Per Kai's post in her boards:



So... there you go!

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"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- Aeon Challenge Arc

((Man, keeping any of my stories under 500 words is a bitch. I could definitely get another 500 easy on this, but I'll cut it off where it starts getting vulgar.))

Cobbins slipped into the cruiser with a grunt that seemed out of place for a guy with neither the age nor the girth to excuse it. He slid the cup carrier across the dash, balancing it above the network uplink, and pulled his cup from it. Berkeley took his own out, sparing it only the smallest glance so as to not lose sight of the thoroughfare. Traffic patrol wasn’t much of a job in Paragon, but you never knew what you were going to run into. It paid to be observant.

Berkeley took a careful sip from his cup, but even his normal wariness left him unprepared for what the coffee cup offered him. Choking, the patrol officer spat out the unwelcome beverage and glared at his partner. “What the hell? Where’s my Serenity Soy Moccachatto?”

Cobbins shrugged. “Machine was broken. All they had was regular. I put some half and half in there.” He shrugged again.

“Dammit Phillip, I’m vegan, and you know it!”

Cobbins sipped at his own coffee. “Well I thought maybe you’d have a change of heart. Necessity is the mother of personal change and all.”

Berkeley was having none of that paraphrasing and poured out the rest of the lactose-poisoned coffee out the window. “I’m getting another, and you’re paying for it.”

“I paid for the last one, Berks.” Berkeley was about to protest that when Cobbins slapped his knuckles across Berkeley’s shoulder. “Tail-lights out. Both of them.”

Berkeley nodded and let Cobbins call in the plate, then pulled the cruiser out as their target turned right into heavier traffic. “What is that? ‘69 Mustang?”

Cobbins shook his head. “1968 Shelby GT. Look at that read end, what’s he been doing, pouring gasoline on it?” Phillip pursed his lips and nodded to the car’s blackened and scorched rear end. “You ask me, that’s the real crime.”

Berkeley put his fingers on the siren toggle. “You ready?” Cobbins hummed and took one more sip of the coffee before Berkeley hit the lights and chirped the driver. The Mustang surged forward with a brief roar, long enough for the cops to share a glance and charge ahead, but then slowed quickly. Berkeley had to stomp the brakes to keep from colliding with the vehicle, but then the Mustang burst forward once more. The start-stop chase continued two or three more times before the driver finally pulled over.

Berkeley was already steaming when he leapt out of the cruiser, more so when he saw the young man behind the wheel, undoubtedly smoking a joint. He waited for the long-haired miscreant to roll down the window, then growled, “License. Registration. Now.”

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"...his madness keeps him sane.": My Profile on VirtueVerse
Can You WIN the Internet? Arc #85544
Inhuman Resources - At Work with IE #298132
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 <-- Aeon Challenge Arc

(Just made it!)

Lynn May rubbed her sleep-clouded eyes and reached for the handle of the full coffee pot. A jaw cracking yawn distracted her, and the pot slipped from her drowsy grasp to make a wet explosion on the floor at her feet. With a startled yelp, and now fully awake, she leapt backward. Instinct married to power she still wasn't fully used to possessing carried her two feet off the floor. She stared at the ruin for several seconds as her pulse raced and she struggled to regain control of her breath.

With a heavy sigh, Lynn lowered her feet back to the floor. How silly of me, she thought. She stared at the glittering fragments amid the aromatic dark pool, and her vision swam, the present mingling with the past.

Broken shards of glass twinkled on the dampened carpet in front of the door, where she'd hurled the vase in a sudden outburst of frustration and anger. Precious roses, so rare in the wastelands, lay abused and cast aside amid the wreckage. Once so admired, now nothing more than victims...

"Mom? Are you okay? What broke?" The sweet voice snapped reality into focus. Lynn took a deep breath and turned to see her ten year old daughter, Misa, hovering on the open side of the second level railing, her eyes saucer wide with concern.

"Oh, I just dropped the coffee pot. I'm all right."

"'kay," the girl replied. "I'll clean it up."

"You don't have to--" Lynn began, but the child she had never given birth to had already pushed herself over the railing and floated to the maintenance closet.

Picking up the pieces, she found herself thinking. Giving me the second chance those roses didn't get. Her lips curled into a smile of both love and relief. No sense dwelling on the past. She wouldn't break down like that.

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Champions Online: @atomgaslight
Starsong, Lady Water Star, Obsidian Cheshire, Ravenpoint, Autumn Rise, Lumi, Risky