The Superhuman Gambit

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Sooner or later, someone will clean up the dead ants in the street where the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer fought. It's not a big priority right now, though. Not with Dominic and Machete getting ready to go out for the day's hunting, and Joe opening up the diner and counting over his available bottles of water, and Derek looking for something to do or someone to talk to. For the moment, at least, it's pretty placid in Canterbury Commons.

We'll just have to see how long that lasts.

Comments

[basic_powers]

...Tyler has some odds on how long the peace will last.

This is the kind of peace that happens between 'little mishaps' at school, between Zodon's failed experiments, Von Fogg's successful but ill-thought out experiments, and the explosions in waiting from Angie messing with frozen pigs.

Again.

The good thing about this kind of peace, people generally talk through it.

"Hey, Derek?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Hi there!" chirps Derek, a grimy boy of about eight or nine. "You're new in town, aren't you?"

[basic_powers]

"Yeh...just arrived a little while ago." Pause and a pointed glance at the remains of the battle. "Apparently just in time to see the show."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, cool! Wasn't it awesome?" says Derek, eyes brightening. "When the AntAgonizer was all 'my ants will conquer the world!' and the Mechanist was all 'never, evildoer!' and then the robots started blowing the ants up? That was so. Cool."

[basic_powers]

...Yeh. Cool.

"Do they do that everyday here? Or just when they think the other guy needs a lesson?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, not every day, just some days," says Derek. "It'd be a lot more interesting if they did it every day."

[basic_powers]

"Why do they do it though?" Seriously, there's a lot of better things to do than just blow stuff up.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, the AntAgonizer says she wants to destroy all of humanity, and we're just the biggest bunch of humans around," says Derek. "Sometimes she attacks the caravans instead. And the Mechanist does it to protect all of us, you know?"

[basic_powers]

Tyler is just about...oh who is he kidding, the more he thinks about the more he realizes grown-up heroes in his own world pull this shit all the time.

"But isn't she human herself?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, yeah. But she's a human the ants like! And she says they're superior to us anyway."

[basic_powers]

The mini-gadget hero would like to 'discuss' superiority issues with her.

Though from a distance.

Possibly involving a daffy-putty assault catapult.

"Weird."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh sure!" says Derek cheerfully. "She's a villain, isn't she? That's what they're like, you know? But the Mechanist'll stop her anyway."

[basic_powers]

"Who is the Mechanist?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Derek makes something of a show of looking around him theatrically before leaning in closer. "His name's Scott," he confides. "Scott Wollinski. He used to be the town mechanic. But the AntAgonizer killed one of his favorite robots, and that's when he turned into the Mechanist so he could keep her from hurting anybody that way again!"

[basic_powers]

...Tyler would like to take back that thought about how the superheros in this world are like the ones back home. He's now convinced that the heroes here make the Time Waster look like a saint.

Because seriously, he took up heroing because she destroyed his favorite robot??

"...you're kidding me."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Uh uh," says Derek. "He said it was like losing his best friend, and then he went and took the robot into the Repair Center outside town, and nobody saw him again until the Mechanist showed up one day to fight the AntAgonizer away from the town and it was the greatest thing ever!!"

[basic_powers]

"Where's the Repair Center?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"South of town- are you gonna volunteer to be his sidekick? That would be so amazing! You could be... oh, Incredibly Lucky Boy! Because you'd have to be, to get to be somebody's sidekick like that," says Derek. "Oh, wow!"

[basic_powers]

"I might, depends on if he'd want me or not."

Or if Tyler would want to be caught visible or not within fifty feet of him. "Thanks for saying I could be though!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"You gotta let me know if he says yes," says Derek. "My uncle doesn't want me anywhere near the fighting, he says I get too excited."

[basic_powers]

Uncle Roe is a wise, wise man.

"Aww..your uncle just wants to make sure you don't get blown up be accident."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Yeah, I guess so," says Derek. "It's not like there's a whole lot else to do here, other than work and read comics and stuff."

[basic_powers]

"Could always build stuff."

He really shouldn't give the kid anymore ideas, but really. "What do you do for fun?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Climb the tree out front, or sometimes the rocks," says Derek with a shrug. "Or try to ride the brahmin."

[basic_powers]

"You have a tree?"

One that isn't a damn tiny twigy thing that a nature god would weep over?