plain weird. While being able to fire laser blasts from your eyes might make you look cool and be easy to aim, firing them from your arsehole was less inspiring and so far less likely to get you sponsored by Pepsi.
Being able to fly was useful, but being able to fly two inches above the ground was not.
And if you just happened to be Multiple Buttock Boy, well where did you fit in.
Lowtown, that was where.
Lowtown, where all the low powered freaks, mutants and semi heroes precipitated like the scum on the top of a bath.
Lowtown, both and eyesore and a tourist attraction. Lowtown, where life was cheap, and if you were a normal, every day human being, it was frequently valueless.
The NYPD had long ago stopped patrolling it, leaving it to the residents to enforce their own rather brutal form of justice.
Strangely, within it's own community there was very little crime. That old lady you are robbing might just have the power to turn your legs to jelly, literally, she might not, but why take the risk?
And when the self elected chief of police could give you crabs at a glance it really wasn't worth crossing him.
So most of Lowtown's residents lived side by side and muddled along without getting in each others way.
But if you were human, all bets were off.
Come on an organised tour to take in the sights, the museum, art gallery and of course the obligatory strip club, where one of the girls can apparently strip herself down to the bones, and you were pretty safe.
Wander in unannounced and you were easy meat.
It had become a no go area for most people.
But not for Elroy.
As he crossed town, the nature of the city changed, the buildings became grubbier, less well maintained, the shops started selling a lower value range of goods.
Pawn and porn shops grew in number, loan sharks, set up stalls on the street corners.
Then crossing a street, dodging between passing traffic he was in Lowtown proper.
The distinction was sudden, as if he had stepped through a curtain, through a magic wardrobe to another world it even smelled different.
Elroy was only cutting across one small corner of Lowtown, so he had just a few streets to cross before he would reemerge, but still his senses pricked up as he walked. He assessed the risks, reviewed the potential of everyone he saw.
When he saw a threat he avoided it, even at one point crossing the street to avoid a large homeless man with grey skin and a single rhino like horn in the middle of his forehead.
Elroy recognised him as a low level villain, The White Rhino, who had been relatively big in the late 80's. He had served 20 years for robbery, ironically being caught by the Arachnid, and when released he had disappeared from sight.
Now judging by the bottle clasped in his hand, the pool of urine he was sitting in and the blurred confused noise he was making he had turned to cheap booze to drown his sorrows.
Still Elroy noted the name of the street and decided that he would have him picked up. An alcoholic rhino horned superhuman who could lift a small truck with one hand was not something he wanted loose on the street, even a Lowtown street.
The White Rhino would be picked up and would disappear again this time permanently.
Walking passed a cheap porn shop, Elroy slowed down his pace as he noticed a group of Lowtown youths ahead. They had the rolling swagger of young bloods everywhere but what made him slow down was that they were wearing gang colours.
The red bands which they wore around their arms declared their allegiance to MAH. Mutant Against Humans were a low level gang, who to Elroy's knowledge rarely achieved more than shouting abuse at passing tourists.
At one time but they had been suspected of involvement in the kidnap, ransom and subsequent death of the daughter of a prominent business man.
No link was ever conclusively proved, but they had been
Being able to fly was useful, but being able to fly two inches above the ground was not.
And if you just happened to be Multiple Buttock Boy, well where did you fit in.
Lowtown, that was where.
Lowtown, where all the low powered freaks, mutants and semi heroes precipitated like the scum on the top of a bath.
Lowtown, both and eyesore and a tourist attraction. Lowtown, where life was cheap, and if you were a normal, every day human being, it was frequently valueless.
The NYPD had long ago stopped patrolling it, leaving it to the residents to enforce their own rather brutal form of justice.
Strangely, within it's own community there was very little crime. That old lady you are robbing might just have the power to turn your legs to jelly, literally, she might not, but why take the risk?
And when the self elected chief of police could give you crabs at a glance it really wasn't worth crossing him.
So most of Lowtown's residents lived side by side and muddled along without getting in each others way.
But if you were human, all bets were off.
Come on an organised tour to take in the sights, the museum, art gallery and of course the obligatory strip club, where one of the girls can apparently strip herself down to the bones, and you were pretty safe.
Wander in unannounced and you were easy meat.
It had become a no go area for most people.
But not for Elroy.
As he crossed town, the nature of the city changed, the buildings became grubbier, less well maintained, the shops started selling a lower value range of goods.
Pawn and porn shops grew in number, loan sharks, set up stalls on the street corners.
Then crossing a street, dodging between passing traffic he was in Lowtown proper.
The distinction was sudden, as if he had stepped through a curtain, through a magic wardrobe to another world it even smelled different.
Elroy was only cutting across one small corner of Lowtown, so he had just a few streets to cross before he would reemerge, but still his senses pricked up as he walked. He assessed the risks, reviewed the potential of everyone he saw.
When he saw a threat he avoided it, even at one point crossing the street to avoid a large homeless man with grey skin and a single rhino like horn in the middle of his forehead.
Elroy recognised him as a low level villain, The White Rhino, who had been relatively big in the late 80's. He had served 20 years for robbery, ironically being caught by the Arachnid, and when released he had disappeared from sight.
Now judging by the bottle clasped in his hand, the pool of urine he was sitting in and the blurred confused noise he was making he had turned to cheap booze to drown his sorrows.
Still Elroy noted the name of the street and decided that he would have him picked up. An alcoholic rhino horned superhuman who could lift a small truck with one hand was not something he wanted loose on the street, even a Lowtown street.
The White Rhino would be picked up and would disappear again this time permanently.
Walking passed a cheap porn shop, Elroy slowed down his pace as he noticed a group of Lowtown youths ahead. They had the rolling swagger of young bloods everywhere but what made him slow down was that they were wearing gang colours.
The red bands which they wore around their arms declared their allegiance to MAH. Mutant Against Humans were a low level gang, who to Elroy's knowledge rarely achieved more than shouting abuse at passing tourists.
At one time but they had been suspected of involvement in the kidnap, ransom and subsequent death of the daughter of a prominent business man.
No link was ever conclusively proved, but they had been
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