Stone and ice!
Paragon City is a big place, full of all sorts of crime. I’ve met a bunch of big-time heroes who are fighting giant robots and saving worlds and things. Some of them are really nice people, and some are… not so nice. That kind of work isn’t for me, though.
I’m here to get the kids on the street to behave! What would their mothers think, to see them out here robbing little old ladies, stealing cars, and breaking in to flagpoles?
Well, I’ll have no more of it!
I’ve spent a long time now just walking up and down the streets of Atlas Park and Galaxy City, giving those punks what for. Most of them are as surprised as they can be when the old man comes up to them and wallops them good. Nothing sends a message like a belt to the backside.
I had gone in to the Hollows. My contacts insisted. There, I had to try and beat some sense in to some of those Troll guys. Not easy, because they’ve got really hard heads, and don’t appear to be too smart. Took more thumping than usual, and words were useless.
Once I’d spent some time trying to knock some sense in to the Trolls, my contacts suggested I look in to the Outcasts. Now these guys, I thought I could take care of. They at least speak in complete sentences, and many of them have supernatural powers. Think of the good they could be doing if they weren’t out being ruffians!
These guys were tough, though! Fire and ice and giant boulders everywhere. They were cleaning my clock but good, and I made a hasty retreat, via the hospital in Atlas Park. After the second or third trip through the teleporters, I decided I’d had enough lip from these clowns, and set out to find some help in teaching them some manners.
A team of heroes assembled at the entrance to Eastgate from Atlas Park, and we went out in force.
This went much better. We really got rolling, and swept up and down the streets breaking up gangs of roaming thugs, and even coming to the rescue of several of Paragon’s Finest who’d gotten pinned down but good and needed a bit of support to get out. One cop with an assault rifle against a dozen thugs wielding magic? No way. These guys are incredibly brave to even try, and I was pleased to be able to go in and support ’em.
We followed leads until we found the leader of this gang, a tough cookie by the name of Frostfire.
He had a whole warren of these punks to protect him, as well as some magical things. We beat the tar out of his magic props, which pretty much undid them, and then spent a while and sent his flunkies packing.
He had a lieutennant called Keystone who put up a heck of a fight, and kept turning to stone on us. Played hell with the knuckles, but we got the keys to Frostfire’s inner sanctum from him.
Keys in hand, off we went to deliver some justice!
We went in hard and fast. I saw Frostfire just inside the door and made a beeline for him. The others took care of a mess of henchmen, but I was after the leader. I got up to him, and said, “Why are you doing this, boy? You could so much good!”
In reply, Frostfire hit me, right in the face. He said, “Take this, old geezer!” and summoned a mess of firey imps and an icy thing. They all started to hate on me, and I got both cold and hot all at once.
I grabbed Frostfire by the front of his shirt with my left hand, and said, “Hey! Knock that off!”
He snickered, and waved his hand in front of my face, then stood there grinning.
At least, he grinned until I hit him. He looked shocked, and said, “But… you… you’re moving!” He tried to back up, but I still had a grip on him, and he got another right to the chin from me before I lost my grip on his shirt.
Frostfire stumbled backward, and mumbled some incantation. He threw his hands out at us, and a blast of frigid wind hit us, but didn’t do much besides frosting over our clothes a little.
Ice sparkled in my beard and I said, “Friend of mine warned me, boy, that you’d try and freeze us, and I made sure we were all prepared.”
Hatred burned in Frostfire’s eyes, as he staggered under the onslaught of energy bolts and bullets from my teammates, and he says, “You’ll pay for this, old man!”