wally hmmed, stroking his chin as he peered at the manhole cover. "Bit of a tight fit, but I s'pose I can drop my gear in first."

He works at the cover to pry it up for a bit, finally needing to go back home, get a crowbar, and come back to get it up and off. The smell wafting up from within wrinkles his nose.

"Seems like I always wind up in the sewers one way or another these days. Well, down the hatch."

And with that he dropped his gear down the hole, and hopped in after the bundle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taking a look into the sewer Ozzie made a lame excuse, encouraging Wally to look into things and let him know how it turned out. He replaced the sewer grate and headed back to their shared apt as Wally found himself fairly well surrounded by a horde of mice, many looking no different than he would expect while others stood on two legs and had clearly human-like hands, albeit tiny. Some wore clothing or armor fastened together from bottle caps and other refuse. "Come along, this way. We can show you where Pill lost his family." The lead mouse turned and at his gesture the swarm began to file away in every direction leaving Wally with only a few of the larger mice, some with very human like builds.

One mouse fell in beside Wally, "Will you kill it? It ate my family, I could barely harm it. It would have gotten me had I not run." Pill rubs at his eyes and says, "Maybe It would have been better had I died too."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Ay now, don't talk like that, mate," Wally quickly interjected. "There's still plenty left to live for. And you know they wouldn't want you to do anything like that."

"Anyway, lets just stay focused on what we're here to do, which is making sure that no one else has to suffer like that. Did you get a good look at it, Pill? Any idea what it was?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Well it was big. Mebbe as big as you! An' it had stinky breath an' lots a' teef. It came outta da water an' started grabbin' us and chompin' us, it eated us in one or two biteses, sometimes two at a time! At least the little guys ... and the young'uns." Pill looked down and was silent as they moved through the dank sewer pipes. "We'da all been eaten if Rolaid hadna' attack it wit' his cutter."

The larger mouse, the apparent leader nodded and hefted the box cutter. "I didn't do much but distract it though. Its skin was like pastic."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Came out of the water, eh?" Wally echoed. "Tough skin."

Abruptly something occurred to him. Nah...can't be. Well...

"Was it all scaley, with a long, sort of paddle-like tail and a long, long snout full of teeth? Short stubby legs?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Yeah yeah! It had a big mouf! Lots a' teef!" Pill nodded enthusiastically.

Rolaid also nodded, "Its skin was tough, hard but flexible. Its arms weren't stubby though, and din' see any tail. Do you think you know what it was? can you stop it from eating our people?"

"Yeah yeah! Kills it so it don' eat us no more!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally frowns and shakes his head.

"Doesn't sound like what I was thinking, nope. So I guess I'll just have to take a look meself. Lead on!"

He follows the mice along the sewer, ducking where he needs to, and making a mark every so often along the wall with the short, stubby claws on his fingers...the mark of an arrow pointing the way back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After some thirty minutes and more unique and unpleasant smells than Wally was ever going to recover from they came to the outflow of the storm drain system. The water, filthy from street refuse, flowed out into the river just a few short inches below the lip of the pipe. "Dis where it come in," Pill declared. The pipe was rather small, about three feet in diameter. Wally stood stooped over and looked down the length of it as the mice simply indicated toward the river.

"We set up nets here to trap the stuff. Pill and his family were checking for useful stuff, when it came in from the river and attacked." Rolaid looked down the pipe and then up at Wally, "You can help right?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally was breathing through his mouth, but it didn't help much. It just meant he was -tasting- the garbage instead of smelling it. Grimacing, he approached the edge to peer into the river. More specifically, for a place he could try to jump to and get out of the smelly drain.

"Not much of a swimmer, boys, just to warn you. Still...outta the river. Could be any number of things if it came outta the river. Just gonna take a closer look out there."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wally inched out to the end of the pipe, it was a tight fit and less than comfortable, let alone clean, but he finally managed. He looked out and saw the the pipe let out on the downstream side of Locust Point. Looking out he recognized the old Maritime College which had been long since closed. When he saw the headlights of a car moving down the penninsula toward the college he was surpised, wondering why anybody would go down there. Getting back to the business at hand he saw that the end of the pipe was scratched, deep gouges in the slime and rust covering that indicated heavy claws or maybe teeth. He also found a scale, thick and almost leathery. Looking down the river he saw nothing but abandoned warehouses and waterlogged piers that needed repair. The pipe itself jutted out above the water and was less than a foot above the water line. He could jump out into the river and it would be a quick swim to the shore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The kangaroo waited for a moment to see if anything was stirring in the water down there. As he did, he put the scale into one of the belt pouches he wore to substitute for pockets. A jump into water would mean a lot of work tonight cleaning and drying his gear...but who else was going to help these little guys?

It didn't occur to Wally that the water might not be deep enough until he was already in midair, falling towards the river below.

There was a memorable splash, followed by a momentary flailing, after which Wally got his bearings and commenced a sort of dog-paddle, tail-waggle swim towards shore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The titanically unimpressive splash was followed by the laughter of the mice as Wally found himself in water perhaps two feet deep. He stood up, chagrined, and hopped toward the shore, the dirty water splashing as he went. Once on dry land he looked around again. He found no tracks and, aside from the usual trash and rubbish, he found no indication that the attacking creature had come from the shore at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once on shore, Wally shook himself off like a giant bipedal dog and peered around, blinking in the fading light. No indentations in the soft loam of the riverbank. No tracks. No scales scraped off on litter or crushed debris. It must have swam up, Wally decides.

"Think it came up the river," the kangaroo calls to the mice. "I'm gonna follow it back...see if I can see where it came from. You should probably...you know...not hang around the pipe, just in case."

He then waves to the little rodents, and starts off at a leisurely pace to do as he said. Off in the distance he notes that college again. Headlights, hmm? Well, it was sort of in his path. He could take a peek around there and see what was going on while he was at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Though not a great swimmer the current here was weak, the peninsula providing a shelter from the flow of the river. He swam across to the peninsula on the diagonal, the shortest path through the water that would take him around the active neighborhoods nearby. He climbed back onto shore and quickly made his way the remaining distance on foot, his long leaps eating distance quickly. He located the car, its engine ticking as it cooled and from a hiding spot he took a look around the area. He saw a light and heard voices within the old boat house, somebody was in there and poking around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's odd...wonder what they're doing in there? Probably nothing to do with the river monster, but can't hurt just to take a look...

He slowly eased the pump action shotgun out of its over the shoulder holster. He kept riot rounds in it these days, though he had slugs he could load too just in case things turned serious.

Thus girded, he edged towards the boathouse to peek through a window or at least listen in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...