3.4 The Battle for Downtown

“This ain’t right, Jack. I think I’m hurtin’ him!”

Johnny B. Goode paused for a moment from the smoldering ruin of a city street as he looked up at Jack Flash. Steam and smoke rose up from damaged pipes somewhere far below. Imbedded in the cement beneath him was the limp form of Mister Mayor.

“No, don’t stop, Johnny!”

Johnny couldn’t hear Jack as Mister Mayor shot upright and threw the massive young man off of him. Johnny crashed to the ground landing hard straight on his blond head. He groaned and rubbed at his head as Mayor turned his focus back to Jack Flash.

“Now that wasn’t playing very nice was it, Jack? It isn’t like you to play dirty in our little games.”

“Yeah, well maybe I’m getting over that.” Jack lit up again and propelled another wave of fire in Mister Mayor’s direction.

“You know you can’t hurt me with that, Jack. Your fire won’t do anything to me.”

Jack gave Mayor a wry grin. “Who said I was aiming for you?”

The natural gas in the air suddenly ignited in an explosive burst. Jack braced himself and closed his eyes, but Mister Mayor had no such luck. He cried out at the sudden blinding flash of light all around him.

Jack opened his eyes to see Johnny strike out at their metallic foe again. “Don’t let up this time,” Jack yelled. “You have to keep him down if we’re going to have a chance at this!”

“Yes, sir,” Johnny said. “I won’t let you down, Jack!” Johnny rained blow after blow down on Mister Mayor. Mayor struggled to fight back, but the blows drove him to his knees.

A flash of flame shot down from the skies above and engulfed Johnny. The young metahuman cried out as his skin and hair instantly started to burn. Jack looked up to see a short-haired Caucasian drop from several floors up in the building before him. He wore matching sweatpants and sweatshirt, but both were burning away from the halo of fire surrounding him.

Jack cursed under his breath. Another flame-wielder, could this day get any worse? He hurled a pair of fireballs towards the newcomer, but he deflected them away from him with bursts of his own fire.

Mister Mayor turned and delivered a massive blow to Johnny B. Goode as Johnny still struggled to put out the flames burning him. The blow caught Johnny unaware and sent him flying several stories skyward. He crashed down several blocks away.

Jack backed away from the other fire-guy and Mister Mayor. He knew when he was in trouble.

An engine revved some distance away. All three faces turned as Skull Solo flashed in to view on the back of his Harley. The bald, tattooed biker sneered at all three men as he kicked the bike in to gear. Jack cursed his luck at the arrival of another Cabinet member.

But Solo went straight for Mister Mayor. He let his bike slide out from under him and as he flew through the air, he raised both hands towards his former commander-in-chief. The skin around his face, hands, and arms went translucent as he activated his acid touch. Mayor cried out as Solo’s hands wrapped around his shoulders and melted the metal beneath them.

“Go!” Solo yelled.

Jack wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He turned and ran. He caught Chihuahua’s eye in the middle of the Dogpack’s forces. He gave a nod, which the Dogpack’s leader returned.

“Pull back!” The call rose up over the gang. Some confusion ran through the rank and file, but they all quickly turned to leave.

Jack cursed himself again and again. The fight was over today, and they had lost.

*****

Mister Mayor roared in pain at the turncoat’s touch. He had given Skull Solo everything, and now the bastard stabbed him in the back.

“I’m tired of being your sycophant, you psychotic bastard!” Mayor could see Solo’s clenched jaw through his translucent face. The skull seemed to glow brighter as Skull renewed his attack. “You’re going to die, you big metal fuck!”

Fire engulfed both of them. Solo screamed in pain as he panicked and threw his clothes away from him. He dropped to the ground and rolled to put out the flames.

Mister Mayor capitalized on Solo’s sudden distraction with a brutal kick to the head. Solo’s head snapped back with a brutal crack. Solo lay silent on the ground. Mayor turned to the new arrival. “Who are you?”

“My name is Able. I apologize for forcing myself in to your affairs, but it seemed like you needed the assistance.”

Mayor gave the man a lopsided grin. “I suppose so. Welcome, Able, rest assured you have made a friend today.”

“I don’t seek friends, only allies. I was hoping we could help each other, sir.”

Mister Mayor laughed. “A man after my own heart. I like you, Able. What is it you want?”

“Just to get to know this city better. I have come to the realization that without that knowledge, I will never find that which I seek.”

“So be it. You take a position with my Cabinet, and we will teach you the who, what, and wherefore of our little country. Who better than the mayor, eh?”

“Agreed.”

Mister Mayor gave him a broad grin as he let his massive metal form shed away from his skin. He shrank several inches down to his normal size. “Come on then. We have a victory to celebrate today.”

2.4 Assault on Downtown

Downtown was on fire.

Jack Flash looked at the flames in his hands, but he could do nothing about it.

The Dogpack were insane. He wanted only to stop the Cabinet before they could retake power over the Divide. The Dogpack wanted the same, but they were willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives to accomplish their goals.

He knew he couldn’t stop them. He was powerful, but not powerful enough to take either the four powered members or their hundreds of dawg-soldiers. I started this anarchy. It’s on my head. But if all these people are going to die today, than I am sure as hell going to make sure Mr. Mayor goes with them.

“You stupid fucks!”

Jack Flash turned to see Witchqueen’s portal close behind her. Matrix, her cyborg lover, stood beside her and it was his voice that rang out.

“You fuckers are going to come and burn down my fucking town?” Blades unsheathed from his finger-tips, each three inches long and razor sharp. Pitbull and Bulldog were unfazed by the threat, as they charged in, their dawgs following.

Jack Flash turned his attention away from them. Neither the Dogpack nor the Cabinet was his major concern.

No, he was arriving right now.

Mr. Mayor swooped down over the crowd and landed only feet away from Jack Flash. His blue eyes glowed as the aura faded around him. His body shifted from flesh to metal, and Jack Flash found himself standing only steps away from a solid steel monster who wanted him dead.

“You’re a damn fool,” Mr. Mayor said. “You know you can’t hurt me. Your fire doesn’t hurt me and I doubt any of these fools you call allies can do anything either. So leave now or I will take action against your territory as well as the puppies’.”

“I can’t do that, Mayor. This needs to end tonight.”

“Have it your way, Jack. But I’m no monster. You have been a worthy enemy and I will regret ending your life today.”

Jack lighted up his full flame aura. His clothes burned away as his entire body was engulfed by fire. He couldn’t cause any damage to Mr. Mayor, but he sure as hell planned to make the man hurt.

Mr. Mayor charged towards him, but Jack leaped in to the air. His jump took him up several stories. He knew Mr. Mayor couldn’t follow without dropping his metallic form. From his vantage point, he could see Pitbull swing his chain at Witchqueen, only to have the weapon pass through her as she went intangible. He saw Bulldog and Matrix as they traded blow after blow with no noticeable effect on either man. He watched as the people of Downtown took to the streets to take on the invasion of the city by the dawgs.

Chihuahua pulled his barely clothed concubine along by the chain on her neck as the blind man walked in to the midst of the melee. Behind the pair came dozens of canines of all shapes and sizes. They looked almost like some kind of retinue, but far angrier. The dogs were ready to fight, and they immediately started taking their aggression out on the people of Downtown.

Jack reached the peak of his jump and immediately used his flame powers to create a thermal beneath him. This allowed him to slow his descent. Mr. Mayor waited beneath him, ready to catch his prey.

The damn fool doesn’t know he’s right where I want him.

A streak of white and blue struck Mr. Mayor from behind. The metal man stumbled forward at the blow as his attacker came to a stop. Johnny B. Goode looked up at Jack, a dopier grin than usual on his face.

“Keep hitting him!” Jack said as he dropped back down to the ground.

Johnny was a good kid, a simple soul who grew up in the wrong town with the wrong kind of people around him. He was a natural meta, always as exponentially strong as he was slow on the uptake. He could take a beating and dish one out like the best of them, but all he ever wanted was to be hero. He first started to follow Jack around over a year ago. At first he was just a pain, but Jack quickly realized he wasn’t going away. So he did the exact opposite of everything he thought wise and took the kid as a sort of sidekick. He sent Johnny on the easiest of missions, usually the ones that brute force could easily solve. Like kicking the crap out of a would-be ruler that thought he was invincible.

Johnny struck a double handed blow across the back of Mr. Mayor. The concrete splintered beneath Mr. Mayor as his body was driven down. He looked up at Jack as he stood over the injured mayor.

“Keep it up until he’s out, Johnny!” Jack looked in Mr. Mayor’s eyes as he struggled to get to his feet. “Beat him down until he can’t move anymore!”

“But I might hurt him, Jack.”

“He wants to kill us, Johnny. We don’t have time to play nice. Do it!”

Johnny nodded. He drove a boot down in to Mr. Mayor’s back and continued to stomp the man farther in to the ground.

Jack turned back to the rest of the battlefield. He leaped off to help Bulldog against Matrix. This fight was still a long shot, but they might just have a chance now.

*****
In the shadows of a nearby alleyway, the biker known only as Skull Solo watched the battle. He knew he should be out helping his fellow Cabinet members in their fight, but at this point he didn’t much care. His time with the boys was over with now.

“You sure this will work?”

A man in a large, ruffled cloak walked up beside him. The rest of his outfit matched the cloak in audacity if not color. Multiple colors, none matching, all made from various man-made fabrics, mostly polyester. Anyone who saw him would immediately recognize the Gigolo. And any of those people, at least in this part of town would immediately try their hands at killing him.

No one caused more problems for Mr. Mayor than the Gigolo. Nobody.

“Yeah, this will work. With this data I will be able to crippled Downtown and take out Mr. Mayor once and for all.”

“And the money?”

“Twenty million Canadian waiting for you as soon as you hit the border. I’ve got my boys on the outside waiting to smuggle you through the fence.”

Skull pulled the DVD-rom from his vest pocket and placed it in Gigolo’s hand. “Then I guess it’s good doing business with you, boss.”

Gigolo smiled and patted Skull on the back. “Yes it is, my friend. It most certainly is.”

1.2 Going to the Dogs

You have got to be crazy, Jack! Only a crazy man would willingly throw himself to the dogs like this.

Jack Flash groaned at his inadvertent joke. From his rooftop purchase, he could see down through the warehouse’s skylight. All four members of the Dogpack’s inner circle, along with dozens of wild dogs, frolicked at the group’s Olympic size pool. It’s now or never, he thought. He took a deep breath, pulled open the skylight, and dropped down in the midst of the Dogpack.

It took only seconds for Pitbull and Bulldog to leap from their revelry in the pool straight at the sudden invader. Jack threw himself backwards to avoid the massive fist of the hirsute, pug-nosed Bulldog. He bared his teeth as he charged again at Jack, but Jack rolled away from the attack. Bulldog’s momentum took him several feet past where Jack now stood.

Jack flamed both arms on. He aimed carefully and unleashed a blast of flame straight in to the oversized degen’s posterior. Bulldog yelped as his swim trunks smoldered and burst in to flame.

Jack turned just in time to see Pitbull’s chain strike before it wrapped around his neck. Pitbull’s face showed strain even past his wild eyes as he willed the enchanted chain to pull tighter around Jack’s neck.

Jack summoned the flames around his entire being, but the chain’s magical properties protected it from melting away. He could feel himself running out of oxygen. He fell to one knee as his flames died out.

“Please,” he said with what was left of his voice. “I didn’t come here to fight you.”

The various canines in the room circled around Jack. They sat down on their haunches and studied him as he choked to death. Pitbull stood just beyond them as he willed his chain ever tighter.

“Stop!”

The chain’s grip loosened slightly as Pitbull turned to look at Chihuahua. The leader of the Dogpack stood only slightly taller than his namesake. Completely blind, he held a chain linked around the neck of the barely clad woman known only as the Bitch. She stood silently behind him and through their mental link, served Chihuahua as his eyes.

“You have sixty seconds to explain yourself, human, before I let Bulldog and Pitbull tear you to pieces. Start talking.”

“The…chain…”

Chihuahua and his consort’s gaze both turned to Pitbull. “Loosen your grip,” Chihuahua said. “Just enough to let him talk.”

Pitbull nodded. Jack instantly felt the chain loosen around his neck.

“Better, much better.”

“You have forty-five seconds now,” Chihuahua said. “Explain your business in the Marked Territory or die.”

“Yeah, right,” Jack said. “As I said, I didn’t come here to fight. As it stands I have absolutely no problem with any of you or your gang. As far as I’m concerned, the Dogpack is one of the few forces in this mixed up pile of shit we call a city that I don’t worry about. But we do have something in common; something that all of us need to worry about.

“His name is Mr. Mayor.”

Bulldog guffawed from behind Jack. “The Mayor’s gone, fool. The Questions took care of him months ago. Those bastards stole victory right out from under us.”

Jack shook his head. “I wish it was that easy. The Mayor and his Cabinet have been working for weeks. Building up their forces, securing their power center, and preparing an attack on the Q-Zone.”

Chihuahua nodded. “And an attack that large would spill out over most of the Divide. Including our unfortunately poorly placed territory. Is that what you’re trying to say, human.”

“That’s what I’m saying. And the name’s Jack Flash, if you don’t mind.”

The Bitch whispered something barely audible. Chihuahua’s oversized ears twitched as he heard every word several feet away.

“We have heard of you,” Chihuahua said. “You have many enemies, Mr. Flash. Why would you think we would help you mount an attack on the Mayor’s forces?”

“Because I know as well as you do that the only thing you hate more than the Great Question is Mr. Mayor and his Cabinet. And I know you want to see him back in power even less than I do.”

Chihuahua smiled his toothless grin. “You are wiser than I would have guessed. If what you say is true, the Dogpack will stand beside you. What is your plan?”

“I see only one chance for success,” Jack said. “We have to go in now, before they can strengthen their power base anymore. With your help, we can hit them like lightning, take out the Cabinet, and remove Mr. Mayor from this world once and for all.”

Chihuahua shook his head. “I don’t like it. It runs too many risks. It—”

“It’s our only chance. Are you with me or do I go in alone?”

Bulldog and Pitbull looked to one another then to the Bitch. They both nodded. The woman whispered again. Chihuahua smiled. “The decision is unanimous. The Dogpack stands with you, Mr. Flash. When do we attack?”

Jack smiled. “Can you get this chain off me first?”

Chihuahua laughed. The chain fell from his neck as Chihuahua and the Bitch moved in to stand beside Jack. “Come, join us, and you can give us all the details.”

Jack rubbed his neck and nodded. “We’ve got only hours to work over this plan. Let’s get to work.”

Jack Flash

Jack Flash

Dex: 06	Str: 03	Bod: 05	Motivation: Upholding the Good
Int: 06	Wil: 08	Min: 08	Occupation: Vigilante
Inf: 06	Aur: 08	Spi: 06	Resources {or Wealth}: 004
Init: 020		HP: 060

Powers: Flame Being: 4, Flame Project: 8, Gliding: 6, Jumping: 6

Skills: Charisma: 7, Detective (clue analysis, law, legwork, police procedure): 6, Martial Artist (assault, battery, blocking): 6, Scientist: 4

Advantages: Area Knowledge (the Divide); Expertise (bio-chemistry); Local Hero; Silent Assistant (Cowgirl); Stabilization

Connections: China Doll (high), Double Cross (high), Everyman (low), Johnny B. Goode (high), Street (high)

Drawbacks: Dark Secret (death of son), Enemy (Antagonist), Guilt (death of son), Unluck

Background:
Real name: Jack Brigham
Marital status: Presumed Single
Known relatives: Francis (son, deceased)
Group affiliation: sometime partner of Johnny B. Goode, sometime ally of Double Cross
Base Of Operations: Q-Zone
Height: 6'1" Weight: 220 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Black

Powers and Abilities:
Jack Flash possesses the ability to generate an aura of flames around his body and projectself-generated flames at will. His mutation also allows him to leap to great heights, although a harmless fiery after image follows him on his jumps. While in the air he can also manipulate heat to effect air currents and allow himself to glide even farther than a jump would normally take him.

Thanks to training from his mentor Double Cross, Jack Flash possesses above average fighting skills as well as detecting skills.

In his past life, Jack was a grad student in chemical engineering and he still can call on his past training when needed.

History:
Born and raised in old Detroit, Jack Brigham was working as a lab assistant in a bio-chemistry lab in the pre-collapse city. His boss, an old grade school friend named Anthony Goen, worked on metahuman enhancement technologies. **CLIPPED**

Jack found himself the subject of a project to activate his latent metagene. The process worked and Jack erupted in an inferno which left the facilities destroyed and third degree burns on his still unstable body. Jack fell in to a coma and remained in a hospital as a John Doe for months.

Upon awakening he found Detroit in ruins and the first days of Mr. Mayor’s reign as the leader of the newly renamed Divide underway. His family gone, his villainous boss gone, and nothing left to him but his new powers, Jack vowed to become the defender of the southern-most districts of the Divide. Although initially hated for the destruction he caused in the city, he soon came to become better respected during a fight with a mind-controlled Everyman. He would protect the district for over half a decade while learning to control his powers at the side of his mentor, aging villain turned metahero Double Cross.

Unfortunately his neighborhood would soon fall under the sway of the Great Question, a gang of metahuman thugs lead by the Antagonist. With the district renamed the Q-Zone, Jack found himself embattled against thugs and metahuman members of the Great Question. He could do little to stop the Antagonist’s rise to power and eventual takeover of the entire Divide.

Now loved by the people but under warrant of death by the Divide’s goverment, Jack Flash continues to fight the good fight with only his friend and protege Johnny B. Goode and his ally, confidant, and lover China Doll at his side. But thanks to inside information

Personality:
Jack Flash is a hard man, careful to show his emotions. But deep down he is still the loving father of his youth. But now his focus has moved to the residents of the Q-Zone. He will do anything to protect “his people” from harm, and will beat himself up over every failure to do so. Jack refuses to back out of a conflict, and he will always fight until he can fight no more, even if it means a brutal beating. Jack’s love life reflects his loss of his son as well, as he will not let himself fall too hard or too far for any woman.