Dr Archeville Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Place: Gear City The blast cratered in the metal as Wyrd’s latest magitek monstrosity crashed to the ground, kicking up dust and wind that set Push’s coat and scarf to billow. The cheers of the nearby citizens made him grin underneath the wool, and he raised his fist in the air, planting a foot on the metal. With a dramatic flourish, he pointed at the sputtering mad scientist, who was vainly hammering away at a remote. “Weird! How many times have I got to tell you, leave your toys at home!†“It’s not Weird, it’s Wyrd! W-y-r-d! As in wired! Yooooouuuu…..oooh, how dare you! That robot was one of my finest creations, the prototype for a new line of robotic police!†“Dude, when it beats the snot out of anyone who so much as jaywalks, I think that’s a bit overboard!†“So it needs a bit of work, I’ll get it next time!†“Uh, no, you won’t. You’ve got a date with the Gear City Penitentiary, Doc.†“PROFESSOR! PROFESSOR, YOU…YOUUUU…OOOOOOH…next time, Push! Next time, you won’t stop progress! I swear it!†As Push charged forward to finish the job, Wyrd slapped a rune on his belt buckle and vanished with a crack. Push stopped, let out a long line of curses himself, then stopped abruptly as a van roared by, Wyrd visibly in the front seat cackling…and a young lady at the driver’s seat. He couldn’t quite make out her face, but what he could make out was a pair of eyes that stopped him cold. The van roared off, and he shook his head, then took off after it. No rest for the wicked… Quinn stepped out of the coffee shop, laden down with a hot chocolate in one hand and a coffee in the other. He made a face. Coffee, blech. He hated the stuff. As he turned to hoof it over to the waiting van, he bumped into a woman who was hurrying full-bore straight towards the shop. Well, bumped into might not have been the most accurate term. Crashing into and causing the coffee to fall on her head and the hot chocolate onto his shirt-front was more accurate. They both tumbled to the ground, her landing flat on his stomach while he gasped for air and felt a steady burn across his chest. “Ai-yi-yi-yi! Hot! Hot! Oowowowowowo…o…ooo…†The burning sensation seemed to pass as he got a look at her face, and hers into his. Big brown eyes. Black hair with what looked like pink and blue highlights. Soft features. She stared at him with what looked like a similar expression. The term “gobsmacked†came to mind. Then the pain returned, and they both howled simultaneously and scrambled to their feet, charging back inside and racing towards the bathrooms. So Wyrd had an assistant? And she definitely was as crazy as he was, given the insane devices she was firing at him through…what looked like a toaster. Her speech had a thick Russian accent, and her face was obscured by a gas mask, but given the fact that the room was rapidly filling with this mental-clouding-thingamabob gas, he couldn’t quite blame her. “And you thought it’d be a good idea to spread this into the city why?!†“Simple! It’d be easier to apply ze good professor’s inventions if people aren’t running about and shouting so much vhen ve do eet! Once zey are all calm and quiet, zen ve can vork in peace and get ze job done faster!†“What?! That’s the…you know, that’s actually not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. The Prof’s said weirder.†“Stop moving so I can hit you!†Anna laughed out loud as Quinn mimed Sharpe’s expression when he found out he’d taken this one client’s car out for a “test spinâ€. “Honestly, who could blame me? It was an old-school Caddy, absolutely gorgeous, and I needed to know if the engine was working. And, confidentially…Mike took it out right after he sent me up to do the paperwork.†He winked, and she grinned. Not to be outdone, Anna started relating a story of how her boss once busted her trying to play this new MMO on her laptop. Of course, he’d stopped abruptly when he’d seen that she was on the same server as he was, twice her level, and had magic items out the wazoo. Quinn smiled, quite glad that she’d agreed to let him take her out in apology for dropping the coffee on her head. Although they weren’t using the same coffee shop this time… The building began to collapse, Push racing hell-for-leather by the exploding tanks that, until then, had held extremely volatile gases for use in the Professor’s experiments. Whatever Wyrd had been working on, this time something had gone wrong even before he had dropped it on the populace. Push would have asked him what it was, but given the old man was slung over his shoulders unconscious, he decided to save it for later. As he raced towards the door, he spotted another lab-coated figure running towards it. The assistant! She carried a strange object in her hand, and for a moment, he began to raise his hand to fire…then she hit a button, and a rear wall folded outwards to reveal a back alleyway. They stared at each other, then both raced out side-by-side as the building exploded. Quinn twisted the wrench over the engine as Anna screwed in the last bolt on the dashboard, the girl looking through the windshield as she gave him a thumbs up… Push kicked the door in, Associate Professor Wyrd opening fire with the glue-gun as the crooks tried to make their getaway with Wyrd’s stolen tech… She looked at Quinn with blazing eyes as she yanked him forward by his collar, locking lips while his arms flailed briefly. As she let him go, he blinked and looked about, seeing nobody, then returned the favour… Push looked at the Associate with her oversized goggles, and she stared at him, as he held up a warp-covered arm and her some toaster-shaped device (he’d sworn he’d seen that before), pointing them first at each other, and then at the WyrdTech robot rampaging through the bank… Quinn lay beside her, the blanket covering them both, enjoying the sound of her breathing, her soft skin, and her prescence beside him as he drifted off to sleep… Push dragged Wyrd to the police car, chucking him in with a grunt. The Professor, for his part, was his usual surly and complaining self, insisting his latest invention was not a hazard, but a benefit to mankind. The kineticist simply shook his head, motioning for the car to drive off…then realized that policewoman driving the car had a rather odd pair of…he took off in pursuit. Quinn walked to the doorway of Anna’s apartment building, his heart as light as a feather…then everything went black. The building was on fire and collapsing. Anna…the Associate…she stood there, eyes wide as saucers as Quinn…Push stood on the other side of the operating table. Her eyes began to fill with tears, and he thanked whatever deity was smiling on him that his were obscured by his hat. The device that was the Associate’s…Anna’s brainchild, to merge Quinn and Push, the two she couldn’t choose, hung over the table, gauges hitting red zones, steam bursting from points and electricity crackling. He opened his mouth to speak, but found he couldn’t. His admission after breaking free from the table shook her to her core. Her actions had driven him to break the shackles, even after trying to talk his way out as best he could. They knew each other’s secrets. She stared at him, then slowly stepped backwards. He roared her name, vaulting over the table and running, as part of the roof gave way and fell in front of him. Through the flames and burning wreckage, he spotted her face, one half the Anna he knew, the other half obscured by the Associate’s goggles. The flames rose higher, and try as he might, he couldn’t push through. Push stared at the building across the street where the police cars surrounded it, wreckage now. Twisted girders, ash, piles of scrap and rubble. He stared at it. And sat there, on the corner of the warehouse, waiting, and watching. No movement in the rubble, save a few cops with flashlights. He sat there as the hours passed by. Still no movement. He sat there a whole day, as the police cordoned off the site then drove away. No movement. He sat there a whole night, just watching. Nothing. Finally, he stood. And he turned. And he took off his coat, his hat and his scarf, laying them down on the roof beside him. And then, only then…Gabriel Quinn, not Push, cried. 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