Comics by Shaenon II

Kid Atomic grins at Teal. "Fly? That's what I was plannin' on, new lil' hepcat." He revs the rocket cycle, then calls out to Rumor-"Yo! You comin' with us, or stayin' here to get assimilated into a robot? We're takin' this fight aerial, dig?"
Another minute and he'll have to take off without him. Those ducks are getting angrier. And the leader-well. He's a full bird colonel, all right. He's squawking orders to the troops.
Kid Atomic watches, wondering just who the ducks see as their primary target. The one controlling the robot spider currently pinning one of them to the ground? Sarcastic, with her Howard reference? Or himself, for blowing them off?
Uh oh...looks like that's the last of the petting zoo transmogrified....

"I'm a fleshbag who likes being a fleshbag. Quite a lot, actually. I'd stay and talk, but I've got to go." Rumor waves at Shay and hops onto the cycle.
"I'm ready. My name's Rumor, by the way."

"I'm Kid Atomic. and this kitty is Teal." Without further ado, the rocket cycle takes off, and they're airborne. "Which way's your apartment, Rumor? But for now-" the Kid pulls out a spare blaster, and hands it to him. "You may need this in the meantime, dig? Teal, you want to avoid your mom. I don't know how she feels about future kids stoppin' in for a visit-we don't want to freak her out too much, right? You're still a tiny kitten in this timeline."
Kid Atomic flips the ducks the bird, and zooms.

Rumor told Kid his address as he examined the blaster. He pocketed it with a satisfied grunt.
He pointed out his roof, "There. I'll use the roof door. After that bipedal goat moves."
He blinked a couple times. "Oh crap. Is that goat holding a ray gun?"

Shay is left alone! So, being bored and wanting to optimize time use, he sends out little spy spider robots. Rumor might notice one on the roof of his building.

Kid Atomic's voice is wry. "Welcome to Xyon, Rumor." He's mildly surprised to see the goat-man on the building. Shouldn't he be bebopping over the bridge instead?
He takes careful aim at the goat-man, and calls out to him. "Yo! William G. Gruff-what's goin' on?" It's obvious to the goat-man that if he makes a wrong move, he'll be in trouble.
Kid Atomic holds his blaster steady. That dude with the robots would be handy against all the militant transmogrified critters. But the way he keeps on about turning them from fleshbags into robots? Oh, he can look out for himself, but the dude was talking about vivisecting little Teal. Ain't no way he could've left lil' kitty to that!

Teal squealed happily, holding onto Mister Atomic as the rocket cycle took off. She hugged him a bit tightly when she saw the goat, but it wasn't like it was a cow or anything.

"Wheeeee!" This was fun! She should time travel more often! And she got to meet new people!

She waved behind her to where the nice robot man had been. Yay!

The goat bleated at Kid Atomic and set down its ray gun, gesturing to the door and stepping aside. It obviously wanted them to go in. Rumor glanced back at Kid. "You got any problem with heading in?"

"Let's go see what he wants." Kid Atomic parks the bike, securing it so no goat man, or duckoids, or whatever, can swipe it. "Teal, you stick with us, 'kay?" He goes to the door and opens it.

-Sarcastic-

She watched as most of the people jetted off with Kid Atomic. "Huh... I guess they're gonna take care of the ducky problem? Maybe?" She looked over to Shay. "So, you're new in town? What's your deal? I'm Sarcastic Female NPC... mostly normal, unless you count supernatural curses. What's up with the robot arm and the spider drones? Are you a mad?"

She was being casual and friendly, but not outright stupid... Sarcastic, as a hero's sidekick, was well aware of the danger of anything that called humans "Fleshbags". She had her crossbow hidden behind her back, just in case...

"I am Shay, and I am currently in the process of upgrading humanity. I am here becouse my reasearch has shown an abnormally large number of mad scientists, of which I am one, and other unatural beings. I shall find the source and replicate it in robots so that I can fully upgrade all the fleshbags on the planet."

He/she nods, a slight smile on his/her face. "It's going to be-- wait, supernatural curses? Could you repeat that?"

Rumor draws the raygun that Kid Atomic lent him and heads down the stairs. Rumor stops at his door and motions for the others to hold up. He slips inside and the others hear the sounds off his weapon firing. Rumor pops his head out. "Come on in. It smells like the colonel's original recipe now, but it's alright. Oh, and ignore the feathers."

The apartment was a large studio apartment, and there was a messy bed in the corner. The kitchen was nice and clean, and so was the lab station in the corner. Rumor popped open a cabinet and looked through it. "Hey, feel free to raid the fridge or something. I might be a while."

Sarcastic sighed. "Ok... do you accept the possibility that some people out there might have powers or capabilities beyond those of regular fleshbags? Like your robot arm, or the ability to fly, or shoot laser beams from their eyes, or a currently-unquantified ability to manipulate energy and matter some people might misconstrue as "magic"?" She was careful not to say anything that a robot, or cyborg, or whatever this guy was, would misconstrue or consider illogical. This was tricky territory, here. "Well, I have something like that, only it's a supernatural DISABILITY rather than a "Power". There's a few of them recognized by modern medicine... they're rare, but they're there. In particular, I have "Clark Kent Syndrome"... Basically, people around me think I look like an entirely different person if I make even slight changes to my appearance, to the point of not recognizing me. If I took my hair out of this ponytail, none of my best friends would even know who I was at first until I went to all the trouble of pointing it out. You know... like for some reason no one ever recognizes how the character Superman is just Clark Kent with his glasses off? No one knows what causes it and it's pretty lame."

She smiled. "What about you? How did you get that arm? Is it a touchy subject?"

Shay blinks. "...Fascinating... apparently, there are more things that I should study about fleshbags. Anyway, I got my arm after it was cut off when I invaded a military base. I got some usefull equipment, but my arm was cut off." He/she hmmms. "I would grow a synthetic arm, but this is more usefull."

Sarcastic nodded. "I'd imagine it would be." She put her hands in her pockets. "In any event, It was nice meeting you, but I think I'm going to run before you decide to try experimenting on me or whatever, ok?"

She started to turn and walk off, and then realized they were surrounded.

By angry duckies. With rayguns. And red eyes.

"Uh..." Sarcastic looked around. "...usually I'm not that easily snuck up on... huh."

The duckies began to advance upon the two of them...

The Kid sighs. "Rumor, you said you just wanted to pick up your blaster real quick. We still have a flock of ducks with transmogrifiers to take out. Pedal to the metal, okay? Oh, and you got any kind of a universal translator? I want to try jawin' with Mr. Gruff, if he hasn't beat feet before we head back out."
Shrugging, he opens the fridge, and helps himself to a slice of cold pizza. He pours Teal a glass of milk while he's at it, then wanders over to inspect Rumor's lab set up.
"So, what's your bag? Student, scientist, hench?"

Teal drank the milk in one gulp. "Nyam!" She peeked over Mister Atomic's shoulder into the refrigerator. It smelled like chicken and it was making her hungry...

"Are the ducks nyam? Can I eat one?"

Shay hmmms. "Well... I don't have a duck flesh bag in my collection yet..."

He/she makes more then a few odd noises, and suddenly about fifty ducks have red X's on them. And machine guns pointed at the X's. And machine guns fireing at the X's.

Not to mention the swarm of robot spiders attacking the swarm of ducks.

Shay nods. "Much better."

"I'm a hench. Not really by choice, it just sort of ended up that way." Rumor unscrewed a few parts from a few devices and crammed them into the pocket of a long leather coat, which he put on as he grabbed a simple blaster with a black casing. He tossed Kid a little black box. "I haven't used it in a while. But you can feel free to try it out."

(Am going to post here soon, Shay and Rumor... just not tonight. A bit busy, unfortunately)

-Sarcastic-

She watched the robot spiders. "Those things are pretty neat, actually. A bit creepy, though, in a Terminator-esque way... so do you have an apartment in Xyon City or something? I know a guy who could give you a good deal on an evil lab..."

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-Around Rumor-

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

From above them, there was an odd screaming noise... getting distinctly louder...

Rumor looked up. "Am I the only one hearing that?" He put a hand on his blaster, flipping a switch on the side.

Kid Atomic's been talking to Teal. "No, the duckies ain't nyam, even if they are a few feathers short of a pillow. They're sentient, so no go." He hands her the rest of Rumor's pizza, and then takes the translator from Rumor. "Let's test this out-say something in peep, okay? Then tell me if it translated right."
Suddenly, the screaming sound from overhead starts. The Kid's own blaster is suddenly in his hand. "Expectin' company, Rumor?"

"...Xyon city? No, I have not. Unless, of course, it is now rubble and flames. But I only did that once. Maybe twice."

The half a ton spiders circle around Sarcastic and Shay... gently nudgin Sarcastic towards Shay, in a protecive manner. Or is it?

"Awww..." Teal monched on the rest of the pizza. She was hungry... she should've eaten breakfast or lunch or something...

In between bites of the pizza, she peeped at the translator. "Peep peep! Meep peep peep!"

The translator waited a second, then spoke in a tinny voice. "I will not buy this record; it is scratched."

"Erm... that's not right... and how can you scratch a record, anyway?"

(Edit: Shay, Rumor, you guys can feel free to hang out in Chat or post in the lounge to meet people if you want! We'd love to hear from you!)

-Sarcastic Female NPC-



"Er... um... wow." She glanced around herself, nervously. "Um, that's... a pretty consistent track record, isn't it? Every city you go to left rubble and flames? Even if it's just once or twice... um..." She took a step back. "Er, could you, um, kinda ask your robot spiders to maybe not get SO close? You know, just as sorta a favor to me?" She smiled nervously. "Er, um... wow... those are some sharp looking spider legs... and... teeth... and... other things..." Sarcastic's head darted around for an avenue of escape. "Oh! Um... there's nowhere to, uh, run... huh..."

She whipped out her crossbow. A ridiculously oversized crossbow she'd been trying and failing to hide behind her back. "This is a crossbow that fires a wooden bolt with about the force of a ballista... in other words, it can lodge a shaft of wood in metal objects. I'd, um, hate to break one of your spiders, so, er, why don't you just let me go now... and stuff..."

She DIDN'T mention that firing it had a pretty good chance of dislocating her shoulder due to kickback, or at least knocking her on her butt. And that she had the safety on. And that she really only had one crossbow bolt on her. Or that it could really only damage the robo-spiders if their bodies were made of something equally or less durable than iron. There were times when you had to over-sell your position.

COULD THIS BE THE END OF SARCASTIC FEMALE NPC?!?

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-Near Rumor-

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- *breathes* -aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Just a bit away from where Rumor, Kid Atomic, and Teal were, a man crashed into the earth after falling quite some distance. Oddly enough, despite the crater around him he seemed unharmed, or at least not SERIOUSLY harmed. David Toboz sat up and shook his head. "Whoo... spinny... why do I keep getting into situations where I crash out of the sky?"

The world around him was circling and twirling and focusing in and out and he wasn't quite sure how long it'd take for everything to settle down.

"...I could. Not going to, however. You are an interesting specimen. And would you really kill a robot? A human I can understand, but a robot?"

Shay sighs. The group of spiders on the inside of the circle turn around to face Sarcastic Female NPC.

"Really, they are sapient. And supior to you. Why would you want to snuff out there life?"

...as a side note, Shay is actually rather worried. While his robots are protected by an extremely hard alloy (much tougher then iron) Shay hirself... isn't. Ze doesn't let it show on hir's face, however. Ze instead has hir's standard blank, and seemingly emotionless, expression. Despite everything else ze might say or show, ze would actually rather not die.

[As a side note, hir is his/her and ze is he/her. Genderless. Easier to type, to. ^^]

?

!

"Uncle David! Uncle David!" Teal ran over to David, arms outstretched for a hug.

-David-

"Whoooooo.... ok, that was a pretty far fall. Ow... even with the gravatic dampeners, that kinda knocked the wind out of him. His vision focused and unfocused slowly, as he looked around. "Woah... izzat... Claire, running towards me?" He blinked and fell over.

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-Sarcastic-

It should be pointed out that Sarcastic wasn't a killer.

She had had some training in combat before, but never really done much of it, and being an English Major in college really didn't prepare her for an adventuring lifestyle. She blanched at killing people, and didn't really want to shed blood if she could avoid it.

So instead of firing at Shay, like she probably should have, she desperately charged at him, trying to knock him out with the butt of her crossbow.

!!!

"Uncle David! Uncle David are you ok?!" Teal knelt next to David and fretted, her fur going all poofy. She didn't know how to fix people and what if he was broken and oh no!

"Uncle David please be ok!"