The Samaritan Snare!

It was a beautiful day, lovely, and Roy having nothing else to do was out for a stroll through the shopping district to spend money he didn't have. He was covertly starting to scout for a job, as the money after school would make a great addition to his already formidable allowance of forty bucks a month, but he was saving all of that for gas money for his bike. For now he would stop and take a seat at a corner cafe and watch the people pass, it was quite a spectacle. It was quite something else to see this many people in one place, and since it was early on a Saturday there was quite a bit of activity, shops were buzzing and the street noise was loud. So it was good to stop and take it all in, or so the young platinum blonde haired boy thought, as he rested with his chair's back against the shop window and breathed a half frustrated sigh and a half relaxed sigh.

"God, today's going to be boring and pointless as usual isn't it?" He mused to himself, he would soon find out exactly who wrong he was.

It really was a beautiful day out.  There were only a few clouds out and the sun was nice and warm with the slightest breeze.  A great day to have off of work.  Or so most people would think.  Byron was never one who liked sitting still.  He was busy most of his life helping with housework and helping support his financially impaired family.  As such, he felt more uneasy on days off than when he was working.  He needed the day off anyway.  He had been meaning to buy some new clothes after his shirt got wrecked during the little prank him and his friends pulled in the cafeteria, but he had neither the time nor money.  He would just get something simple, something cheap.  Just enough to hold him over.  "Let's see, I don't normally go shopping around here, so where would be good?"  Byron had been wandering a good 45 minutes now and had yet to find a good shop.  He never really took the time to explore the shopping district before, so he didn't know his way around either.  "Maybe a mall? I have no idea where that would even be though."  Byron frowned, troubled and mildly frustrated.  He continued down the way, still searching for a shop within his budget.

Those thoughts and words about a lazy day would come back to bite the two young heroes in the ass in a short order as Byron passed across the street from Roy who was more minding his flip phone than actually looking around. The hustle and bustle of the street would be sharply broken with the shrill feminine voice piercing the relative peace

"HELP! THAT GUY JUST STOLE MY PURSE!"

The cry for help caused Roy's eyes to come up from his phone, snapping it shut and in a motion practiced a hundred times, slide into his pocket without even looking. He sprung to his feet, his eyes darting around looking for the source through the crowd, which wasn't hard for the tall athletic boy as his eyes locked in on a woman in a skirt and jacket pointing at a man in a hoodie and skinny jeans running away from her, further down the street from the girl.

Roy would take off like a shot instantly tripping over a table from the same little cafe where he'd stopped ending up face planting as the thief was navigating the crowd in question!

Byron continued down the street, perhaps lost, and passed a cafe where a boy with platinum blonde hair sat.  He had no idea things were about to get hectic.  All of the sudden, Byron heard a woman shout, "HELP! THAT GUY JUST STOLE MY PURSE!"  He turned to the source and saw the woman pointing towards a shady man sprinting away from the scene.  "Oh boy, well, as good a time as any to see if I really am cut out to be a hero."

Just as he was about to take off, he heard a loud crash from the cafe.  He turned back to see a boy, probably not much older than himself, face down on the ground.  He had apparently tripped over a table, and there were a few people gathered wondering what was going on.  Just what was going on today?!  Byron decided he had to chase the purse snatcher now otherwise he'd never catch up.  He felt bad for the boy but there were enough people around where he should get some help.  

Byron pushed his way through the crowd, just barely keeping an eye on the thief through the people.  Byron was starting to catch up, but then the guy ducked into an alleyway.  Without hesitating, Byron jumped into the alley to continue the pursuit.

Scrambling to his feet and quickly dusting his face off Roy would take off in the direction of the purse snatcher, light on his feet he would be able to quickly navigate through the crowd of people, his eyes focusing on Byron a few yards in front of him, and realizing that there was no way he'd caught up to the purse snatcher that quickly assumed that the similarly light haired boy was pursuing the errant thief like he was!

When Byron turned down into the alley, Roy followed now nearly on his heels! Both boys blew past a man in a trench coat and fedora leaning against the wall opposite of the one they'd run parallel to for the last yards! A man that was the lynch pin of the trap. The man would step into the mouth of the Alley behind the two boys.

At the far end of the Alley stood the thief, facing the two heroes as they entered. The opposite end of the alley was fenced off and all sorts of thugs and miscreants stood in the alleyway.

Roy slid to a stop almost half way down the alley, his eyes darting from person to person to person, each and every one of them had a weapon of some sort, a knife, a chain, a baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire... what kind of a psycho wraps a baseball bat with barbed wire?

And to top it all off, walking into the alley behind them was the woman that screamed about her purse, her face was turned up in a smile, but in her hands was a snub nosed revolver, and at her flank were some more serious looking goons including the man in the trench coat and fedora. "My heroes!" The woman scoffed, at the two sarcastically, throwing her nose up at the notion.

Byron and Roy were surrounded.

Before Byron had noticed, the boy he saw make a face-plant was already running neck-and-neck with him.  Whoever this guys was, he was certainly tough, and strong.  From the looks of it he was also chasing the thief.  That was when he noticed the thief had stopped at the end of the alley and turned towards him.  Something was up.  He stopped running, and so did Roy, evidently noticing it too.  More thugs appeared form around the corners.  Byron looked behind him and saw a man in a fedora and a trench coat as well as the woman that had called out for help.  However, she now had a rather maniacal look on her face, exclaiming "My heroes!" rather sarcastically.  

Byron clicked his tongue, "A trap, huh?"  Not good.  They were all armed and had the two boys outnumbered.  Worst of all, one had a gun.  Hopefully the boy with him knew how to fight, or best case scenario was a super himself.  "Well this is a problem.  We're at a severe disadvantage here.  Any idea what we should do in a situation like this?"  Byron asked Roy.  Byron had dealt with school bullies before and the occasional lone thug, but nothing this big. Byron prepared himself in a semi-defensive position.

Looking over his shoulder and then back at the woman, then around him. Addressing his impromptu partner Roy would open his mouth. "Uhh... I dunno." He could feel the tingle of Quicksilver under his skin ready to go. "I guess we could try to talk our way out of it?"

Roy would turn and put his hands up. "I don't think you know exactly what you're doing we're heroes after all. And I don't think you want to piss on the foundation..."

The woman holding the gun would scoff and look at the man in the trench coat. "God that one's annoying. Do you really need both alive?"

The man in the trench coat would look at the pair of super powered individuals then back to the woman. "I need two bodies, living breathing bodies are better."

"Good." The woman raised the pistol and pulled the hammer back in one motion, fast enough for Roy's eyes to go wide in realization.

BANG!

Sparks and blood, Roy's body would collapse backwards with a blood leaking from his forehead. His eyes closed as he lay there, his body twitching for a second before falling still, as a crimson river rolled down off his forehead into his platinum hair.

"Fuck it I'll take the loss in pay on this one." The woman said as she turned the pistol on Byron, having found satisfaction in snuffing out Roy's life. Pulling the trigger quickly the hammer would fall and

BA-KABOOM!

The woman would scream as the cheap .38 special exploded in her hand.

"Moron." The man in the coat and fedora scoffed. "Roddie." He addressed to one of the punks at the other end of the alley way, past Byron. "Beat this punk into submission then take both of them to the warehouse." With that he would turn and leave.

With his departure the remaining thugs around Byron would close in, ready to follow the orders the mysterious stranger had given, with two more thugs closing in from the open end of the alleyway pinning Byron in and making sure he was hopelessly outnumbered!

His makeshift partner decided they would try to talk it out first.  It was clear they were outnumbered, so talking was probably the most likely way to get out of this.  Even if Byron was a super, and he had no idea if his partner was, they would have a hard time fighting them off.  In response to their pleas to just talk, the woman fired her gun sending a bullet straight into Roy's head.  Byron watched in horror as the boy fell backwards onto the ground, blood streaming from his head.  She then turned her gun to Byron and was promptly shot herself, as the goons surrounded him.  

"Dammit.  They really went that far.  Shit shit shit."  Byron let his body temperature drop dramatically, reaching the levels of liquid nitrogen, and prepared himself to charge.  At least there was no more threat of guns with one dead and the other leaving.  As he breathed, the air would freeze momentarily, causing a steam to roll off his lips when he breathed out.  His body was solid as ice, and took on a bluish tint.  

Byron took off, rushing a guys with a knife.  The thug took a slash, but Byron dodged in time, grabbing the mans wrist.  As soon as Byron touched him, the thugs arm began to freeze.  The knife dropped from his hand as he screamed in terror.  Byron was about to finish him off with a punch but another thug with a bat was about to swing at him.  Byron flung the first thug around, so he would take the hit and immediately followed up with a punch straight to the second thugs face.  The impact sent him flying and caused half of his face to freeze.  

As Byron was about to move onto the next target, a chain was flung around his right forearm.  The thug obviously knew how to use it as it had already wrapped his arm tight and he couldn't pull away.  However, contact with his skin caused the chain to become brittle and he broke it on the wall, causing the thug to stagger backwards.  That distraction was enough where another one managed to sneak up on him and smack him on the back with a bat, causing him to fall to the ground.  He was rushed by a man with a knife which Byron barely managed to catch in his hand.  He held the fist with the knife in his hand, but the blade had cut through the top of his hand between his middle and ring fingers.  Byron threw the man to the ground, causing his frozen hand to shatter upon impact.  

Byron winced in pain from his hand and back as others were closing in around him.  There was no way he could fight them all off on his own.

(As I had completely forgotten this thread and it needs continuing I will be finishing it concurrently with "Rumble in the Fireopal" Though I shall only gain a point from one or the other.)

Ow.

This wasn't Roy's first encounter with unnecessary violence. But it was his first run in with such flagrant disregard of human life in regard to lethal violence. He'd not expected the shot to the head and it'd knocked him senseless for a moment.

"...the fuck?" Roy's lips parted as he sat up and shook his head spreading his blood over the alleyway floor as he pushed himself to his feet. That was going to be a traumatic brain injury. He was a football player, he knew what a concussion felt like.

"The hell!?" One of the thugs called out as the woman, still holding her hand, mouth fell open in surprise! "They're both super powered! Get both of them!" She demanded, gritting her teeth, but otherwise not moving as she held onto her injured hand, a piece of the cheap Saturday night special sticking out of her bloody hand.

The quicksilver poured from Roy's hands forming two foot-long blades the silver glinting in the low light of the alley way, his hands coming up as he charged the group of brutes attacking his obviously super-powered friend. Now Roy had quite a bit more confidence, and seeing one of the brutes that attacked Bryon holding a chilled stub of a wrist.

Lunging in with an attack one of the brutes with an Iron bar batted his hand away with the sound of metal on metal as Roy spun quickly slashing him, blood flying across the alley way as he grunted, not brought down by the stroke but injured, another brute with a wood baseball bat moves up and swings for the fences, with Roy ducking underneath, to catch the metal bar from his first assailant across the shoulders but not budging as he spun back around and struck at the man's wrists, causing him to drop the metal back before ducking under the baseball bat again, striking at the baseball-bat wielding thug across the hips just above the knees causing him to fall over, the blood spraying onto Roy's white clothing as he spins through the motion as both men fall down bleeding all over themselves.

Roy could feel the bruises forming on his body as tingling as he stepped in again, one of the brutes threw a knife at Roy which seemed to bounce off his shoulder throwing off sparks as he moved in to cover Byron as he recovered. "Get up dude! We still got quite a fight on our hands!"

(For the sake of continuity, I will be going by the ruling on my power at the time of this thread and not the updated version.  I will not be receiving points or progress for this thread.)

Byron looked over in astonishment as the boy who had just been shot in the head stood up.  If that didn't confirm he was a super, the silver blades seemingly forming right into his hands certainly did.  Roy then charges straight at the enemies, displaying an unexpected show of skill.  Byron wouldn't be surprised if this guy was a member of the Superhero Foundation.  Silver swirled around and glinted in the occasional beam of light letting into the alleyway.  Then there was red, as the blood inter-played with the silver.  It was somewhat reminiscent of the old stories of the red dragon versus the silver dragon.  After he had taken out a few enemies, Roy made his way over to Byron, defending him so he had a chance to get up.  

Byron managed to bring himself back to his feet, shaking off the pain in his hand and back.  "Thanks for the help.  You're pretty impressive with those things.  You sure you need me here?"  He gave a quick laugh.  "Too bad your negotiations broke down.  I thought you had them convinced.  I'm Byron by the way."  Byron took up a stance, ready to attack or defend.  There were four enemies left standing, though one of them was the woman with the bleeding hand.  The three guys came at the duo.  One guy rushed Byron from the side opposite of Roy while the other two seemed focused on Roy.  The one who was going after Byron had the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.  

The thug came in for a swing and Byron had to jump backwards to dodge.  He continued his assault, causing Byron to continue his retreat.  He had seen what Byron could do and so was making sure to keep his distance.  This was rather troublesome for Byron as he had no way to attack from a distance or close that distance.  That barbed wire made the weapon much more dangerous for him as well.  While he was thinking of a way to fight back he bumped into one of the walls.  He had nowhere left to retreat.  The thug took full advantage and swung.  Byron ducked out of the way just in time for the bat to smash into the wall.  He then rolled to the side so that he was no longer cornered against the wall.  The thug quickly turned to face him again and begin another mid ranged assault when Byron noticed a crack in the base of the bat.  

Maybe...  Byron continued to backpedal much the same as before.  "What's the matter kid?  Can't do anything but run when you can't touch me?"  The thug cackled as Byron once again found himself stuck up against another wall.  This time Byron dodged to the side, anticipating the thug would attempt to prevent him from ducking.  The bat once again slammed against the wall, but this time the weapon snapped cleanly in half.  The thug looked at it in shock as a smirk appeared on Byron's face.  "I just need to get rid of it then, right?"  Byron rushed him with a right hook, followed by an uppercut with his left hand, freezing his jaw with the first hit and shattering half of it with the second.

"Roy." Was what the young silver haired teen told his accomplice back, as he quickly dodged out of the way of a throwing star... wait... the guy was really pulling ninja stars out of his pockets and throwing them at Roy!? The other man was using a chain, interwoven with barbed wire. He was wearing heavy gloves, to keep from pricking himself with the makeshift dragon's fist weapon. Both weapons were keeping Roy on his back foot as he re-absorbed the long blades into himself and quickly drew out shields and gauntlets.

Roy's subcutaneous armor could absorb a hit from these, weapons they weren't terribly damaging, but each of these weapons were incredibly painful and sparks would fly as each of his bucklers deflected the incoming blows, before the chain wrapped up his arm and dragged him forward, and the first shuriken came in and stuck into Roy's shoulder the subcutaneous armor kept it from going too deep, but the blood from the hit stained his shirt. As he was pulled in the barbed wire in the chain bit into his arm and sleeve, holding his arm... besides the obvious questionable tetanus shots he'd be getting it was also digging into his arm hard.

The man throwing the shuriken reached behind himself and deployed an expanding baton, swinging high, the man hit nothing but air as Roy, ducked under, receiving a kick to the chest for his troubles, knocking himself to the ground, and rolling to his feet but being pulled off his feet again, this time the man with the baton, swings down, striking him in the middle of the chest, before his foot came up and striking the would-be ninja in the head causing him to fall to the ground bleeding from his nose.

This left the man with the chain, a huge behemoth of a man dancing around and dragging Roy off his feet and onto the ground each time he kipped up, or rolled to his feet. Roy was stronger than the man with his powers for sure, but the mans weight and Roy's lack of footing left him scrambling to gain his footing.

"Fuck all of you!" The woman shouted still holding her hand and turning to run away at top speed with her injuries.

Byron was breathing heavily as his adversary fell to the ground.  He would likely not be getting up after that.  This was the first time Byron had used his powers in actual combat and the effectiveness he found somewhat... disturbing.  His ability seemed to be rather lethal and with no means of effectively holding back.  If he wanted to be a hero, something like that may be a problem.  He couldn't just go around killing all of his enemies, even if it was in self defense.  Byron was lamenting for a moment when he noticed Roy seemed to be in a bit of a pinch.  He seemed to have knocked out one of his foes but the other had his arm caught on his chain and prevented Roy from keeping on his feet.  

It was then that the woman shouted out at them before turning tail and running away.  Byron wanted to go after her.  However, he couldn't just leave Roy like that.  Byron saw how well Roy could handle himself.  Certainly he could do better than Byron himself.  However, if he was in a tight spot it would be better if they work together.  Byron clicked his tongue as he saw the woman leave.  He then rushed at the man with the chain from behind and wrapped his arms around his abdomen.  The areas of contact began to frost over and the thug screamed in pain, thrashing to get Byron off.  However, his positioning bade it difficult to his Byron, as he was behind him.  Despite this, the thug managed to slam his elbow right into Byron's face, knocking him off and causing red to ooze from his nostrils.  Hopefully that will have been enough to at least allow Roy to recover.

"Go after he...." Roy gasped as the man pulled on the chain dragging Roy's face across the pavement of the alley way, cutting off his speech... Roy was getting red in the face and it wasn't just the bruising and scraping of his face along the walkway. When the chain went slack again, Roy kipped up to his feet red in the face and stared at the man who pulled, but now with his feet back under him Roy jumped forward, flicking his wrist and wrapping the chain around the man's neck. Pulling back tight, causing the barbs to stick into the mans neck as his face drained of color from the strangulation, as Roy's hand pulled back in a squeezed fist, the man relented pulling forward to Roy as the blood was causing his vision to dim.

That was when Roy dropped the hammer, unleashing his frustrations in a super powered punch the sounded a metallic clank into the ally before the man's melon slammed into the ground with the weight of Roy's super-powered overhand hook.

Looking at Byron, Roy stopped to select his words. "Thanks." He huffed, obviously letting his winded state from the protracted fight catch up with him before grimacing as he lightly clawed at the metal chain, held onto his arm by the barbs of the barbed wire, looking away from where Byron was standing and where the woman had been just before. He might have caused the most damage but Roy was obviously beaten and bruised with the reckless charge into battle that he'd lead, blood pouring from cuts and bruises, as he cleared the chain he realized that one of the shuriken was still sticking out of his collar, and he quickly pulled the bloody weapon free and dropped it to the ground with a clatter.

"Do you have your phone?" Roy stated looking back to his impromptu partner. "Byron right? We should call this in..."

When Roy finished off the last enemy, Byron managed to push himself to his feet.  He made his way over to Roy, rubbing his bloody nose.  "Same to you.  I don't think I could've made it out of this if it weren't for you.  You alright?  Well, relatively I mean."  Byron examined the blood on his hands and then the carnage around him.  He was unsure of how many had died and was somewhat unsettled.  His eyes flicked between the fallen men, lingering more on the more gruesome sights.  Was it really alright for a hero to have a power like this?  He was snapped back to reality at the tail end of Roy's suggestion to call the situation in. "Sorry what?  Oh, yeah, we probably should."  Byron looked off to the side, embarrassed, "Though I don't exactly own a cell phone..."  Byron cleared his throat.  "Do you have one?  If not, we will need to find someone else to call it for us.  And I don't know how most people will react to this scene."

Checking himself, he was cut bruised, abraided, bleeding from the face. "Yeah I'll be alright, I think." Roy responded to Byron's question, reaching a hand into his pocket and pulling out his phone, flipping the old Razor 3 open and dialing 911. "Hello? Yes, I'd like to report a crime..." Roy continued the conversation with the dispatch operator, guiding her to the alleyway where the fight had happened, he could feel the surge of adrenaline, waning off as he shivered a little bit at the end of the call, holding on the line as he could hear distant Sirens.

Going over to the men that Roy had cut up, he quickly checked for pulse, they would groan but otherwise were all alive for now. "You're a pretty good fighter Byron. Are you a Hero?" He would ask before the first police car and ambulance pulled up, together and the ambulance crew got out and started treating men on the ground bleeding.

Byron gave an awkward laugh, "Thanks.  I actually don't have any real experience fighting anyone before.  Only thing I've ever punched was a sandbag.  But no I'm not a Hero.  At least, not yet.  I had kind of hoped to be one day though..."  He examined his hands as the blue tint to his skin faded away to a normal peach color.  "I'm not really sure if I'll actually be cut out for saving anyone though."  Byron lowered his arms and shook his head.  "What about you?  You were an amazing fighter.  Your power seems so strong and versatile as well.  Are you with the Foundation already?"

"Uh... no..." Roy admitted looking away. "I'm just a good scrapper, I get into fights all the time." He dusted himself off, as one fo the officers approached the boys, causing Roy to look away at the carnage before looking back to the officer who was taking a in the scene.

"So..." The middle aged officer, with a thick moustache looked at the two boys. "You two are S.A.F.E. enrollees?" He asked looking at the two. "Off the record, what happened?"

Roy nodded when the man pointed them out as both from Alabaster High School's S.A.F.E. programs. Looking to Byron then to the cop asking them the question. "Well there was a lady, who's purse was stolen and the thief came in here..." Roy went through talking to the officer through what had happened to them and the ambush in the alley way, but seemingly intentionally leaving out the man in the trenchcoat.