Saph's eyes narrowed, and he looked around quickly to make sure no one was listening in when she spoke about him already having a designer already. "The Masochist has a designer... She designs for the X-men in general. The Judge on the other hand... If they knew what I was doing. It's already a risk having you say you designed the latest costume. Hopefully it doesn't get back to her. Questions are not what I want right now..."

Her heard whipped to the left, and he followed her eyesight. "Did you get another report? I'm thinking of getting the event people to help. We can say it's a replica, and that someone stole it. I don't think they'll ask any ques-TIONS!" He jumped as he felt a pinch on his rear, and yanked away from her, wincing as he lost her support. "... I wasn't wearing any armor when I got shot... And... No offense, but minimal touching, please."

His first instinct was to punch her, but people would ask questions. Still, that was pretty strange... He almost didn't ask for her assistance again; there were probably a couple hundred people here that would gladly carry him around; he didn't want to listen to someone talking about what an honor it was, though, so he wasn't left with any other choice. "Come on... We need to find a better vantage point."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, don't get your panties in a wad. It was a little pinch, not a marriage proposal."

She started to lead the way toward where her spiders had pointed out the judge costumes, and snorted at him. "You don't want me saying I'm your costume designer, and yet you want to get a bunch of super nerds involved in finding the real thing? What, you think they won't pick apart the situation? Might as well just admit it right now, in front of everyone."

She kept her voice low, only loud enough for him to hear, and kept her eyes out for anyone wearing Judge gear. When she spotted the first, as he was walking away from them, she immediately abandoned the Masochists side.

"Hey! You there!" Half a dozen heads turned and looked at her, so she clarified a little. "... In the Judge costume!" She honed in on him, some plump kid, and picked apart the costume with her eyes before she even needed to ask. The metal parts were made of plastic, and everything else was cheap spandex. Not her work. She moved on without another word to the kid, who had turned to see what she wanted.

She spotted another, not far off, and relayed a question to her kids. They commented back, solidifying that he was a part of the little group they had spotted.

Circling back to the real life super hero she was helping, she took to helping him again. "They say there are a few over there, past that pocket of people.."

"What ever." He nearly fell over when she yanked away from him. "Hey! Jesus, lemme know when you are gonna do crap like that!" Maybe he should just find a fan to cart him around.

"Wow! That's a great costume, mister!" A kid walked up to him, and looked at his name tag. His eyes slowly widened. "Hey! You're the Masochist!" He jumped up and down, and pulled out a card with his face on it, as well as a pen. He eyed the trading card for a moment. "Can I get your autograph?!" The kid handed him both of the items, and he stared at the card... Wow it was like a baseball card. It had his stats on it and everything.

The Masochist

Confirmed Acts of Heroism(CAH): 116
Unconfirmed Acts of Heroism(UAH): 212
Years in Service: 2
Superhero Level: A
Rank: 8th(Ranks are based on Herowatch.org polls, and are subject to change)

He didn't want to read into the bio, but he was beginning to get an uneasy feeling about this whole thing. Still, he signed the kids card, gave him a high five, and sent him off to his waiting parents. In that time, Megan had made and arse of her self in front of a bunch of people, and returned "And asking every guy walking around here in fake Judge armor is gonna help? They probably won't even be wearing it; it's custom fit... Which gives me an idea... We ought to head to the merchandise booths. They might want to sell it"

She huffed. “I didn’t ask him. I got close enough to see if it was the right armor...” But... he did have a point. The metal bits of his suit were tailored specifically to him, and though her silk would stretch quite a bit, it wasn’t exactly a one size fits all deal.

”...That’s true... “ She turned her eyes toward whichever direction the booths might be... not really knowing exactly where, and pouted. It made sense to look there, sure.. but it would be a lot less fun than running around bothering random people. ”Lead the way.. th-”

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a costume from the corner of her eyes. A very familiar costume... and a giddy sense of child like wonder overtook her. She turned on her heel and practically dragged the Masochist with her, as she marched across the floor- pushing various people out of her way as she moved. Gently, of course. She Was in the presence of a super hero, after all!

”....it’s... the Blue Torch!... I can’t believe it!” Her inner fan girl went wonky, and she couldn’t stop herself from bouncing giddily. ”Do you think he’ll talk to me? Ohmaigod, I have to get his autograph.”

Saphirus was just about to lead her to the merch booths when out of nowhere she freaked out about something. She saw the Blue Torch? A knowing grin popped onto his face as he turned to look toward the object of her excitement; he had a feeling he knew who she was talking about, and it certainly wasn't the Blue Torch... Just a word shooting comic geek that tended to get people shot...

He froze in place when his eyes ended their travel...

Or... It really was the Blue Torch.

Before he knew it he was being dragged toward the man. He was talking to one of the event organizers, and when he turned to see a fan girl running up, he shook his head a little bit. "Hey, my booth hours are done for today, if you want an autograph, you'll have to wait... Wait a second. Well, if it isn't the Masochist!"

Saph, who had been trying to turn away, and hide his face inconspicuously turned and put on the best face smile he could manage. "Eyyy... Hows it goin."

"I heard you got into a little bit of bind at a bank recently. Shame about that, huh?" He threw in a little laugh as if to emphasize that the vigilante should be embarrassed at his little slip up. "Ahhh well, happens to the best of us, I guess. Well, it never happened to me, but who knows?" Another laugh... What an *ss.

Saph looked to Megan for a second, who Blue Torch hadn't paid any mind to. "8th place in the east this season, huh? Not bad... I'm number one in the western rankings. I'm kind of a big deal. Still, if you're interested, some of us top tenners are going out for some beers later... No guests." He didn't bother referring to Megan, and instead nodded, and walked off, stopping to look back. "Oh... and if you see that Judge guy around... Invite him... He's probably a creep, but first place over all... That's the kind of guy i'd like to have a beer with. Oh, and chick. My room number is 415, bring a hot friend or don't bother"

And then he was gone

"He's really good at what he does... but damn I hate that guy."

Something... was wrong.

She wasn't exactly off put by the initial turn down. Sure, he was cool and important.. whatever. She was smart enough to know that the world didn't revolve around her, and she could deal If she had to wait for him to be on the clock, so be it! ....But... when he turned, ignoring her completely, and started chatting with her companion, dropping hints about how much better he was than the wittle ol' Masochist, she felt her excitement deflate.

Who was this p@%&k? Seriously.. who was he?! Everything she had ever heard about him went up in a poof of fire and smoke, and she was left standing and blinking in amazement at someone who she had just been fangirling over. What a d*ckwagon! She probably would have just tuned him out, regretting ever giving him the time of day, and returned to her business...

"...Oh, and chick. My room number is 415, bring a hot friend or don't bother"

...but then he said that, and her temper flared. Chick? She was so unimportant to him, that she didn't even require a name? Her cheeks burned red, and she abandoned the search to find the stolen uniform. With one silent command, she set her children on a much more important task; Search and destroy. If they found that jerkhole before he left her radius of control, they were to throw themselves into a full on suicide mission in order to lay as many fangs into his flesh as possible. She wanted him so full of venom that his airways and veins closed off from swelling, and his stupid, goddamn pig eyeballs popped out from the pressure! Hell, she considered starting up a new brood of children, just to send another wave after him...

and damn the consequences!

"....Just another d@$&ch with a stick up his @#$... " Was her quiet reply back. There was no way for her to keep the hurt from her voice, at being completely let down over the whole situation...by someone she had once admired. Sure, he saved people and wore a suit... but half the reason she liked super heroes to begin with was because they were supposed to be shining examples of humanity! ...Proof that there was still some good in the world, and all that jazz

What a crock... She should have known better... Without another word, she turned and marched off

As he watched the top rated super hero leave, he couldn't help but feel an odd spot of pride... He didn't know the Judge was rated so highly; he figured it had something to do with sensationalism. He had, after all, just attacked a place that had a good bit of nasty rumor floating around about it, and reportedly fought off a well known murderer.

Still, he couldn't help but notice the silent fuming of the woman next to him. "I heard he was a bit of a tool, but he's probably spent years having everyone tell him he's the best thing since sliced bread. Still. He kinda is; he's been doing this a while, and he's never botched a rescue... Not once. It's almost uncanny." He nudged her toward the booth, still requesting her help. "Oh... and... I dunno... Don't try anything stupid, okay? You seem like the kinda person who might try to get back at a guy like that, and.... well... I don't think it would end well. Sides, we gotta find the suit. Agreed?"

"I don't get back at people. I give them what they deserve. That guy doesn't have the right to bask in glory if he's too pig headed to talk to one goddamn fan. He deserves every single spider bite I can lay on him...."

Her voice was quiet and sharp. She stopped and turned to look at the masked man, for once looking past the hero get up, toward the person underneath. "You heard what he said... I hadn't even opened my mouth yet, and he had already assumed I was just some hussy who wanted to sleep with him. I don't care if he's #%^$ing Gandhi, he doesn't deserve all of praise and attention thrown his way."

Huffing, she crossed her arms and glared with enough venom at the people around them to make a few passersby avoid walking past her entirely. Megan didn't like it when people up and changed on her. She liked it when things were what they appeared to be, rather than something stupid and wholly wrong wrapped in sugar.

After a moment or two, though... she called her children off. He had a point... she didn't need to start anything, not now... when they had a mission at hand.

"You're not perfect... but you are twenty times the hero he will ever be, purely out of being a better goddamn person."

Yeesh, she was a spiteful one, wasn't she? He silently told himself that if he ever really got on her bad side, he'd have to just kill her real quick before she had a bunch of Cubans gun him down in the streets or something.

Here's to hoping it never boiled down to that.

It prolly would at some point.

It always seemed to.

Oh well.

pie

What was I talking about? Oh yes. He wasn't shocked when she confirmed her need for revenge, he was, however, shocked when she sent him a complement. Wow... Maybe there was more to her than he'd first thought. For someone who sent out this huge broadcast exclaiming her complete lack of any depth, the definite appreciation for the quality of a person was kind of a contradiction.

A pleasant contradiction; maybe he wouldn't have to kill her at some point.

He was crossing his fingers that that assessment was accurate

Odds were it really wouldn't be, though.

He wasn't good with that stuff.

He was a better...

Puncher.

pie

Still grumbling under her breath, Megan reclaimed her hold on him and marched on. He had mentioned the booths, so that was where she allowed herself to be steered.

When they finally got there, they spotted tons of booths, with tons of merchandise. All sorts of things were being peddled. Posters of real life and fiction heroes alike, realistic and... not so realistic costumes... Even pictures with other semi famous people.

Not that she had any desire what-so-ever to join in on the festivities anymore. Her sullen mood had returned, and she felt like going home more than ever. Roach could always make her feel better. He was funny, and witty... and #%&@ing honest. Something the world lacked, and greatly needed.

Hypocrite...

Still, at least the mulling about within the crowd helped to take her mind off of the Blue A**hole and the sever let down meeting him in person had been. Taking people at their face value... it was a mistake that she would never allow to happen again, not with heroes anyway.

Her spiders returned to their various posts, once again radioing in with information on where people in Judge like costumes were located. Unfortunately, it was once again relatively muddled info, and left her with little more than vague directions.

"...Where do you want to start? It's your property, after all..."

Finally they were getting somewhere. All they had to do was get to the merchandise booths, find his crap, talk to some people for a bit in a room, and get the heck out of there.

Little did he know...

When he walked into the merch area, aptly named the 'Merch Hall', he discovered the biggest freaking hallway he'd ever seen... This was a goddam merch HANGAR, and it was filled with people dressed like... well, him...

Also, there were some people not at all dressed like him. One such person ran right up to him, smacked him with a fake pink plastic knife, and posed as sexily as she could. Which wasn't sexy. At all.

"Oh look, an X-man! I, Aura will defeat you!" Dear god she was wearing way too little for her doughy physique, and her ninja pose was... laughable. What shocked him more was that someone was willing to dress up as a villain! Maybe she was just crazy... Maybe she was the only one...

Something terrible assaulted her eyes, and she was knocked back into her not-quite-so-happy mood again. The twenty five year old had heard about the girl who has inspired the costume. She wasn't impressed.

It also didn't help that right behind her came a short booby woman who has squeezed herself into high-heels and a bikini of some sort. They looked like beef bones, and it made Megan cringe. "Oooh~ You found us a Hero to toy with, I wonder what's under his mask~"

She cringed again, and the pain kept on coming. Another body joined them, a taller girl who had covered herself in bits and pieces of scrap metal. An intricate and elaborate tail swung behind her gently- it was the only part of her costume that garnered any merit in Megan's opinion. "The Masochist, huh? I've got pain to dish out, sweety, if you can take it."

Uugh... She wasn't going to be able to take much more. Half of her wanted to just abandon her companion and leave him to his fate with being fawned over by stupidly dressed fan-girls. While the other part of her really wanted to break each of their noses, in different ways. God! They were dressed as some of the most heinous and despicable villains in the city, some had active warrants out for their arrests... AND THEY WERE ACTING LIKE IDIOTS.

It was a crime in and of itself. "Girls... please. Drool somewhere else."

Three pairs of heavily mascaraed eyes were angled her way, and she couldn't stop a smirk from curling her lips. "I'm sure there are plenty of other desperate nerds wandering around for you to throw yourselves at."

The one with the droopy bow in her hair set her hands on her hips, chest bouncing as she huffed. The 'Aura' impersonator crossed her arms over her own chest, and the girl with the metal tail completely ignored her. She was too busy laying on the cheesy pick up lines heavily in the Masochist's direction... "And who are you supposed to me? Some boring side kick? Slapping contacts in and throwing on some black doesn't qualify as a costume you know... Each of our costumes took days to make, why, that Meld tail took a month just to get all of the pieces!"

She squeezed the arm looped around her shoulders, trying really, really hard to suppress the violent urges trying to over take her. Surprisingly... she managed. Until that is, 'Aura' plonked her gently on the head with her pink, plastic sword.

She dropped her hand from her companions arm, drew it back swiftly, and popped the chubby girl right in the mouth. Not hard enough to really do any actual damage, mind you, but certainly hard enough for her message to get through. The girl shrieked and reeled back, her heels buckled and she toppled over. The one with the bone bathing suit watched her friend wall, then turned back to shoot a startled, angry look Megan's way. The girl with the tail up and abandoned her friends, vanishing into the crowd.

"You can't do that!" The booby one exclaimed, while Megan reared her other arm back, intent on popping that girl in the mouth as well.

She wasn't the only one. There was a metal covered girl, the Aura wannabe, and... woah... A rather busty girl dressed like that homicidal bonemancer he'd yet to meet, albeit she was a little more... scantly clad.

He coughed a little as the metal dressed one spoke up, and looked to Megan as she responded.

"Girls... please. Drool somewhere else." He nodded just a little.

"Yeah, I'm actually... kinda busy, so-" A chest bounced with a huff, and one of them spoke up; "And who are you supposed to me? Some boring side kick? Slapping contacts in and throwing on some black doesn't qualify as a costume you know... Each of our costumes took days to make, why, that Meld tail took a month just to get all of the pieces!"

He eyes the metal covered girl, who was getting rather close; it was clear she'd worked hard on her costume, and he'd heard of Meld, but never met her before... Still, he wasn't exactly sure how to react to girls dressed as people he would gladly put into the grave hitting on him. He decided it was best to ignore it, and leave it be.... right?

Megan punched one of them in the face, letting go of him in the process... He managed to keep standing, though not without a solid wince. Just as she reached back to punch the other one, his hand rocketed out to grab hers; with a twist, a tweak and a push he sent her face down into the ground, and held her there.

"What the HELL are you doing?! Do you want to get us kicked out?"

The Aura cosplayer stood shakily, holding her mouth with her hand, her eyes red and teary. Jesus she was just a stupid kid; she didn't deserve to get clobbered. "I am so sorry... Is there anything I can do for you to make it up to you? Preferably without the officials getting involved?"

Suddenly, she was kissing the floor. Megan wriggled and squirmed, but the arm twisted behind her back kept her securely pinned down. Still, it didn't stop her from growling at him.

"Well excuse me for not wanting to put up with annoying, needy hussies! Just because you have to be nice as pie doesn't mean I have to!" She growled, hissed, and thrashed, trying her best not to appear as weak as she felt at the moment. "Lemme go, or so help me i'll kick you right in the dangly bits!"

The two girls remaining glanced at each other, nodded in unison, before the one in the bone bikini pulled a camera from between her cleavage. "We'll forget this ever happened if you take picture with us... and give us autographs." The one dressed as Aura checked her mouth to make sure she wasn't bleeding, and nodded. "Yeah!"

Megan scoffed from her place on the ground. "Oh, woe is me~! Everybody feel sorry for me because I was acting like a tard and it came back to bite me in the ass! Boohoo~"

She was more of less ignored by the girls, who were grinning from ear to ear. "We want you to pose for a picture of us defeating you." They snickered, and the busty one whipped out a permanent marker. "And then we want you to sign our chests!"

When one goes to a convention (purely to see what is the deal, you understand) what one expects are a bunch of kids (of every age) in costumes in varying degrees of accuracy, most of who do not have the body type to pull off the outfit. One expects merchandise, guest speakers, contests, silly games, and camera flashes on every side. One even, to a degree, expects to get into the spirit of the event even if they don't want to.

Why on earth did I actually come here?

What one does not expect is to see their clearly injured friend wrestling a woman to the ground in front of... what appeared to be poor replicas of Meld, Aura, and some other mutant. None of who were of any particularly great level of attractiveness. It was somewhat amusing, even if it did come as a nasty surprise. Bummer, that had been a pretty solid punch, it would have been an entertaining spectacle. C.J. Pulled his hat slightly lower over his face, reached down, grabbed Saph by the armpit and hauled him to his feet. "I was watching that fight."

Gotta love Kealey, sewing name tags for us...

On the topic of other X-men, Cafas was himself in uniform, though why he refused to say. Maybe he had been beating up bad guys, maybe the attention was fun, and perhaps he was getting his yearly dose of ego boost. "Also, did you know that we have trading cards? I didn't. I bet CS is behind it. They're not bad though, check out this one."
The picture was taken at the perfect point of impact, A fully uniformed Cafas' boot making contact with the face of some masked gunman. "I especially like it because that shield followed through a second later."

Perhaps this is not the time...

The girls were making requests of Saph, Cafas wasn't too keen on joining in on the request fest. "Man you really are masochistic..." Snide remarks muttered in passing, as Cafas let go of his friend and picked the girl up off the ground. "Shoulda hit her harder." Whispered in ears as they gain altitude.

Man those costumes... Dear god...

Aaaaaaand then the boob signing. That was the straw, two of those people had stood side by side with him, sisters in the melee, a certain respect that could never be lost. "You know, Aura's blades are longer than that, also the shade of pink you're using is a bit pale. She also doesn't wear lipstick, especially not in that shade, and I don't recall ever seeing her in make up. As for Meld, well, what can I say. For one there's not much that can match her craftsmanship, and that doesn't even come close. You make it look like she's some kind of butcher, heavy handed and graceless. You completely misunderstand her, her limbs weren't weapons, SHE was a weapon, her metal limbs merely components of one graceful, flowing, interconnected, perfect weapon. Yous aren't even that. You insult them both, you should take that to heart, too, I know you know how the X-men feel about them all. And you, I don't know what the hell you're even meant to be, and I've seen the files of every mutant criminal in this whole city. If you're the one I think you're meant to be, yeah, right, she has taste and modesty."

Wannabe losers with no freaking idea at all.

The girls looked hurt, but his analysis was frank, and truthful, and only slightly tinged with the level of respect he ha for Aura and Meld as warriors. Still, they then proceeded to tear up slightly, but ignored him for Saph. Cafas, not quite satisfied he had gotten his point across, threw in one last remark. "Also, they all treat their bodies with respect, and hone and perfect them, you, well, don't."

Kitty has claws...