Bounce
here with another update! I know it has been a couple weeks. Really sorry about
that but... well, when you leave a district unattended for a week criminals
tend to creep back in. Nothing I can't handle though. In fact, I even picked up
a little of Ronin's slack. Apparently SOMEONE doesn't think a jewelry store
stick up with some cut rate villain is worth his time.
So
here's what happened. I was patrolling the streets like I always do. I had
already tossed a couple of thugs on the police station steps when I get a call
from one of my contacts. Willie had heard a bunch of screaming from Keklier
Jewelry on the corner of Gauze and Clement. Now, for those of you keeping track
at home, that is about four blocks into Ronin's territory. I figured that sword
swinging maniac would have it under control, but Willie was worried, so I
headed over.
I get
there and what do I find? Some guy in a polka-dot pair of pajamas with a
machete is in the store throwing colors at people. That's right. This guy
replicated the technology of one of the Dark Knights most mentally handicapped
villains. So I wrap him up good and tight, disarm him and knock him out. Simple work.
Once
Mister Globe (he was shouting in the third person the whole fight) was safely
behind bars I gave Willie a call back to thank him for the tip. That's when he
told me that he had spotted Ronin in the area during the attack. He said from
what he could tell Ronin looked in for a sec, then just left.
So at
this point I figured Puppetress or Willslaver must be in the area, doing
something to Ronin's head. That happened in an issue of Hex where Hex has to
save Magnet Master from a mind controlling robot that made him indifferent to
almost everything and, arrogant as he is, I wasn't going to let some whack job
control one of my friends.
So, I
head over to Ronin's place. I apparently got there before he got back from
patrol. I asked him what was going on; if he had seen what was happening at the
jewelry store. It turns out that he had and that he had decided that kind of
crime to be "police worthy" and not worth his time. When I asked
about what he would have done if the maniac had USED that machete he responded
with "It was one wannabe villain with a blade. The police would have sorted
it out. He was probably looking to be stopped by a super just to make the
news."
Now, I
know there are whack jobs out there who do that. I am not ignorant. I have read
that entire story arc about Viper and how she had to start being more stealthy
about bringing criminals in. Some people just want a moment in the spotlight.
I guess
I am just old school. I can't just let a madman kill some guy just shopping for
a ring for his wife. So Ronin and I had some words. I threatened to have Dragon
come up and talk to him about how to protect a city. It turns out Ronin doesn't
believe that I am working with Dragon or that I was involved in bringing down
Morpheus. He says that the videos of that day were too grainy and was probably
Rubberband or Stretch or maybe even the Gland. Says could have been almost
anyone, regardless of the color of the costume. I left at that point.
I am
many things, readers. Devilishly good looking, stretchy, well read; but a liar
I am not. I learned that from my books. Superheroes only lie to villains, and
then only if it serves a purpose. Sometimes they lie about their identities,
but they do not lie about something without a reason, and I have no reason to
lie about my new team.
That's
the next update, actually. As we speak I am in Jeff's jet en route to our next
mission. Arcus has some big bad that he wants to deal with. I won't go into
detail on that just yet, but soon, my friends. I have a feeling that this is
gonna get ugly fast.
We got
called back to LA today for group training. This time I drove. I needed to get
the Bounce mobile out and about. That and I was kind of hoping Jeff might be
able to hook me up with some modifications. I arrived at about 11:30 in the
morning today and we shot straight into training with Dragon leading. We were
going to start warm ups with a game of dodge ball, a little team building
before actually working out with powers. The idea was that I would be the ball
and the others divided up into teams. Looking back, I think had someone thrown
me at Jeff I might have done some damage, but what happened next was even worse
than figuring out what the consequences of THAT might have been.
We were
dividing into teams (or trying to. Arcus was being difficult. I don't think
that surprises me anymore.) when Dan comes out into the control room. Without
warning he throws up some barriers in the training room, and announces that he
wants us to go into a free for all to train instead.
I have
seen the comics where heroes go into a danger room. I know that is part of the
job, but we weren't fighting holograms or robots. We were being pitted against
each other. That shouldn't happen. We should be fighting together not against
ourselves. That and Jeff is kind of useless in a fist fight, so my first
reaction was to try to cover him until this craziness stopped.
It was
about that time that I was deafened by a sonic boom (had no idea that's what it
was at the time) as Silver Bullet started running around the room at full
speed. You've never seen something move
until you see the blur that is Bullet. I didn't have time to appreciate it
though as Thingamabob started firing. See, your favorite stretch guy doesn't
like guns very much, especially the ones that fire lasers. I can't reflect
light or heat, so they tend to be a problem. Luckily he didn't seem to be
shooting at me.
While I
was about to start heading to cover Jeff, two things happened at once. First, I
saw that Avatar had had the same idea and was covering our techie. That was a
welcome sight as the next thing I registered was Arcus flicking his wrist and
Bullet running himself into an invisible wall. I know that I was deaf at that
point, but I swear I heard the crack of bone as he hit hard and rebounded about
forty feet before skidding to a halt. My attention shifted to him and I stepped
over every obstacle, grabbing my now unconscious friend by the belt to drag him
to a corner and act as a large wall should any fire come our way. I have never
been so torn between wanting to fight and wanting to follow the code. I kept
asking myself "What would Guardian do?" and "How would Grinder
handle this?" and "The Pale Horse would have a solution."
Luckily
I didn't have to make a choice because as I was about to go try to disarm
Thingamabob, Dragon called off the fight. He obviously wasn't very happy with
what Dan had done and called off training for the rest of the day. I took
Bullet to the infirmary and everyone followed.
He was up and healthy again in just a few minutes luckily. I had feared
the worst, thought he had broken his neck or something.
At that
point I WANT to tell you what happened, but I don't wanna give away somebody
else's secret secret identity. Let's just say that I had a religious experience
and now we're kind of on a mission from God. Not the guy calling himself
"The Black God" in Chicago. Actual God. No one else seemed to be as
blown away by this as I was though.
So, to
wrap things up, we are on a mission now. Headed off to fight one of Arcus
villains. We have decided on a pretty big move though! Something right out of
the pages of a Project comic: We are going to build a central headquarters.
Think something like what the Light Brigade or The Guild have, but not on the
scale of Crater's "Nexus Point." (I don't think I want to try
dimension crossing. Brainstorm tried to
explain it to me while we were working on a project for the apartment, but it
sounds way too dangerous.)
So keep
an eye out on the news for us! I am going to pitch ideas for a team name when
this is all over. Maybe if any of you
are looking for a comic book deal we can work something out! I am working with
Dragon now so you KNOW there will be good material!
Gotta Bounce!
(I am trying this catch phrase thing. What do you think?)
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