21st September 2013
15:37 GMT -7
Aberrance.
I'm not exactly sure that you could call it our first defeat. The argonate leaks stopped, and the death toll was relatively small. But Damien Kane… Or whatever was left of him, took the team down and a lot of people were crippled when the novel parts of their bodies were ripped off by the Un-Titan. It certainly
felt like a loss.
I've pretty much patched up my relationship with Cranius, and his improved magical abilities have made it possible for him to… 'Repair' the surviving 3rd generation Un-Men. But I doubt very much that the people here have fond memories of me or the team. And The Face himself is a 3rd generation Un-Man. His modifications were made by Cranius using Kaneflesh. Given how extreme the changes he had made were…
Well. If his attitude has changed, I'll certainly understand.
Where abouts is he..?
Huh.
I transition halfway across Aberrance, and then descend slowly to the middle of the park, where The Face is carrying out a perfectly normal patrol as part of the Aberrance police force. I knew that he was…
Technically part of the local police, but I thought he was more… I thought that Janus Senior had him separate from the regular officers. Not any more, it seems.
And that's not all that's changed. There are considerably more scars across his body than there used to be. I
think those are chirurgical, because while Cranius is a very skilful chirurgeon he can't make things merge
completely seamlessly without Kaneflesh. With him is the cat-woman Un-Man Tigira.
Her scars -if any- are concealed by her fur.
Various park-goers point as I come in to land, but since I'm almost above them neither of them look up.
"Excuse me, officers.
"
Both of them look up, though from The Face that requires more bending than from Tigira as his eyes are mounted in his pectorals.
Tigira looks less than pleased. "You got a visitor pass, or do I gotta throw you off the lot?"
"No, I'm here on business. Ah.
" I land just in front of them.
"I realise that I haven't spoken to either of you since-.
"
"We're-" I can see her fur bristling. "-
fine, no thanks to
you."
"Nah, come on Tigira. That big bastard was going to tear us apart anyway." The Face shrugs his shoulders, which… Looks odd when someone without a head does it. "He's probably the one reason we were alive to get patched up."
Tigira does a tiger-growl, but she doesn't do anything as The Face steps forwards.
"So what can we do for you, Orange Lantern?"
"The Justice League is… Overseeing the starting up of a training scheme for neophyte superheroes. A bit like what the Alliance of the Just used to do, but less ambitious for now. You've been selected to be offered a place in the first wave.
"
His mouth hangs open, which given the location of his mouth looks… Odd.
"Are-? Seriously?"
"Yes. I'm not inclined to wind people up over things like this.
"
"I just thought-. I mean… Last time you were here, I wasn't exactly…"
"To be honest, I wasn't the one who did the assessments. I thought I'd give this a go, and if you were still the same
blemmyae you were last time we met you'd wash out soon enough.
"
"That's… Harsh, but fair. Ah. I'm kinda in the middle of my shift-."
Tigira frowns at him. "I'm pretty sure the Januses would sign off on this in, like, half a second."
"I-. Yeah, even if they.. did, I'm not gunna just ditch your-."
"I can give tourists directions just fine on my own."
"I know you can, it's-. It's about being responsible." He considers me for a moment. "Actually, can you give me a minute? This is something I need to actually ask questions about, rather than just.. run ahead."
"Sure, superhero. I'll let Janus know, too."
"Thanks, Tigira."
Tigira nods and heads off, pulling her phone out of her belt as she does so.
"It's not a problem either way. I'm just here to find out whether you're interested. If you are, you can take whatever time you need to sort out a leave of absence.
"
He nods from the waist. "Thanks. And I do wanna do it-. What will it actually involve?"
"Training in investigative techniques, tactics and actual combat. And since I'll be there, professional development.
"
"What's that?"
"Working out how your power works and seeing if there's any way to improve it. I know other people who are familiar with the fleshcrafting spells that Cranius used to heal you, and we can look into how they interact with other magic, or alchemical formulae.
"
"And then… What happens afterwards?"
"You come back here, and if anyone associated with the Justice League has to work in this area, then they'll be able to coordinate with you because you'll be used to working the way they work.
"
"So it's like a training course."
"It is a training course, yes.
"
"With people? Other people?"
"I'll be mentoring you and one other, but the initial class will be a group of ten.
"
"Okay." He nods his torso. "And… Any of them look… Y'know…"
"None of them have their faces on their torso, or are Un-Men of any generation. Ah. My other mentee has silver skin, if that's any good?
"
"I guess… I dunno. I've been here for a few years… I see my parents on the holidays, but I've… Lost touch with just about everyone else I used to know." I nod. "And everyone else who went under the Doc's knife had…
Issues, I didn't."
"You seemed to be pretty stoked about the change when we
first met.
"
"
Yeah, because everyone
else was. I wanted to fit in. But you think about things when your body's fallen apart for a second time and you've got no eyes or ears or nose or tongue
again, and you've got no idea if anything's going to be able to fix it or you're just
stuck like that."
"Surely-. Cybernetics-.
"
"Not compatible with Un-Men. I had just about enough material left in my body that I'd reject any metal. And
good cybernetics are expensive."
"Ah.
" I nod sympathetically.
"And the thing I realised was: this?" He gestures to his body. "Isn't me. Every morning I need a moment to work out where my chest went, and then I'm like 'oh yeah, that
is my chest'. I got this because it's better than being dead, not because I was unhappy with my old body. And I don't know how I'm going to feel about dealing with normal people again."
"Okay, well, thank you for sharing that, Face-.
"
"Ian."
"Huh?
"
"My name. It's Ian." He… Tries to shrug. "I mean, who am I gunna pretend to be?"
"Okay, Ian. Why don't you..? Tell me how Cranius fixed you the second time, and I'll… Think about what we can do to help you.
"