Futuristic Paradise City Chronicles

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow had been so absorbed in running, that he hadn't really heard Alex and proceeded to bolt all the way back to his home. The villain couldn't help but admit that the villain lifestyle had really kept him fit, he didn't have a six-pack or anything, but apparently, he did enough exercise in a day to offset his awful diet. That being said, by the time he reached his door Crow had almost passed out and was panting for air.

After a few minutes passed and he had recovered Crow noticed that Alex had decided not to race him, that or he got hit by a car. When Alex finally arrived Crow was slightly relieved...! irritated! he meant irritated! "What took you so long?! I was worried. That is to say, I was worried you were going to skip out on paying, I totally didn't think you got hit by a car or something! Why would you even think that!" Crow's ego then basked in the villain's smooth and deceptive response, now there was no way Alex would think he cared.

What Crow should have been caring about, however, was what was coming, for soon he would find himself in a situation he had had nightmares about... (Insert ominous music here)

 

[Gegawat]

Alex on the other hand was starving. So once inside, he called every take out place he knew, and that knew him. Soon, the table in Crow's apartment was filled with food, ranging from Pizza, tacos, burgers, pizza tacos, pizza burger tacos, to Chinese, Indian and all sorts of exotic food.

Once they sat down to eat, Alex decided to come clean. Besides, Crow was the first thing that came close to a friend that Alex had in his life. "Hey, listen, I want to tell you something!" He got all serious all of a sudden. "I have been given it a lot of thought. What we do in Mercertech is building a better future, right? But the more and more things I invent to better people's lives, the worse it gets. I mean... I create good times, and good times create weak people... And we have this hero league that is a complete joke. I mean, look at Jade" Alex slipped up her real name without even thinking. "She was supposed to take over for Crusader and what she did? Fail miserably on her first day and I had to clean up her mess!" Alex slipped up another one, but fortunately he recovered quickly. He was still unsure how much he could actually say without giving too much of his info"I mean, you know how I invest in the city, and I had to pay to get the streets cleaned." He paused for a while. He was having doubts, and it was evident. "I mean... What if this guy, Crow, what if he isn't the bad guy in this situation? Have you thought about that? My father used to fight this evil warlord back in the day, who believed that humanity can only evolve through conflict!" This was an obvious hint that Alex knew something about his father's past, but not so much, and another obvious hint his father is a noble warrior of sorts. Things were getting into place and everybody with half a brain could piece together that Alex is actually the son of the Crusader.

"All I am saying is... I think I am starting to side with him, and if I meet him some day, I might give him a hand, but, you know... Behind the scenes... Quietly!"

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow was completely speechless at the amount of food on his table, he was also overjoyed he didn't have to pay for any of it, not that he couldn't afford it, he was probably just as rich as Alex, but he always liked saving money for the doomsday device on a rainy day.

Crow remained silent as Alex talked, taking in the suspicious information he spouted, but also taking the time to really mull over his word, especially what he had to say about him. In truth, Crow had never really thought about his end goal beyond 'take over the world', he never stopped to think about what that exactly entailed. What would he do differently? Whose interests did he really have at heart? Perhaps he had never thought of them because deep in his subconscious winning seemed like a dream, beautiful, ephemeral, but ultimately unattainable. God! He hated serious, philosophical conversations.

Taking a few more moments to collect his thoughts, Crow set about answering Alex "Firstly, I don't know who Jade is, I have my suspicions but I'll leave it there. More importantly, though, I don't think weak people are bad. I mean look at me, I only have one hand, in a world of strong people I'd probably be left for dead as a baby. As for the hero league, they're just a bunch of pompous pricks with god complexes, it's why I prefer villain, they know what it's like to be looked down on, plus they generally have more pleasant personalities. As for Crow and 'bad guys', I personally don't believe in them. We all live by our own moral codes, for example: Crow and Helix, to Helix, Crow, seems like a villain who wants to become a tyrannical dictator, but for all we know Crow thinks he's doing good in his own twisted way, I suppose it comes down to how you think things are for people at the moment."

Crow felt a swell on emotions in his heart, I normal person had never wanted to help him before and for once, Crow opened his door "Alex, I have a confession to make. You see I'm actually-" ding dong "I'm actually-" Ding dong ding dong "I'M ACTUALLY THE REAL CR-" ding dong ding dong ding dong "OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" The villain the stompped over the door, fully ready to explode whoever it was at the door. He wouldn't get the chance, however, because as soon as he turned the door handle, the door was flung open, taking Crow with it, pancaking him against the wall and quickly coming through the doorway was Princess Euphemia "Crow~! You weren't answering my texts so I thought I'd come over and check your new place out, it looks very you!"

 

[Gegawat]

Seeing the princess Alex jumped up and fixed his tie, before bowing down. "Your highness!" He greeted her in a polite way. But then was the next question - what in the name of blue hell is she doing here? Where were her guards? Question number 3? Question number 4?

Alex tapped his watch. "Would you look at that? It is time for me to make a generic excuse to leave!" He then moved beside the princess and made his way to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed he exposed his watch again, this time a hologram of his assistant appeared on it. "We execute order 78!" He said "The princess has escaped the safety of the castle and is visiting your neighbor? Man, I thought your codes are a joke, but you really have a plan for everything!" Alex gave it a moment and then spoke again. "delay that order!" He said.

The door opened and the elevator was empty. Back to Crow's apartment and the main story.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

The princess just happily smiled as he made his way out, she didn't really have time to get any words out before he had left, of course now she had a more pressing issue, where was Crow? As she walked into the penthouse she politely closed the door behind her, revealing Crow stuck to the wall. Euphemia looked at the blond incredulously, a hand coming to her hip "And what are you doing exactly?" Crow let out a groan as he peeled himself away from the wall, leaving a Crow shaped dent in it "Currently? Hurting all over." The princess glared daggers at the villain "I mean with Alex Mercer! What are you up to? Trying to kidnap him? You're only supposed to kidnap me!"

Euphemia then turned and looked at all the food on the table and considered how Alex had been sitting there and suddenly her eyes were sparkling "Were you hanging out?! Oh my god! You made a frie-" Crow quickly put his mechanical hand over her mouth, silencing her before she could finish "Remember, you do not use the f-word in my presence, besides, we are merely... neighbourly allies. Also nowhere does it say I have to exclusively kidnap you." Euphemia smiled, she knew Crow would never admit to having a friend, after all, they'd been friends since high school and even managed to hang out after he became a full-time villain "I know what you're thinking, and no, we aren't the f-word. In high school you stalked me-" "Tried to make friends with a person who was bullied and lonely." "- Then the rest of those times were me kidnapping you, that doesn't count as hanging out." "Even if you treat me to a lovely meal every time?" "That's different, I was merely being hospitable. Anyway, what do you want?" Euphemia's smile died a bit as she answered "I was worried about you. I was worried about how you'd handle yourself without the Sovereign and where you'd go, I know you don't like being back home with your family." Crow sighed, Euphemia was like a weed, once she got her sickeningly sweet root into your heart, you couldn't get you out again "Well...thank you for worrying. There's food on the table and feel free to have a seat, you're welcome to stay over for a bit." The princess smiled and took a seat on the large sofa, patting next to her for Crow to join, which he did.

 

[Gegawat]

An annoying fly had entered the apartment from the opened window. It isn't hard to figure out that this fly was no one other than Helix, transformed, in order to spy on Crow and the princess, for safety reasons, not for some perverted sick twisted reason. He buzzed around a bit and made himself comfortable on the nearby priceless vase, that was taped together since day one and listened carefully. "So they are actually friends... Interesting... Maybe Crow isn't that bad after all, he is just doing what he believes is right. Who knew that Crow is actually CROW???"

 

[Skylord Nexus]

For the next few hours, Crow and Euphemia ate and talked. They tended to talk about times when Crow had tried taking over the city or about Euphemia's sisters and generally just how life was going. Crow then bent down and switched on the TV and conveniently it was on the local news network, the current breaking news? Princess Euphemia Missing! the villain immediately deadpanned "You forgot to tell anyone you were going out didn't you?" The princess giggled slightly and shrugged "I dunno. Maybe~" Crow then lead his head down onto the table and sighed "I'm gonna get blamed for this, aren't I?"

Euphemia smiled and patted Crow on the head "Don't worry, I doubt they'll find us anyway. Sweet as they are, and hot, They aren't really good at dealing with most threats, like you!" Crow nodded in agreement "True, though me and Alex may be working on something to improve that. And before you say ANYTHING, I'm just doing it for the added challenge, things have really stagnated since the Crusader retired." The princess giggled at her friend's response "Sure, sure Anyway, tell me more." Crow smirked a bit "I'm not sure I should. It's Alex's decision really... I guess you'd have to phone him and ask. Of course, you'd need his number, which I have~" Euphemia wasted no time jumping in "One free distraction when you get arrested so you can get away and not have to rely on Becky!" "DEAL!" The blond proceeded to text the princess Alex's number, at which point she hugged him, much to the villains' surprise and embarrassment, his face going red "BEST. FRIEND. EVER!"

 

[Gegawat]

The fly flew right past the princess and landed on her head, then left as soon as the mention of Alex came up. Alex walked into his office and smiled. He saw a third side of Crow in a matter of hours, from a relentless and brilliant scientist, through a man, who is just lost and tries to find his place in the world, to a friendly and kind hearted and friendly person. He had to help him escape this. Thankfully he was just the right person to do so. In his hand he held a strand of hair from the princess.

He removed the glove on his left hand and placed the hair next to his skin. The hair melted into the skin, causing the surface of Alex's body to "boil" and melt into the features of a woman. He looked at the mirrored glass - spitting image of her royal Highness. "Let's go and save my new friend!" He mumbled, even his voice was changed.

He walked outside and acted like a typical Disney princess, singing and dancing on the street. For a rich and well educated person, he was this ignorant about the royal family. Thankfully, the commotion he caused was enough for the royal guard to find him.

"Breaking news!" The news caster started. "The princess was found having fun at Downtown Paradise. More from our reporter on the scene."

"I just wanted to get out of the boring palace and meet an old friend." Helix said, disguised as the princess. "I just forgot to mention where I was going, Don't worry, I am safe!" He winked at the camera, hoping that whoever saw it would figure things out.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Both Crow and Euphemia were speechless when the news said the princess had been found and proceeded to pause the TV and inspect the face of the imposter "She's a very good likeness, though her personality is a bit off." Euphemia looked at Crow and then back to her double on the TV "I dunno, she seems exactly the same as me in every way." The blond shook his head and sighed "No, her personality is far more toned down, she seems nowhere near as annoying." The princess then cracked her knuckles menacingly "Wanna repeat that robot-boy." Crow immediately gulped and changed the subject "Aside from that, you'd never say anything bad about anyone or anywhere unless super mad, you'd never say the palace was boring, also you'd never admit you forgot something straight up, you'd act much more coy about it." It seemed that neither airhead had even registered the wink.

Euphemia shrugged and returned to her place on the sofa, making herself comfy "Anyway, I think it's ok to leave them be for now." "Why?" The princess then gained a devious smile on her face "Because now that I've been 'found', I'm about to be dragged back home for our annual family dinner, I hope my double enjoys spending time with my numerous sisters. In fact, do you still have those spy drones for us to watch?" Crow looked at his frie-... acquaintance shocked "Damn. You sure you got the right job? You'd probably make one hell of a villain, and of course, I do, they're even hooked up to the TV."

For Alex, as if on cue, a limousine pulled up with a group of two or three royal guards who were they to make sure the princess got home safely for her family dinner.

 

[Gegawat]

Alex wasn't used to ride in a car, but he started this dance, now he had to finish it. The limo took him to the royal palace, a place he had been at only once before, as a kid, on an open tour, and he didn't see much, being 5 year old shrimp. He tried very hard to not show his amazement. "Note to self - buy myself a Castle! This place rocks!"

Once inside, the "princess" was greeted by 12 maids, who started preparing her for dinner. Now this is the fun part. They undressed her, bathed her in essential oils, then in milk, used 7 types of herbs on her hair.

Now take in the fact that this was a man, in a woman's body, a commoner being treated like royalty. So here are Alex's thoughts while everything was going on.

"Wait, what the? Hey, that dress looked expensive... Oh, shit, I wasn't supposed to see that... Wait, are those even real? Damn, nice ass, princess... Holy shit this smells fantastic. Oh my god, this makes my skin so soft and fabulous! Is this aloe vera? I guess there is no substitute for classics... Damn, I should use this conditioner at home, my hair is as smooth as silk... All that only for a family dinner? Damn, this princess really has a nice ass... If they find out I am probably gonna hang, get decapitated and then fed to my own laser sharks. Man, this princess has a nice rack... Wait, how am I gonna fit in... Ok, I am glad I don't have balls right now, this dress is tight! Ah, it's all over... Ouch, what the? Oh, shit here we go again... Aaah! Hey, watch the hair... I should have left the cancer kill me... I knew I am gonna regret this."

After all of this, Alex was sat down at a table so long he could barely see the end of. "How many princesses are here?" The dinner started and everybody talked about royal stuff.

When the dinner ended, the maids appeared again. "Time for bed, your majesty!" The head said. "Ah, shit, here we go again! Woaah!"

One painful hour later and Alex was in a night gown, in a room. "Ah, fuck this, I am getting the real princess back. He got up and walked past the mirror, shapeshifting back to the princess, in a track suit. He still had to look inconspicuous, as much as a princess scaling the walls of the castle, sprouting wings and flying to the center of the city can be.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Even though Crow didn't even have a camera watching the imposter princess getting changed, Euphemia insisted he turn off the camera until the changing process was done, going as far as to pin Crow to the floor to ensure he couldn't see the whole lotta nothing going on, much to the villains embarrassment "Why must you do this to me, what have I ever doing to deserve this?... Actually, don't answer that."

While the princesses talked about royal stuff, Crow and the princess sat eating takeout, feeling just as bored as Alex must have been "I wish my sisters would talk about something other than work all the time. I mean look, it's a family dinner." Crow shrugged "My families the same, though I am surprised they're talking about nothing more interesting, cause some of your siblings are psychopaths." Euphemia turned to Crow and sighed "Can you please not talk about my sisters like that Crow, they aren't mentally ill, just... 'morally challenged'." "For the record, you gave me that line to use in court for my defence one time, that does not help their case, definitely didn't help mine."

After another fiasco of the process trying to stop Crow seeing indecent things he had no capability of seeing, they watched the fake Princess shapeshift, sprout wings, and fly out the window, much to the pair's surprise "You know, this could mean it's a dude." Euphemia immediately shuddered at the suggestion "Please don't say that. If it was a man, I think I'd have to kill them. That for faint from embarrassment. Anyway, let's go catch this imposter!" The princess then jumpped onto Crows' shoulder where he usually carried her, much to the villains' annoyance. The duo then set out to intercept the imposter, and may kill them if they were a man, but what were the chances of that?

 

[Gegawat]

Alex spared them the trouble. Helix landed on their window, the features of the princess blurred and shapeshifted into a girl Helix. It was getting hard for him to arrange the sequences he had in store, then gradually turned back to himself, the normal black Helix

"First of all... I will not be able to unsee this. Second, this is so Crow doesn't get blamed for kidnapping again. I owe you that much after our last... Encounter..." Of course he was referring to the gas attack.
"Also, I am terribly sorry about what do you have to suffer each day, and, as a peace offering, I would offer you to take your place, sometimes, so you can be with your friend." Helix seemed a bit more flexible now, he wasn't this straightforward goody two shoes. "I have been taught to value friendship, and I see that I have completely misjudged your relationship. I will ease off from skirmishes with you, Crow, if you ease off on the taking over the world part. Let's say from weekly to monthly, do we have a deal?" He extended his arm for a handshake.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

As the duo watched the fake Princess melt into Helix, a look of embarrassment and anger entered Euphemia's very red face, and it looked like she was about to slap him, but the hand never came, instead, she was just frozen there, not even blinking "Well, I think you broke her. Also, not cool dude, not cool."

Crow stood and listened to the heroes explanation, a completely blank look on his face "While I appreciate the thought, I commit like ten acts of treason every week, one more is hardly a big worry, besides, why apologise and feel bad? Your job is to kick my ass." The villain then sighed and shook his head "No can do, being a villain is my full-time job, you're asking me to drop down from fifty-two shifts a year to twelve, I gotta make money somehow, I have an evil empire to run." To emphasise his point, Crow then pushed Helix's hand back towards him.

It was then that a more urgent revelation hit Crow "How exactly do you know where I live anyway?" Now that his new nemesis knew where he lived, he'd probably have to move, otherwise, he'd spend every waking moment preparing for a raid.

 

[Gegawat]

Alex just realized he fucked up. "Er... You weren't exactly subtle about it? Besides, my sense of smell is just as sensitive as a dog, I can just track your scent. Don't worry, I will not tell anyone about this, and I won't bother you here any further. Next time we meet, we will be enemies again. But it was nice talking to you instead of fighting. Have a nice night, and please, return the princess before morning, otherwise you will be in trouble and I would have to break my promise and come here again." Congrats, Alex, you bulshit your way out of another situation! He then turned to the princess.

"I am terribly sorry about what I did, I just thought I was doing the right thing, so you can spend time with your friend. I may be a superhero, but beneath all this, I am also a human being, and I also make mistakes. If it is of any consolation, I must admit that you have fabulous hair, worthy of sinful envy. Also, there is a superhero in the Association who specializes in mind games, and I promise to visit him and erase what happened tonight. For both of us' sake."

Of course he was bullshitting again, but with such confidence, that even he believed himself there is such hero. Besides, Alex has been working on memory erasing as a form of a cure for PTSD, which would be the perfect description of what he got from this night in the princess's shoes...

He jumped off the window and disappeared into the night...

But he wasn't the only one watching. A black shadowy figure was crouching on the nearby rooftop. "I followed the target to an apartment building. He had a conversation with the couple living there. Couldn't make sense of anything, but you were right, that superhero is dangerous." He then received a transmission "Roger that, captain! Over and out!" The shadowy person jumped off and also disappeared...

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow raised an eyebrow at Helix, not entirely convinced by his story, that being said it was also totally within the realm of his ability so it might have been true, he still didn't like a hero knowing where he lived though "Well I guess I have no choice but to trust you, but just to be safe I'm adding booby trap that will allow me to detonate the building if you come here again." That was a lie, of course, in spite of being a supervillain trying to take over the world, Crow didn't actually like killing people unless they deserved it, that being said there were obviously casualties from his numerous attacks but they weren't directly his fault.

Euphemia had regained a little bit of her functionality, but she still seemed quite out of it from the shock "Yeah...that's...nice...go do...that." Crow looked between her and the hero "You really did a number on her, if you can you'll probably want to avoid her for a while after this. Oh! and before you go, It should have been 'for both of OUR sakes', not us', that doesn't make much sense in my book, but that again, I was never the best in English, now get out before I shoot you."

Later in the night, Crow escorted the princess home, using his rocket boots to fly her to her window, fortunately, the perimeter of the palace was really poorly guarded "There you go, Euphemia, home sweet palace." The princess yawned, falling back onto her bed "Thanks Crow, see you next week." Crow nodded "Yep, I'd guess that means you're still available to be kidnapped then. See you later." Crow then lept from the window going home to, collapsing onto his bed and letting the embrace of sleep carry him away.

 

[Gegawat]

Alex was nearby, waiting for Crow to get out, so HE could get home unnoticed. It was a strange day, one he wished to just snap and forget. Too many things happened, too many secrets were exposed. If he could just forget everything...

Helix shifted into Alex and closed the window of his apartment. "Man, what an evening..." He mumbled as he opened the heavy liquor cabinet, and poured himself an extra large drink. After a quick swipe he poured himself another, and then everything went black.

Alex came to his senses shortly after. "Man, I don't remember this drink being so strong... My head is killing me!" He mumbled as he tried to get up, but couldn't. Apparently the drink had a side effect that left Alex in handcuffs.
"It ain't the drink though!" A man dressed in dark blue, almost black, tactical clothes with a blue logo of a bird on the chest. Alex squinted, as his eyes turned into cat eyes, trying to see the man's face in the dark, just to realize he is wearing a tactical balaclava with some strange goggles over his eyes.

Alex sighed. "You are robbing the right house then. The password to the safe is 47-39-24, and there are jars of money under the bed!" Alex wanted this day to be over quicker, for which he received a bitchslap. "Alright, alright! I lied about the password and the safe all the money are in the jar..."

"I am not here for the money, Mr. Mercer!" The guy said. His voice was strange, obviously coming through some sort of a respirator underneath the mask, or at least voice modulation device. "Scheduled meetings are from 2 to 4 pm every day!" Alex replied for which he received yet another bitchslap. "Can you come closer? I need to ask you something!" The man approached and with one quick move, Alex shifted his head to something resembling an armadillo "This is gettig tiresome and annoying!" and slammed a very strong and painful blow into the masked man's face.

"Ugh!" Alex's head slammed right back, as if he tried to go through a wall made to withstand a nuclear explosion. "What the hell are you made of?" Alex almost knocked himself out for a second time. "Enough with the crap. I am here because you are irresponsibly giving a villain access to the only technology he was unable to successfully fight against! Do you have any idea what the hell are you playing with?"

Alex figured out that this guy must be from the hero association, but then quickly dismissed this as he was way too serious to be a part of that joke of an organization. "Is that what it is?" Alex turned serious, and although his skull was bleeding from being cracked, he was still thinking clearly, as he wound was slowly regenerating. "What about you tell me how come that each time he attacked the city no casualties occured? How come he never hurt the princess no matter how many times he kidnapped her? How about you tell me why, if he is such a menace the stupid justice system allows him to live next door and does nothing about it?" Alex's voice was getting louder and louder with each sentence. "And lastly, why don't you just go next door and arrest him if he is the villain, and leave me the fuck alone!"

With the last sentence the man snapped back, removing the mask. "Because you gave our father's suit to him!" The face looking back at Alex was his own... Well, his twin's, but still the exact same face. Also, the man, whose name is Max by the way, yelled so hard that he could be heard very far. And since his voice, along with his face, was identical to Alex, it could be as if Alex himself yelled it.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow had begun awakening from his sleep as he heard muffled voices coming from Alex's apartment. At first, the villain attempted to go back to sleep assuming Alex was just talking with someone, but that assumption wouldn't last for long as he heard a voice loudly shout about giving someone their fathers' suit. Crow wondered what that shouting could be about, he had never met Alex's father, and the only suit he knew about in relation to Alex was the crusader suits, but there was no way the crusader could be his dad, right?

The more Crow thought about the idea, the more it seemed to make sense. As if pieces of a puzzle, things Alex did, and weird things he had said began coming together to paint the larger picture. If it was true, Crow felt like he would be quite hurt and betrayed that one of the only people close to being his friend was, in fact, the son of his greatest enemy. The blond had to take a moment to mentally focus himself to stop the anger welling up inside him, yes he had a theory, but no solid proof.

Crow lifted himself from his bed, and instead of attaching his normal hand, his attached his overly large suit hand just in case things got violent. He then crept out of his room and to the apartment door, doing his best to silently open it, though it did give off a slight creaking sound. The villain then placed his ear against the door of Alex's apartment, hoping to hear proof that his theory was wrong.

 

[Gegawat]

"You are just jellous Jade took the inheritance instead of you!" Alex's head was now fully healed. Another bitchslap followed. "Shut your trap, Alex!" Max got angry again. "And what about you? The scrub of the family, nothing makes you special!" Max kept poking his brother's weak spot, unknowing to his power. The man just healed his cracked skull and Max didn't notice in his blind rage.

"So the money, the fame, the love of the people I help doesn't matter? The difference between you masked assholes and me is that I actually help people as myself, I don't need a stupid mask or superpower to do it!" Alex snapped back at his brother. "Not if I have anything to say about it..." A muffled punch followed by something large, around 200 lbs, hitting the floor. Then voice changed through helmet. "Central! I got the target, bring in an extraction to SOCOM HQ! Over!"

Foot steps started getting closer and closer to the door. Despite having a large terrace, no VTOL could land nearby, so Max had to bring unconscious Alex to the roof for that.

Not long after, a buzzing sound could be heard as a very large and silent V35 Goshawk (evolution of V22 Osprey) was hovering for a land on the roof of the building. A group of soldiers disembarked. They were dressed in the same Dark Blue, almost black uniform, which differed from soldier to soldier.



There was a woman with them...

Eclipse Nightwitch

• Gegawat
• Apr 2, 2017

She had no mask, but was also dressed in their colors. "Nightwitch here! Evac on site!" She spoke on comms, just to receive a "Copy!" from Max, who kicked the door of the apartment in order to leave for the roof.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

To be honest, Crow felt kind of betrayed, admittedly he had no reason to, Alex had every right not to tell him about who his father was, much in the same way he hadn't told Alex about him being a supervillain. Still, though, there was this horrible feeling in his stomach which he only felt when he was feeling really upset, the only times it had ever happened were when his father died, and when his sister ran away from home.

This feeling was quickly overshadowed, however, by a swift and sharp hit to the side of his head as Crow was sent tumbling back when Max kicked down the door. There was a moment when Crow felt a little scared about how this would go, but he quickly fazed that out as he began treating it as a villain job. Picking himself up from his place on the floor, the blond villain stood tall and proud in his him themed PJ's "You know Maxxy, you really should learn to keep quiet when kidnapping someone. Trust me, I know from experience." Crow then began pacing the width of the corridor over and over "Think about it, if you had shut up and done stuff quietly, none of this would have happened, but no, you let your emotions get in the way, and in the process revealed the secret identity of your entire family. I see you failed to inherit your old man's wisdom as well as his job."

Crow then stopped pacing and pointed his robotic palm at Max like he had done so many times before "Well, it was fun. You can either drop your brother and run like hell now, or you can both be blown up, I really couldn't care less." A projectile was then launched from his hand, and for a second it looked like a missile before it exploded mid-flight, spraying confetti everywhere "...Well shit."

 

[Gegawat]

Max laughed, his robotic voice echoing the hallways. "Kidnapping quietly is for the weak, who have no strength, nor the backup to pull it off successfully." His voice resembling something of Kylo Ren from the new cheap and crappy Disney versions of Star Wars. Max dropped his brother the same way he would a bag of flour, slamming his fists into each other, causing sparks to fly.

Having super strength was just part of his power. SOCOM were smart enough to know the strengths and weaknesses of heir operatives and worked hard to enhance the positives and remove the negatives. In Maximilian's case that would mean a metal cover to his arms, removing the obvious weakness humans had - being easy to break. Much like scales on a fish, the metal cover extended from his fists up to his shoulders making him look like Jax from Mortal Kombat, if he was... not black... and a super spy.

Thankfully, another big weakness Max had was that as destructive as his punches are, they were slow. Which was again addressed by SOCOM, in the form of elbow rockets. So basically Max started Mohamed Ali-ing his way towards Crow, attempting to go for the head.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow was genuinely creeped out by this guy, not only did he seem to be o more on the psychopathic villain side of the good/evil spectrum, but he was also related to Alex and the Crusader, apparently even heroes could suck at parenting "You know you sound like more of a villain than a hero right? Imagine how your dear old dad would feel if he saw what you're doing, then again, imagine who he'll feel when I go rampaging through the city in a crusader suit."

Ah, Crow's mouth. The cause of, and answer to, all of his problems. The villain was surprised when Max began punching his way towards him and began backing up, holding both hands behind his back as pulled apart plating on his mechanical limb "You know, I must admit that's a rather impressive upgrade you have there, simple but -dodges attack- deathly effective. You know though you do still have some weaknesses though, namely the metal you use, a high powered magnet would be able to stop you in your tracks. A prime example is my -dodges attack- is my arm armaments. haha, little... joke for you there -dodges attack- not one for jokes then, ok. Anyway, my arms would off electromagnetism, such a firing method could be used to magnetise you to another metal surface." Crow then stopped as his back hit the elevator door at the end of the corridor.

Now trapped with his demise swiftly approaching, Crow let out a triumphant laugh as he pulled out a device from behind his back, at the same time, the mangled remains of his hand fell onto the floor and the blond held up the device in triumph "Say hello to my little, magnetic friend!" Crow then slapped the device onto the elevator door and it began glowing with blue light. The magnetic fore began growing stronger and stronger and the remains of Crow's confetti cannon hand were pulled onto the door along with Max... he hoped.

 

[Gegawat]

"you... - throws a punch - talk - throws a punch - too - you guessed it, throws a punch - much!" The man kept attempting to punch through, but the small nimble villain kept evading, until Max finally had him cornered at the elevator door. He had no more way to retreat. He powered up yet another punch, but as he rushed forward, something was wrong. His momentum was too much... He was now flying towards the elevator door, and about to have a quick face rearrangement surgery, courtesy of the elevator doors.

*Ding* the doors opened and he flew right into the elevator, taking out the back wall and dropping down the elevator shaft, along with Crow's magnet contraption, with an occasional metal hitting metal sound followed by a curse. He was taken off guard and that was his undoing. But why did the doors open so conveniently? Well, because Max was taking too long and his mission partner decided to check what's going on.

Eclipse's perspective.

"He takes too long, I am going down, secure the area!" She ordered to the soldiers. "Yes, sir.. er... ma'am!" One soldier replied as he made a hand gesture, causing the soldiers to expertly move around and take positions to cover her as she reached for the door.

She called the elevator, whistling "jolly good fellow" as the doors closed in front of her. She kept whistling, keeping her arms around her back as the doors opened and Max flew right past her, into the wall and down the shaft. "How uncivilized!" She mumbled as she stepped out of the elevator. "Congratulations on surviving an encounter with Thunderstorm, although he obviously isn't as bright as his twin brother over there!" She looked at the unconscious Alex, and clicked her tongue. "Such a waste of good genes..." She shook her head. "Oh, how rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Eclipse Nightwitch, pleasure to meet the infamous Crow!" She bowed, her accent a perfect textbook Cockney. As she was getting up, she waved her hands, which started glowing blue. "7 rings of Agador!!!" She yelled as 7 blue energy rings formed around Crow and tightened into some sort of magic energy ropes. Now, considering the speed at which they formed and tightened, it was highly possible for a very small and nimble person to escape.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow let out a small, relieved laugh as Max went through the elevator. He then cautiously stood up and wiped some sweat off of his brow as a woman exited the elevator. Crow did snigger a bit as Eclipse mentioned the name of Max's alter-ego "Sorry, but Thunderstorm? Really? That is one of the most ridiculous hero names I've ever heard."

The villain then looked down at Alex, he'd completely forgotten about his neighbour since he had been caught up in the moment. Crow felt a hint of guilt as he realised that this had been, in some small way, his fault. If he had never met Alex then none of this would have been happening, even worse however was the horrifying realisation to Crow that he had never felt this guilty over anything before, that being said, 0.1 is still bigger than 0 so lets not take this too seriously.

Crow turned back to Eclipse as she introduced herself, to which he gave a polite and respectful nod "It's a pleasure to be met, Miss Nightwitch. Now whilst I'd love to continue this conversation, I have the feeling you'll be attacking me now... yep, thought so." What Crow had originally expected to be a quick disarming spell, turned out to take much longer than he expected, giving him time to snake his way out if it "Was I supposed to stay still there, or are you having performance issues?" The blond then began making his way over to Alex so he could get him up. Before he got there however Crow turned and looked at Eclipse "What exactly are you guys? I can't tell whether you're good or evil or just psychopathic. Oh, and please don't mistake this as a philosophical question, I don't want your life story, there's just paperwork I need to fill out depending on your answer."

 

[Gegawat]

Eclipse smiled at her opponent. He was quick, she would give him that, but yet again, the spell was too slow, she thought, and the 7 rings were a bit of an overkill. She waved her hands around again. "Ring of Agador!" She called. This time one ring appeared and almost instantly it tightened, like an elastic band over Crow.

"If I tell you who we are, I would have to kill you." She moved towards him and Alex and stroked the side of his face. "And you are too adorable to be a corpse! But yet again, you just saw too much." She raised her hand, starting to glow blue again, as an energy, similar to the ring formed a blade in her hand. As she was swinging, commotion came from the elevator, as Max emerged from the shaft, a bit worse for wear, but still operational. "Should I remind you our orders are to take him alive with no casualties?" He dusted himself off. Crow's contraption was still comically stuck to his head.

The energy dissipated from her hand, and she went for Alex. "Apologies, Captain!" She said as she picked Alex by the coat with one hand, as if she was carrying a bag of groceries. They headed for the busted elevator and as soon as they were out of sight, the ring, holding Crow disappeared. As they were boarding the helicopter plane, eclipse couldn't help but notice the similarities between her captain, who now had removed his helmet and Alex. And by similarities, we mean the exact same face.

"He is my brother!" He said as he tried removing Crow's contraption from himself. "Must be hard to have to turn on family!" She looked down, drawing circles with blue light on the floor of the plane. "Not really. Duty comes first. I would kill my own if I have to." His expression was stone cold, his words caused the witch to tremble as she looked between the brothers. "One will go out of his way to help people, the other won't hesitate to take life. You look one and the same, but you can't be more different!" She sat down, now having second thoughts about her career path. Was this organization really doing what is right?

"So what's next?" She asked. "He is going away in a prison, and I take his place. People won't suspect anything..." She couldn't shake the feeling this was personal and not real assignment...

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Crow gave a little yelp as the magic restrained him in place, bouncing up and down like a fish out of water. He did blush slightly and moved his head away from Eclipses hand, he had never faired well when getting compliments, especially from girls, hell, he even got flustered when Becky said something vaguely nice about him. That feeling was quickly dwarfed however, by the sword swinging towards him, as it came at him Crow squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to stop himself from screaming out.

It had been rather fortunate that Max had arrived when he did, and the villain was thankful for the temperamentality of his inventions. Now able to regain some of his villain persona, Crow bitterly chuckled at Max's comment "Really? Could have fooled me with how hard you were swinging." The blond had continued flopping around on the floor as the pair had kidnapped Alex, finally giving a loud frustrated sigh as the spell finally dissipated, leaving Crow alone with his thoughts, and a pool of guilt in his heart.

Crow had spent the next twenty or so minutes pacing up and down the floor of his home, trying to think of what to do, he had to be careful about this. He could track down where they went and send a task force in to rescue Alex, but he didn't feel comfortable sending his minions into an unknown and dangerous situation, either separately would be fine, but never both. Another issue with that plan was the organisations' ambiguous moral compass, if it turned out they were part of the Syndicate of Malice then he'd be in deep shit, if they were associated with the hero league then he was in even bigger shit. No, he'd have to solve this on his own... or at least with people unassociated with either.

Crow had theorised that Max may try to take his twin's place, as such, Crow intended to make his life as difficult for him as possible. The villain spent the next half hour searching Alex's home in search of what he needed, and conveniently enough, everything he wanted was there: Alex's mobile, the access card to Mercer Tech, and his password for the computer mainframe, though Alex really shouldn't have written it down, now he could put his plan to action:

Crow's super cool scheme!:
1. Get inter MercerTech and remove the crusader suits from the lab to a secure location, namely his house.
2. Take anything else he needed from the lab before rigging it with booby traps designed to humiliate whoever activated them (slime, feathers, pies to the face, ect.).
3. Create as many problems as possible, logistical, personal, the lot.
4. Upload MercerTechs' mainframe to a separate system in the same secure location as the suits, still his house.
5. Wipe the entire mainframe, everything from pay to camera feeds.
6. Create a device which would extrapolate the position of contacts on Alex's phone-based of an extremely complicated satellite tracking system, he figured it would take about a week.

The sun had just begun rising when Crow activated the extrapolation device attached to Alex's phone, part of him felt bad for almost dismantling Alex's company in a single night, but that feeling was overshadowed by his image of Max's face if he was right.