Old Time Tech (Mega. Open to 1 hero)

The jump city museum of technology. It wasn't a stranger to break-ins, even during business hours. The public platform allowed for all kinds of opportunity for things to be stolen right off their displays. Traveling exhibits were especially at risk if they were showing off some fantastical prototype technology. The exhibit being knocked over today was one such travelling display. "Superscience of the 19th Century"

Copper plating and Tesla coils lined the walls of the exhibit which covered a large exhibit hall. A group entered the exhibit, peering around. They had entered together, and stuck together. But they seemed to vaguely be centered around one man. It was hard to make him out over the others around him. But if they had seen him... they would have probably called the cops.

The moment they entered the room... Hell broke loose.



All the men pulled out odd leather masks and goggles and threw them on. About a quarter of them wore bizarre gauntlets.



They parted around a man wearing a suit with all kinds of copper plating and whirring gears. Clockwork. This was a robbery.

Just across the street, was a tall lanky man in fine victorian attire and bandages. He was reading a newspaper that just happened to mention the exhibit of the aforementioned museum. Horrace wasn't what you'd call tech savvy, nor did he have much interest in most technological things. Granted, he did enjoy several inventions. Maybe it was worth a look, maybe there'd be something interesting there. Though he was one to take souls, the thought never crossed his mind to steal anything like many other malefactors.

So you can imagine his surprise when he walked into what appeared to be one of those "robberies" he had heard so much about. Actually- he had never heard of anything that he would call a robbery. Purse snatchings and small time robberies late at night were just small potatoes. But what he stumbled into looked like a legitimate robbery in progress. "My oh my- what does my eye see here?" Horrace commented, feeling quite giddy to have wandered into this mess. It was like a history in the making moment in spite of the fact these men were dangerous.

The men began going to work, grabbing anything that wasn't bolted down, and working on unbolting anything that was. The man in the middle began barking orders. "Get the Larson Capacitor." The man yelled to one, who using his device shattered the thick glass of an exhibit and took off a bizzare contraption with glass tubes and dusty wires. Others began stuffing burlap sacks they also pulled from their clothes. This was planned well.

Horrace noticed this robbery was well planned- another sign that this wasn't another episode of world's dumbest. That's some humor us folks on the other side of the fourth wall to enjoy. He used this chance to quickly drink the souls of the few stragglers who managed to escape from the building, which would soon turn them into obedient minions. Horrace casually strolled through the exhibits as they were getting robbed, ignoring the busy henchmen as he managed to pick out the leader.

His path was cut off by a pair of henchmen. "You are not the one I wish to speak to sirs. If you do not move, then I will have to make you move," Horrace told them, adjusting his hat and casting a shadow over his glowing red eye. Though his mannerism was polite, he gave off an aura of death and despair.

One of the two goons Horrace approached was a rumbler, and he began to start up his fist. "Boss. We got company." He said.

Clockwork made his way up the newcomer, oddly calm for somebody who didn't want to put himself in danger. To be honest... he was slightly impressed. This man seemed to share his style.

"I assume you wish to speak with me?" Clockwork said raising his arm, gears clicking as he did so. None of this deterred his goons, who just kept on their work as people ran and screamed all around them. This whole scene was rather surreal come to think of it.

Horrace looked down at the goon (he was pretty tall after all) coldly as the first of his servants rose, and proceeded to chase after the ones in panic. His demeanor cheered up when the apparent leader of this crew came to see him personally. "Good day to you sir. You are correct," Horrace replied removing his hat and giving a respectful bow. Tendrils of hair seemed to twitch this way and that as if allergic to sunlight until Horrace put his top hat back on. "I chanced by out of curiosity when I saw your collective attire. Such a shame that more do not share your exquisite tastes," Horrace added sincerely. Catching one of his minions lumber toward one of Clockwork's men, he snapped his fingers and pointed instead toward one of the fleeing civilians. The hungry Wight-zombie quickly shambled after them obediently. He'd need to keep an eye out for the rest.

Clockwork let out a slight laugh. He was glad to see he was not the only one who had impeccable taste. "You flatter me." He said. "I could say likewise. It would also appear you don't stand to impede my work." He pointed out. "I believe I should introduce myself. However, this is not the place for full names. Many prying ears you understand." 


Indeed he was right. There were still some people watching, and there was a chance those security cameras could catch audio.

"So I'll simply begin with my Nom De Guerre. Clockwork."

"And I shall likewise, grant you the same courtesy. I am Lord Horrace Ramses Quinton," Horrace introduced his current on going name. It may or may not have been his actual name but only time would tell. Not like there was anyway for a normal person to track down the name of someone that has been dead for many many years. "That is the moniker I go by these days. It's been quite some time since I could recall my actual name," Horrace admitted with a light chuckle, reaching over and steering another one of his hungry wights away from Clockwork's men. "Don't mind them. Not one for brains but they make splendid physical labor," Horrace added as he adjusted his cuff links.

"So these contraptions. They are unlike anything I've ever seen before," Horrace remarked.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said offering a slight bow and a hand to shake. The man then, rather politely, apologized for the bizarre nature of his soulless minions.


"I see. Very unique help you have. I personally hire mine." Clockwork said. It was surprising what kind of crazy themes henchmen would take if you just waved a Franklin in front of their face. Although in all fairness, some of his henchmen really did take the theme as seriously as Clockwork himself.


"My contraptions are all my own design. However, I'm always open to further inspiration." He said walking through the exhibit. "And this little display here should give me some good ideas." He said running his hand along a display case covered with reinforced glass. Spiraling from his gauntlet came a whirring rotary saw that made short work of it. The moment he turned around, a goon would start ransacking some antique clocks from it.

Brian was never the type to really be into history, even less so when it came to the history of technology. As far as he cared the oldest thing that he needed to know about was the VHS. Everything else was irrelevant. So Imagine his surprise when he was brought to the museum for a date and was left hanging by that same date.

Looking at his phone, he sighed. Of course, he thought. He had planned to get on his bike to go back home but then he decided to go inside. He did already spend money for the tickets. Walking inside he was largely unimpressed by the exhibits within the museum. To him most of them looked like stuff he messed around with in shop class. His interest had begun to wane but that was when the robbery started.

Now most heroes would have immediately jumped into action the moment the building had been broken into. Unfortunately Brian wasn't most heroes. He wanted to watch to see what happened. Fortunately he had done so, another being had appeared and revealed which guy was in charge. Brian decided to make a move. Taking out a cigarette and lighting it he began to move toward the exhibit of interest. Reaching out with his left hand, he would pull a rod out of one of the exhibits that was in between him and the two villains.

With a twirl of his hand, he would re position the pole in his hand. Then he would throw the pole like a javelin at the guy with the weird gear arm that poked a hole through the exhibit glass. The Javelin would soar through the air with enough force to dent metal. With Brian's strength the flat end of the pole would be like a spear piercing through the air.

Horrace nodded and followed Clockwork saying, "Hired help is all well and good. But that surely gets taxing. What with the 'needs' of mortality and ego," Horrace kindly pointed out. Though it was clearly a lonely and boring method of gaining followers at that aswell. "It does intrigue me to think of the potential one of my fellows wielding one of your splendid pieces of machinery," Horrace added thoughtfully as he watched Clockwork closely when he noticed something... odd.

Horrace noticed something moving in the reflection of the glass case before them. What struck him as odd about this was the fact that there were no other beings nearby them... and were definitely not hefting a pole. And sure enough, this unknown assailant hurled the pole straight at Clockwork. To which Horrace had to use his flash of lightning fast speed to turn and swing upward, hitting the improvised javelin so that it would not only fly upward, but would also get a topspin that would make Serena Willaims green with envy. It would probably embed itself somewhere in the ceiling, causing Horrace's Wights to pause what they were doing (the few still inside).

"It is rude... to attempt a murder without your victim seeing your face," Horrace stated in a deathly icy tone of voice, it was the total opposite of his tone moments ago. His speech also sounded... sluggish as if exerting that amount of effort took something out of him.

It appeared there was somebody who wanted to interfere. He came awfully close to putting a sizable dent in his arm, but Horrace was on top of things. His arm fired up and turned to face the newcomer.

"Agreed. I think you could stand to learn some manners." He said motioning to his men with his arm, the gears whirring. He would then gesture dramatically at Brian.


"Get him."


A few of the men would run forward at the newcomer. 2 rumblers and 4 regular goons, all trying to take some hits at him.

Brian smirked. Of course villains would send their goons first. They probably wanted to scout out his abilities first. He took note that one the villains looked winded. Guess stopping that pole took a lot out of him. Brian wasted no time, when one of the brawlers ran at him he would grab the man by the arm. Instead of throwing him normally, his grip alone was powerful enough to crush the gauntlet he was wearing along with his arm.

Then he decided to throw these guys at their boss. Only fair to return what isn't his... right? With his superior strength he wasted no time throwing the 4 regular goons and one rumbler at the ghost man and machine hand. The other rumbler however was easily felled as Brian shoved his face into one of the exhibits.

"So all your sending is small fry? Gonna need more than that." he laughed starting his rush at the mecha hand man.

Horrace was in no state to be able to move quickly, but had the foresight to watch this would be assassin carefully as he fought. Strength enough to crush a gauntlet? Great! He was another one of those super strong metahumans. HE WOULD BE PERFECT FOR TURNING! Unfortunately he wasn't able to get away from the flying henchman, and was crashed into an exhibit. If he wasn't already dead, that might have killed him. He simply pushed the downed thug off of himself and slowly rose to his feet, revealing no visible injury but instead revealed that the wrappings around his face had come loose.

Behind his wrappings were as you can imagine with so much passed time, nothing but bone and an empty eye socket. A red orb burned in concert with his remaining eye over a set of exposed teeth that looked as though they were trying to form words. Instead Horrace took a breath and... screamed. Not an ordinary scream, but a high pitched and ear splitting cacophony. On closer inspection of his person, one would see tiny holes with pieces of glass sticking out that occasionally let off an unearthly shine as something beneath his clothing shifted about. "Pray... accept my apologies," Horrace apologized after recovering his composure. The wrappings hanging from his head moved on their own and seemed to rewrap themselves around his face on their own accord as Horrace dusted himself off. "It's not easy being a voracious maelstrom of souls you understand... but now you've made me frightfully... irritated," Horrace continued as the zombie-like Wights joined the fray.

In reality, Horrace's howl (which wasn't special or supernatural per say- it was just loud) would attract the attention of any Wights still shambling around outside. Horrace himself was still too sluggish to join the fight just yet and would just keep his eye peeled for any more flying projectiles.

So the reckless youth was one of those powered individuals. It didn't really make this job any more difficult. It just made matters a bit more... complicated.

Clockwork went wide eyed when he saw the true face of the one helping him. He looked like death on earth. At least that's what he could gather from the limited amount exposed. The extremely loud screeching made the copper plating on Clockwork and his Goons shudder and vibrate. That may as well have been loud enough to wake the dead.

So this man was something demonic was he? Or based upon the concepts of souls of the damned? That sounded about right. 

In the meantime, Clockwork made sure his men didn't deviate any more from their objective than they already had. With another quick gesture, the minions made for the fire escape. Only they weren't heading down. They went up.

"You're out of your league young man. I would suggest leaving now."