[3/16/2001 9:16:05 AM | stAllio! nGsta] a familiar voice came from behind them. "it's made of iron. iron can't exist here. it's probably waiting for you back in towers circle." the heroes turned to see high general billy o'heineken, spiffy in his dress uniform, & stAllio!, who was curiously no taller than billy. kid wicker said to stAllio! "i thought you were taller." "oh, yeah." with that, stAllio! instantly grew back to his human size. "this place isn't designed for biggies, so i shrink down when i'm here. who the hell are you, anyway?" "i'm kid wicker! with my special wicker powers, i can shoot wicker from my wrists anytime i make the hand gesture like spider-man!" to demonstrate, kid wicker made the trademarked spider-man hand gesture & a string of wicker shot from his arm & stuck to the bus station building. "uh-huh," said stAllio! "obviousLy A useful power, i'M surE. progger, good to see you again. how was the trip." "it was... interesting. but how are we going to get back home through that storm?" "easy. we won't go through the storm. we'll go around it." "around it?" "well technically we'll go over it... wait, is that right? over it or around it?" "both," responded high general o'heineken. "yeah, both. i'll just summon a rainbow." "then why couldn't we go around it on the way in?" asked kid wicker. "you could not do that because there are rules. old rules." said the high general. "what rules?" o'heineken reached into his jacket & produced an ancient-looking book which was actually larger than billy himself. "these rules." he returned the book to his jacket, where not only did it fit, but it didn't even show a lump. "& how much time will have passed while we're here?" asked progger, always up on the technical issues. "does time move faster or slower here?" "...um.... dad?" stAllio! clearly didn't know. "both," answered billy. "the time here & the time in your world are linked via the phases of the moon. however here there are many more phases than there are in your world, & they don't always go in the same order either. a few hours ago, time here was moving far more quickly. now that we have reached mid-phase, it will seem to pass incredibly slowly compared to your world." "yeah, that's it," said stAllio! "so what's so important that you're trying to get the group back together anyway?" [3/18/2001 10:12:44 PM | Jared Edwards] Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl arrived in Carbondale (new base of operations for the Hunter) 30 minutes later. The trip normally takes longer, but no Love Chicken is normal, and Vacuumboy was kind of anxious to get there. The first thing Vacuumboy did upon arrival was pick up a copy of "Southern Illinois Hero Directory" at a local comic shop. He had learned a thing or two (though he hated to admitt it) from the Annoying Fan Boy. "It looks like he has set up his base at a coffee house, of all places," Vacuumboy informed Quiet Girl.. Quiet Girl just looked at Vacuumboy because she couldn't think of a response worth the effort of writing it. "It's called the Long Branch," continued Vacuumboy, "apparently you summon him by ordering the correct thing, cheesecake and a large mocha." Quiet Girl gave Vacuumboy a puzzled look. "Okay, it isn't necessary, but it says here that he is more likely to talk to you if you buy him cheesecake and a mocha. He doesn't own the complex, he just leased the rights to put his base under it." "Team or solo?" scribbled Quiet Girl. "'Team of four'," read Vacuumboy, "'The Hunter, Rehab Girl, the Tinker, and Psychlismo. The Hunter, an imported veteran leads three budding, local heroes against crime in the small colllege town of Carbondale.' Very interesting..." At this point, the duo had reached the Long Branch Coffee House. Vacuumboy became highly anxious, remembering that the Hunter's final departure from the team had not been pleasant... [3/19/2001 1:04:54 AM | Jared Edwards] Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl entered the Long Branch Coffee House. They encountered a smokie atmosphere and relatively little noise. A couple of people were playing chess in a corner, but it appeared to be a slow day at the Branch. The duo approached the counter where a young lady wearing an SIU ball cap asked for their order. "Three pieces of cheesecake, three large mochas, and a meeting with the Hunter," replied Vacuumboy. "Whip cream?" "What?" "Do you want whip cream on the mochas?" Vacuumboy thought long and hard. He didn't want to strain this reunion by making the wrong choice. "I'll give you a hint," said the waitress, "the answer is yes." She prepared the order, handed it to the duo, charged them coffee house prices, and sent them to the back room. "I'll notify him that he has visitors," she said as she dropped a note down a shute and pointed the way to the back... Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl were just about to be seated when the table they had chosen slid aside to reveal a trap door. It was through this passage that the Hunter, on a platform, rose into view. He was in full costume. Shirtless, with a 400 pound bedstilt in a sheath between his shoulder blades. The stilt was emmitting a soft, white glow. "Oh, it's you," he greeted Vacuumboy in a way that was becoming all too familiar, "hello Quiet Girl, glad to see you aren't dead..." "Good to see you, too, Hunter," said Vacuumboy. "What do you want?" asked the Hunter as he sat down. "We're getting the band back together," replied Vacuumboy. "We'd better go downstairs," said an obviously unhappy Hunter. After a quick descent on the same platform the Hunter arrived on, the three heroes were deep under the streets of Carbondale. Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl looked around at a near-state-of-the-art facility. "Nice set-up," said Vacuumboy while thinking it seemed second only to his own. "Yeah, it's not like what we had in Cape," replied the Hunter, as he motioned them to have a seat, "but then again, I don't have the Progger here, either. He stayed with you...at least he can't be killed. The Tinker is good, but he's no Progger." "That's in the past," said Vacuumboy, who was getting a little tired of defending himself over this. "Cape is under a new threat again. I was coming to see if you could help. My new team has been slaughtered. I need your help, and you're free to bring along your team. Murray is bringing most of the SAJS back with him." "No!!!" screamed the Hunter. "It's not going to happen. Haven't you learned anything?" "What?" asked Vacuumboy. "I rejoined you last time because you tracked me down after graduation. We have to finish off the Slasher, you said. Bring your team, you said. I lost them all. They weren't ready for that. You lost a lot of your students, too. We spent so much time trying to protect the rookies that the Slasher was never in any real danger at all. It just picked them off at its leisure." The Hunter took out his stilt and sat it on a stand. Vacuumboy noticed that it floated about an inch above the surface. He new that without the enchanted gloves the Hunter wore, the stilt couldn't even be touched by anyone less holy than a high angel. "If we'd gotten a magic aura to protect that thing earlier we could've saved a lot of trouble," commented Vacuumboy. "Yeah," replied the Hunter, "a lot of trouble and a lot of lives. Look, VB, I've got a good team here. We don't live the ulcer inducing life I did in Cape. We break up a few riots around Halloween, and the rest of the year is pretty quiet. I miss the excitement sometimes, but I can't sacrafice these kids. They're still young, just like the others. I know it wasn't all your fault, but we were wrong. I can't make that mistake again." "Leave them here, then. If you want, tell them to take a couple of weeks off. Progger is still with me. Chet is already on board. Murray is coming back, and you know that almost the whole SAJS is made up of Veterans. You've worked with most of them. Also, Progger and Kid Wicker, one of my most promising students ("you've only got two students left," thought Quiet Girl to herself) are trying to bring Stallio! back in." "You really are getting the band back together, Stallio! wasn't with us last time. This must be serious, and I would like to see everyone again and deal with a little more than drunken frat boys...Tell me about this new threat, and hand me that cheesecake..." [3/19/2001 8:21:00 PM | Jared Edwards] moments later... "So it makes people mad at each other by psychic projection..." "Yeah." "And your idea is to bring this team that experienced a bitter break-up back together." "Yeah." "Sure, let's make its job easy for it," sighed the Hunter. "Listen," said Vacuumboy, "I know we had problems, but it really is time for us to put them aside. If you don't want to help I'll understand, but there is no point in us staying mad forever." At that moment, three younger individuals came in through a side entrace Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl hadn't yet noticed. "These are my team members," said the Hunter. "Rehab Girl has the ability to spontaneously recover from any injury by 'walking it off,' just like coaches always say. Doesn't help with decapitation or disembowelment, though. This guy is the Tinker. He's my inventor. He deisigned most of the stuff down here and maintains the rest. He also designs weapons for use in battle, but he can't regenerate. Finally, this is Psychlismo. She came here to study psychology before realizing it had nothing to do with telekinesis, telepathy, or ESP. She's still soft, and would probably explode under much psychic projection. In other words, none of them are suitable for going along. Everyone, this is Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl." "The Vacuumboy???" they asked in unison. "We've heard so much about you and the team," said the Tinker. "It must've been great, being part of such a powerful unit," said Rehab Girl. "OK," said a slightly embarassed Hunter, "I'm not that mad. I'm in. But they're staying here." "Great," said Vacuumboy. "Let's get back to Cape, then..." [3/24/2001 6:36:01 PM | Jared Edwards] "Oh, the Love Chicken II is a two seater," remembered Vacuumboy. "That's ok," said the Hunter, "I'm taking the Predator, Rehab Girl." "Allright." The Hunter resheathed his stilt and led Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl into another room where there was a black hummer complete with a high number of obviously high tech gadgets and a stilt superimposed over a 7 on the side. The Hunter explained that the 7 was a homage to his roots back in Cape.. It appeared that there were four exits. "Why so many exit tunnels, Hunter?" "Because," explained the Hunter, "the train causes a lot of traffic blocks, and one way streets make getting around town slow. This way I can get to four different locations, two on each side of the tracks, that are centered in each quadrant of town. But we're not going to use any of them. There is also a lift that goes straight up into a garage a block away from the Long Branch. I'll just drop the two of you off at the Love Chicken II." And with that, the heroes entered the high tech hummer and the flatform rose into a nondescript garage. Both the Predator and the Love Chicken II were soon headed for Cape. [3/24/2001 8:05:36 PM | steve higgins] The next day at Marvels and Legends, Vacuumboy and Quiet Girl greeted the Hunter as he arrived. "How is it that we left at the same time and you managed to get here late?" Vacuumboy asked him. "I drive a humvee," the Hunter explained. "I had to stop every three miles to fill up the tank." He glanced around the meeting room at the people sitting around the inflatable conference table. "How late am I?" "Well Murray, the White Slut and the Tyke-bot got in earlier this afternoon and Reckless Boy just got here five minutes ago," Vacuumboy said. "But stallio!. Progger and Kid Wicker haven't gotten back from the land of fey yet." "Kid Wicker?" the hunter asked. "yeah he was one of my students from the very first class I taught, remember?" Vacuumboy said. "Can spontaneously generate wicker..." "I thought he was one we lost to the slasher." "you're thinking of the denim denizen who could spontaneously generate jeans. and we lost him to shupe." Suddenly as water droplets from Vacuumboy's inflatable sink hit the light just right, a rainbow appeared, the end of which flowed directly into the center of the conference table. stallio!, progger and kid wicker came sliding down into the table, the weight of the three heroes instantly pushing the air out of the table. "Dammit! That took me three hours to blow up!" Vacuumboy screamed at them. "hey Stop it witH the attitUde, my compaTriot," stallio exclaimed. "THat's not thE way to treat a Fellow whose pUrpose in Coming is to Keep yoU from having more Problems." "Who the heck's the rainbow brite wanna-be?" the white slut cried out. stallio looked up angrily at the person addressing him so rudely, ready to whip out a pointy stick should the need arise, but was quickly struck with a relapse of CYD. Vacuumboy quickly did introductions as an excuse to take roll. "This teaching gig really has gotten its hooks into him, hasn't it?" Progger whispered to Quiet Girl. "He's probably taken to making out lists and keeping them in a notebook he carries with him at all times, huh?" Quiet Girl, aware of Vacuumboy's cold stare upon Progger, could only silently nod. "Is this everybody?" Murray called out when Vacuumboy had finished. "i know we left Kaufman in charge back at our base, but what about my old pal Billy? Or The Bride and Groom or the new Goalie?" after Vacuumboy explained what happened when he approached chopper and Brent johnson, Kid wicker asked Murray, "who's Kaufman?" "Keep that up, kid, and he'll have no trouble fighting crime back home on his own," Tyke-bot said. the answer only left Kid wicker with more questions, but he was left to ponder them on his own when Progger spoke up. "We had to leave billy behind in the land of fey, for his duties there could not go unatteneded. and Licko..." "Oh, nobody cares about Licko..." Reckless boy interrupted. "what's really important is this monster we're going up against. what's the deal, VB?" And Vacuumboy started to explain... [3/28/2001 9:56:23 AM | Jared Edwards] "Progger," whispered the Hunter," psst." "What do you want?" asked an annoyed Progger quietly. "Can you put a fusion engine in my humvee when Vacuumboy finishes explaining this?" "Yeah, I guess..." "Hunter, Progger, do you have something you would like to share with the rest of the group?" asked Vacuumboy sternly. "No, just eagerly awaiting your explanation," said the Hunter...