Sample #66

Zombieman RP [One Punch Man] 18+ Rules Bio Currently on a bit of stress-leave. Be back soon.

[sample66-blog]

((I....don’t think I ever made a post for this, but needless to say I’m on a hiatus right now. Just in case any one was wondering-I’m not avoiding any one or any threads. Mun’s mom has little time left and the last thing on my mind is running this blog. I’ll be back eventually, when I’m in a better state of mind and feel like writing again. For now, sorry about the inactivity))

[unyielding-justice-blog]

For a few moments, Mumen sat silently listening to the sounds of his heartbeat returning to a normal pace echoing through the blood in his ears. He felt a lot of things; most of them shame for breaking down, but also relief and something akin to gratitude. He drew in a steady breath and released it slowly before reaching under his glasses to dry his eyes on the back of his hands. “I think…”, he choked out, voice wetter than he’d realized, “it might”.

“You know,” he went on, “if I were half as smart as any other hero, I probably would’ve given it up already.” He let out something between a laugh and a sob, then trailed off, “I wonder why I can't…”

With a sniffle and a clearing of his throat, Mumen untucked himself and put his feet back on the floor, giving Zombieman a small, half-hearted smile. “I’m sorry. I’m some houseguest, huh? Invite me in for a few drinks and before you know it I’m crying on your armchair.” He shrugged and chanced a glance out the window once more. Even if the buses were still running, he didn’t really feel like being alone right now. “If you really don’t mind? Then…yeah I think staying here tonight might be a good idea. Do you need any help in the kitchen?”

[sample66-blog]

He nodded when the brunette accepted his offer to patrol. Hoping that maybe having someone helping him out might give him a bit of a confidence boost...but at the same time, a little relieved too. It meant he could keep a closer eye on the kid and make sure he didn’t get himself killed...maybe convince him to get a weapon or something, who knew.

He tucked his hands in his pants pockets at the C-Class’ continued self-deprecation. “If I lost my powers, I don’t think I’d stop being a hero, regardless of the risks... Might invest in some Kevlar, though...Might not be a bad idea for you.”, he joked and shrugged. He didn’t really have much of a purpose for himself in life, he honestly didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t have his regenerative abilities. It was a weird notion to him. He was certain there were other things he could do, maybe someday he’d try something else when he got bored of hero work...

“I wouldn’t have offered if I minded.” He said bluntly, sounding a bit more harsh than he’d intended. “... but yeah if you want to help with the food... Anything you prefer? You’re still recovering right, would stew or something be better?”

[charlottes-lab]

As she felt the earth shake and the rubble fall, Charlotte was glad that she had to do all of work related to sample collecting, including the recruiting. Because that meant that the rest of her lab mates would be hopefully safe inside the lab, and she trusted Shan and the rest of the security to take care of any other threats. It was better that she was out here for when shit like this happened, because at least she had some experience with it. 

Though obviously not as much as Mr. 66 (was she really going to refer to him as that? Did she have any other option? Mr. Pale Man or Mr. S Class didn’t sound any better), as she watched him automatically check his weapon and prepare for battle. That’s a good idea, and she started toeing off her shoes and stripping off her white lab coat. 

She just got it off when he began speaking to her, and she glanced over in time to see him bump his head into the table. She let out a quick exhale of the nose, a sign of amusement, and smiled at him. That was the first sign of Mr. 66 being fallible and human-like, she liked it. 

“Sounds good!” She grabbed her backpack and her gear and followed him out of the safety of the booth. She surveyed the area around her, taking notes of which civilians who might needed help or checking up on, as she started putting her hero get up on. She was thankful again for one of her lab mate’s suggestion, that she should do a demonstration at mid-day with her hero-get up, or else she would feel so less secure with only her back-up supplies. 

She had brought everything, including her weapons and her gas mask. Within a few moments, she was set, with her gas mask speaker activated, her phone secured, her weapons on her back, and rocket skates on her feet. Speed was of essence here, can’t be weighed down by her backpack, she needed to get these civilians evacuated prompto.

With that, she whizzed off to the nearest civilians. She called out over her shoulder, “Be safe, mister! I’ll be coming back and showing you how to sample, so you better stay alive and well!” There may be no movement yet, no beginning monologue, but with the force of that kind of entrance, somebody (or somebodies) will be coming soon.

[sample66-blog]

He took a quick glance back at the woman at her outburst, when he noticed she’d doned some type of battle gear... not even aware that she had any combat experience, but thankful that she seemed to. Good. It was one less person he need worry about if the fight went south for him.

“Yeah, I’ll check back about that later-” he heard himself blurt out. “Just stay clear!”

He turned and kicked off into a sprint towards the blast site, yelling at civilians to clear the area as he ran by, not that they needed much coaxing, they were already frantically dispersing as an enormous looming silhouette emerged from the crater... turning in the direction of his voice. Shit.

Zombie’ still couldn’t make out much of it’s form as he drew nearer the thing. The air was still clouded thick with dust and he squinted and brought his arm up to shield his face and he closed the distance between himself and whatever the hell had come out of the ground.

A few cars’ lengths from the creature and he slowed to a halt as he saw???...What looked like an enormous wad of chewed gum, writhing it’s way closer to him. Was it even sentient?

“What the hell...?”, he pointed his gun at the ...thing, not know what to expect, and fired a few rounds directly into it. As soon as the first bullet made contact, hundreds of eyes sprang open all over on the massive blob...all of them staring at him.

[hearthardhit-archive]

Slingshot immediately noticed that the man wasn’t buying her act. The way he eyed her with distrust and how he was approaching her weren’t good signals. That won’t do. Well, if it had been too easy, then she would have lost interest in him rather quickly. Also, she had to give him some credit for obeying her even if he didn’t completely trust her. But… what really left an impression on her was how he hadn’t show a glimpse of fear. He really had potential. She knew she hadn’t chosen him for nothing.

Now, what could she have done wrong for her little plaything to become so defensive? There were many things about her that could make any creature put a good use to its legs but there must be one specific thing that’s bothering him. Unconsciously, her glowed hand played with the thorns of her whip while she shifted her weight to the side. Oh! Of course.

Slingshot grabbed her whip with both hands and slowly twisted part of it in circles before she showed him her open hands to prove her innocence, thumbs holding her weapon in place. “Scared? That’s cute but don’t worry, dear.” Slingshot tilted her head to the side while her voice turned as sweet as her lies. “This is just for show.” Then, she easily rolled up the rest her whip and clipped it to one of the rings of her leather costume. Now that she didn’t have her weapon at hand, she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows in annoyance. “Better?”

She quickly noticed that her last comment probably hadn’t sounded as friendly as she would have liked so she looked away and ran her fingers through her long hair. “Listen darling, I know my body is a piece of art that deserves to be stared at and that you probably can’t help yourself but… how about some introductions first?”

[sample66-blog]

He watched as she wound and put aside the whip. A rather unexpected move from her, as he hadn’t been expecting her to yield but he simply shrugged at her display of passivity. The hero watched, transfixed as she thread her fingers through that thick luscious hair of hers, without hitting a single snag or tangle. 

Zombie’ hadn’t even realized he’d been staring a little too intently, until she made to comment on it. He mentally smacked himself, had he really been so obvious? Still...there was something beguiling about her that he couldn’t place. Sure he was prone to appreciating other people’s assets from time to time, but he wasn’t one to stare or gawk at them. 

There was something almost unnatural about her beauty, something he couldn’t place, and it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. After a short pause, he was broken out of his trance when he remembered she’d asked him his name.

“Every one calls me Zombieman.” He managed to keep himself from staring anywhere else but her face, trying to hold eye contact with her despite how unsettling it felt. From his peripheral vision, he focused some attention to her hands, to make sure he’d notice any sudden movements. He was now quite certain this lovely woman was indeed a monster.

“Yourself?”

[charlottes-lab]

Her jaw dropped. You’re kidding me. She stared at him and didn’t respond out of her stupor until he handed her the clipboard. But his next comment didn’t really help, and she blurted out, “You serious?" 

She shook her head, "I mean of course, Mr…” She glanced at the sheet but found the number 66 where his name should have been. Was it legal to have a number as a name? Will the banks be able to process the checks if it was written out to Mr. 66? Just wait, what?

She looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed, attempting to figure out if he was pulling her leg. He seemed so serious though and he was polite about everything else, so just move on, be polite about it. She looked back down and  scanned through the document, nodding when she saw enough contact information. 

“I apologize, we rarely get such high heroes as yourself, sir, so it’s just so surprising. We really do appreciate —”

Charlotte trailed off, as the ground several yards away began to rise like an impeding explosion. “Get down!” She screamed and she yanked him by the collar, pulling him down and over the booth before attempting to shove him into a corner. It was rather crowded with her backpack, her gear, and the liquid nitrogen tank, but they were able to fit.

And seconds later, the earth erupted.

[sample66-blog]

His eyebrow went up, “Yeah.”, he reserved commenting on anything else, it was pretty rare that he had to fill out forms unless it were with the Hero’s Association...He didn’t like offering his private information so freely... force of habit. Though he wasn’t sure if it worked to prevent rumors about him or if it just fed the fires that started them.

There was an eerie hush of silence before he noticed the table begin to vibrate. His eyes narrowed as he tuned her out, trying to listen for anything strange nearby before he was brought back as she screamed for him to get down, ’wh-’

“-!?”

His eyes barely had a second to register the hand grabbing at the collar of his coat, and practically tossing him over to her side of the table, taking flyers and miscellaneous papers along for the ride. Before the hero even had a chance to respond and ask her what the fuck she was doing, he was yanked down under the cramped booth.

Red eyes went wide when, a breath later, the ground seemed to almost explode a few blocks from where they huddled. Zombie’ watched, squinting as the air filled with dirt and dust, chunks of asphalt and all manner of debris that had been sent rocketing upwards during the initial blast soon came pelting down in a bizarre hail storm of rubble. He was suddenly half appreciative of the lady for hauling him under the table.

In an automatic fashion, he’d already taken his gun out, releasing the magazine to check how many rounds he had in the clip before snapping it back in place and double checked the safety. He patted his back pockets, his coat pockets, taking a quick inventory of how much ammunition he had on his person as his eyes snapped back to focus at the scene up ahead. 

The air was still clouded with dust and dirt... it was near impossible for him to make anything out, or if anything had emerged out of the ground. Was it a monster or had there just been an ruptured water main? Not likely... there wasn’t any water spouting out. Did sink holes do that? Maybe a gas line or something blew? No, it was probably a god damn monster. He felt himself groan irritably. So much for a nice quiet day.

“You.” He turned to look at her, smashing his head on the table and pausing a moment to wince before he continued. 

“I’ll check it out. The shelter’s a little far from here, but try to make it. If not, try to get into a building with a basement or something...” He looked back at the hole in the ground. 

On second thought that might not be wise.

“Forget it, just try to get to the shelter. If I can’t handle it, I’ll at least try to keep it occupied for a while”, he crawled out from under the table, making an effort not to bruise his head or his ego any more than necessary, dusting himself off with his left hand as he stood up fully, pistol in his right. 

[hearthardhit-archive]

Slingshot S raised one of her eyebrows in clear confusion. His reaction had been… unexpected? New? Definitely not the typical cold sweat and screaming while running away of the normal citizen she had scared away earlier. She slapped her whip against the ground to show that she wasn’t fucking around.  

To be honest, she had been captivated by his peculiar features since she first laid her eyes on him. Those intense red eyes contrasted beautifully with his inhuman pale skin. It was fascinating. She had been searching for a new slave, one that would keep her entertained for a while, and now she believes she finally found it. ~ ❤

Before she took any step closer to him, she analyzed his body language and clothing, searching for a hint that told her that the man was a hero trying to make her let her guard down. But no, he clearly was too enamored by her beauty to notice that she was mysterious being. Perfect. Slingshot tried her best to contain her malicious laughter. He either was a fool or really desperate to be her new slave. Well, it was better when they willingly became her slaves.

She thought of an evil and very funny game. For how long could she trick him? She really couldn’t wait to see his lovely red eyes quiver with fear. Once he realized his terrible mistake, she would turn him into another of her love slaves. 

“Did I stutter? I don’t see another disgustingly cute little thing like you around here.”

[sample66-blog]

His eyes darted down to that barbed whip as she cracked it loudly in a display of hostility. One thin black brow went up as he looked her face over more closely, and he noticed the strange black sclera of her eyes...Either she was wearing special contact lenses, or something was up with this woman. 

It was always possible that she was a monster, but unless she provoked him, he wasn’t about to act out. Instead he shrugged, cocking his head to one side before he made to walk closer to her. He kept a watchful eye on that weapon in her hand as he advanced at a leisurely pace.

“Disgusting and cute, does that mean I score at least one thing on your checklist?”, his face was characteristically blank as he stopped a couple feet from where she stood. 

It was easier to notice now. Through the leather harness which hid almost nothing, was a well-defined abdomen, her arms and legs were well toned as well. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman so physically fit and sporting a six pack. There was definitely something alluring about her half-shielded face, a pernicious aspect about her eyes that could set one’s instincts screaming to flee. 

Zombie’ found himself wondering how many rounds he had left in his magazine... he knew he had two full clips to spare, but he didn’t have his other weapons on hand. At least he knew the safety was off.

[charlottes-lab]

Charlotte’s eyes widened in response, unable to believe that he would actually sign up. It wasn’t supposed to be this easy and forgiving. She couldn’t help but grin at him as she fished out a pen from her side pocket. She gently placed it on top of the clipboard, responding brightly, “Here you go, sir!” I can’t wait to tell them that I got a hero sign up so soon!  

“May I ask what hero class are you?” She knows that she could probably look it up later, as the papers required both legal name and hero name, so that they will be compensated by both their research lab and the hero association. But, she wanted to know now as she was so excited. Once he left, she was totally going to call her lab mates and brag about their newest recruit! Of course, they still have to wait to see the quality of samples he would be submitting, but she had a good feeling about him. She was willing to bet two home cooked meals that he would bring in at least B grade samples.

[sample66-blog]

His features were impassive as he plucked the pen up in his pale fingers and skimmed the form over. Red eyes scanned over the document, darting back and forth, oblivious to the scientist’s childish grin as he was being watched. At the sound of her question, he paused, keeping his eye trained on his position where he’d stopped reading on the page.

“S Class,” he answered automatically as he continued reading where he left off.

Zombieman paused at the field requesting his birth name ...before hastily scratching 66 over the line. Most of the questions were straightforward. Date of Birth, X. Age, X. Current residence....he filled that one in, he scratched some more X’s for anything that wasn’t applicable, or he didn’t feel the need to bother answering. His contact information was all there if they needed him.

Once he finished, he tucked the pen on the paper in the clipboard and handed it back. He looked up at her again, 

“Rank 8, Is it okay if I skip some of this? HQ doesn’t want me sharing some of this... If your organization needs anything else, they can run it by the association’s top brass.” Partly true. Also, partly bullshit.

[sample66-blog]

[hearthardhit-archive]

U hu hu hu ~ I am going to assume that you really want to be my love slave. Now, how about you come closer. ~  

[sample66-blog]

The woman was tall, upright, her body language seemed to command respect from any who looked on her. Her hair was long and straight, free of tangles. It would put any shampoo model’s hair to shame. She was of slender build with visible muscle tone, and he had no idea how she stayed upright with those outrageous fuck-me boots, but they did a number on her already-long legs. 

Any woman who could walk in those had his undying respect and admiration. 

“...Who, me?”

He found himself both perplexed and enticed by her choice of clothing, and he cleared his throat rather awkwardly as he caught himself staring. Was there a local BDSM conference nearby because if so, he’d clearly missed the memo.

At her suggestion, he found himself rooted in place, wondering if he should comply or not. 

[charlottes-lab]

She nodded along as she listened to him speak. While she liked to chatter, she liked to listen more, and though his words were few, she liked how they were spoken: causal and at a nice relaxed pace. It was calming. Good hero material; definitely not a serial killer. Though really, those red eyes and pale skin. Could he be albino? Though, she never heard of albino humans having red eyes, wasn’t it usually blue and sometimes hazel? That would be too intrusive of a question to ask now. 

Do not scare him away. Focus. But yes, that sounds about right for the average hero. I wonder what threat level monsters he fights though, maybe even demon level? That’d be so nice. Ah, he asked a question! Don’t you dare ramble again!

“We accept all tissue samples! But most of the time we get skin and muscle tissue, and sometimes organ samples or the whole organ, if we’re really lucky. So it’s all up to you what samples you’d like to send in; we pay you based on the quality of the sample, not the type of sample. That might change in the future, but basically, focus on following the procedures for sampling and preserving the tissues. You’ll learn about that in a training, and you will be compensated for your time, of course." 

Charlotte then took a clipboard and nervously held it out to him, "Would you be interested in signing up?” Was that being too pushy? She fumbled over her next words, “Or would you like to learn a bit more? We also accept monster data too!”

[sample66-blog]

“Sounds simple enough.” He mumbled as he approached the table and accepted the clipboard from her, and held it up to chest level for a moment to read over the fields.

Giving good samples might be tough for someone of his fighting style. By the time he managed to fell a monster, it was a suffering pitiful mess and practically in tatters...but he supposed that if he preserved a chunk of whatever it was he collected off of it, it would still prove valuable for them. It’s not as if he’d be doing a whole lot more work than usual, and hopefully the research they were conducting would bear fruit.

“So organs are probably better”, he mumbled more to himself than to the young woman. Depending on the size of the monster, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to hack the torso open and get a whole organ out...depending on the monster’s size of course. Might be better to go with that too, since his own blood would likely get all over its’ skin anyway and contaminate it.

“Yeah, I may as well sign up.” He waited a moment before looking up from the clipboard in his hands, back to the woman. 

“You got a pen?”

[hearthardhit-archive]

Oh My, What’s this?

More and more slaves candidates are gathering for my sake. 

[charlottes-lab]

“Yes, that’s exactly what we do!” She chirped back at him, so happy that he didn’t walk away and was still here. She watched him as he looked at the fliers, hoping that this actually would be her first recruitee. She thought he said something, but she couldn’t make it out. 

“You’re a hero, right?" 

[sample66-blog]

“Yeah”. He nodded, stealing his attention away from the fliers on the table to look at her again. The woman was practically beaming at him. He wondered how hard it was to recruit people for this type of work? Wouldn’t she have an easier time just giving the fliers to HQ and have them distribute it to heroes via their carriers? Or perhaps she’d already tried that route, it wasn’t really any of his concern.

“I don’t get called in much, but I run into a monster or two per week on average, when I’m out.” It was true that he’d gotten pretty lazy after being placed in S-Class. Zombieman probably put more hours into training than he did actually fighting monsters, whenever he actually happened to bump into one. The HQ didn’t put many expectations on him to keep his rank, so he was left to do as he wished unless he were given special assignments. He was usually available when they called him for emergencies as well.

“So it wouldn’t be hard for me to get ...” he paused a moment, and one eyebrow went up in genuine curiosity. “What parts of them are you people collecting anyway?”

[charlottes-lab]

At his tone and question, Charlotte belatedly realized that she sounded more like a serial killer or one of those mad scientists, and given the fact that she was wearing her white lab coat to look more professional, she completely understood why he would think that. She grabbed her id  hanging on her lanyard, and held it up to him with both hands to examine, as a small peace offering. 

“I’m Charlotte, and I am a full time sample collector for Agoni Resources! I’m the only full time sample collector as I’m a scientist and know how to collect samples so that you can actually make some conclusions from them. Clean up crews and police members sometimes send in samples after a monster attack, but then they’re so destroyed and decaying, it’s just about useless…” And I still didn’t answer his question, get to the point! 

She looks around but realizes that she didn’t have a brochure about the research they were doing, because she didn’t write up one yet. BS time! “We have a lot of research projects going on, but since monster attacks has been increasing in the past years, and that it’s coming from two sources: mysterious beings and people who turned into monsters, the loss of human life and civilian injuries have been sky rocketing and we still don’t know why or how to prevent such attacks!”

“It’s so sad that complete zip codes or cities can be wiped out in one attack, and it happens so quickly that heroes can barely respond to it in time! That’s why it’s crucial for us to figure out why mysterious beings are attacking, how do they plan their attacks, are there complete civilizations of mysterious beings cohabiting with us? Could we reach a peace agreement with them before they kill us or we kill them?

 "Or what about people turning into monsters! They seem like completely normal people who wouldn’t kill people, but then something happens, they gain some new ability and/or form, and then BAM, a murderous rampage! What causes this change; both physical change and mental change?" 

At this point, she’s standing up and gesturing with both hands, trying to emphasize her points and convey all the emotions she have about the topic. She stops, realizing that she has gone into full blown speech mode, which he actually didn’t ask for, and shrinks down a bit. She fidgets and looks elsewhere, "That’s some of the questions that we’re asking and our research projects are trying to answer those questions.”

She looks back up at him before continuing, “I apologize for my outburst. I will try better to keep my answers shorter, if you have any more questions.” Which if you don’t want to ask, I get. 

[sample66-blog]

He stared at her rather wide-eyed after her lengthy outburst, his cigarette lay neglected between his lips, the end nothing but a sloping wad of ash as he looked at her rather bewildered. Zombie’ had caught maybe half of it, but the intent seemed noble nonetheless.

“So basically, what you’re saying is... your company’s trying to figure out a way to prevent the rising number of monsters or monster related attacks?” he dropped the cigarette butt to the ground, smothering out the remnants with the toe of his boot, not that it mattered, there was nothing left to burn.

He considered his options carefully. On the plus side, he could offer his assistance, possibly help with research into mysterious beings. With any luck, they could find out how to prevent, maybe even reverse the transformation in humans...thereby lowering the rate of monster attacks and possible deaths. Maybe make some pocket change on the side...not that he needed it, but bullets weren’t cheap.

“...collecting their remains doesn’t sound too hard.”, he mumbled quietly to himself as he eyed the the fliers.

[thedoctor-knowsall-deactivated2]

Fair point raised, she had to admit. If she would hear this from a C-class, she wouldn’t be able to do anything but scoff in his face and send him on his way, but this came from an S-class, one that was present and helped resolve quite some tasks.

She couldn’t but continue studying him, wondering, as a researcher now, rather than a doctor, what it was that made him special.

And yet, at his question, a short-lived smile flashed along her lips as she shook her head, watching him from above the rim of her glasses. “Both.

You may think as a medic I am not interested in this part of a human, and care only about your ability, but your moral stand is just as important.

Begin with whichever you want.”

[sample66-blog]

Red eyes stole a quick glance, as her smile disappeared almost as soon as it graced her lips. He paused for a moment before giving a response, not having expected his sass to be returned with a genuine interest in his opinions. He hadn’t really expected this to be so personal, not that it mattered to him either way. There were 2 days left until his next assignment, it wasn’t as if she were inconveniencing him.

“Alright”

“Well, to start off, the reason I’m in S-Class is mainly because of my regeneration”, he began, tapping the heel of his left boot to a soundless tune. His answer may as well have been rehearsed, for how many times he went over it, it almost sounded strange to his own ears every time he told someone. Regardless, he wasn’t irritated.

“I can heal from pretty well anything in the time it takes me to go through a full pack of cigarettes, just name it.” he paused, now wondering how many cigarettes did he have left? He’d bought the box just yesterday, but couldn’t be sure if he had enough to last him until the morning... maybe he should stop by a store on his way home if he had a chance.

“Other than that, I have pretty good endurance but nothing special like flying or super strength or anything like that.", he paused again.

“As for the morals of it...I’m just in it to prevent as many human deaths as possible. The rest doesn’t really interest me, sorry if that’s a boring answer.”

[charlottes-lab]

Ten minutes in and Charlotte was already itching to reach for her journal to doodle or for her cellphone to complain to lab colleagues, but she knew that they would just nag at her to do her job properly. They were holding her laptop hostage until the end of the day, so she couldn’t even do any proper research or data analyzing. She shook her head, berating herself, You’re here until 4pm, this is a good chance to get a better sample size, so you need to be bright and cheery and win people over!

And look, he might be somebody you can recruit! It wasn’t hard to pick out the pale man with the long tan trench coat and the sleepy red eyes, giving off the kind of aura that spoke of a wide personal bubble. Strangers all took caution to give him plenty of space, and that made sense, considering that he could have slid onto a cheesy horror movie screen and not look out of place.

But this was an actual human being, or until otherwise proven, and he was carrying several weapons. No mass murderer would be drawing that kind of attention to himself in broad daylight, so he has to be a hero to be walking that confidently. At least, she really hoped he was a hero, not just so that she could avoid being killed but also, because she could recruit him! He was even walking in the direction of her booth; this could be the perfect opportunity! Do I call out to him now or do I smile at him and wave for him to come over? I wish I read some kind of manual or did some training so that I know what to do, but too late, let’s be awkward!

“Hello sir!” she called out. “By any chance, would you be interested in earning money for donating monster samples or information?”

[sample66-blog]

He was ten paces from the stall before the woman seated there greeted him  rather enthusiastically. The S-class stood idle a few feet away, keeping a respectable distance as he finished his cigarette, not in the mood to toss the remaining half prematurely.

“?...”

Zombieman eyed the flyers decorating the table after she asked her question. What were they collecting monster samples for? To what ends were they researching mysterious beings...? He had some misgivings for anything relating to scientific research...even if it only seemed to be in regards to monsters. He wasn’t terribly interested in doing any more fieldwork, not to mention he didn’t need the money anyway...but maybe it wasn’t for nefarious purposes? In which case he could always consider.

“What are you collecting this for?”, he tried not to sound suspicious, but his voice more than likely betrayed him.

[charlottes-lab]

Starter

“If they got anybody else doing this, we would be having such a better success rate, but nooooo”, she mutters under her breath, as she finishes tidying up the promotional fliers at the booth. She glances around, watching people mill around on the streets, awkwardly smiling as she catches their eye.

“They got me doing it instead.” She sighs, sitting down behind the booth. This was supposed to be a hero hot spot, so hopefully somebody will be interested. She clasps her hands together, straightens up her posture, and tries to channel the persona of someone confident and charismatic, able to get hundreds of heroes/police officers/rando’s to sign up. Please don’t let this be a disaster.

[sample66-blog]

The S class was out early for once, starting his patrolling before noon with the sun’s rays not yet stifling him in his heavy trenchcoat. The weather was ideal for a Saturday, and that meant a lot of people happily milling about enjoying their weekend, the worst scenario for a possible monster attack.

He fingered the zippo in his pocket, flipping the lid open and shut as he walked at a casual pace down the busy street. People on the sidewalks either recognized him or were wary of the small arsenal of weapons decorating his person, they melted away from him as if he were made of volcanic rock. 

Some distant voices he didn’t recognized called out in greeting to him or cheered him on as if he were on a mission. A small child pointed at him for his older brother to look at how white he was, the child’s hand was pushed down hastily and the boy in question was promptly led away before the hero took notice.

He let out a tired yawn, not used to being separated from his bed so early, but he’d had trouble sleeping, it couldn’t be helped. Zombieman hoped it would be an uneventful day, he wasn’t really in the mood for any fighting, maybe if he were lucky everything would go on smoothly and he could make plans for later that evening...

He took the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket before flipping it open and plucking one out with his teeth, closing and replacing it in his coat again as he fished for his lighter with the smoke held firmly between his lips. He stepped out of people’s way and found a side street that wasn’t as congested, where he didn’t feel so bad about subjecting people to his second hand smoke. Zombie’ lit the cigarette, taking a few puffs before flipping the zippo shut once again and putting it back.

After a nice long drag, he tilted his head up to breathe out the smoke, then he noticed a small booth further down the street... with his curiosity piqued, and nothing better to do, he decided to investigate it.

[thedoctor-knowsall-deactivated2]

She followed him in her office, sitting down in her usual place and offering him the chair opposite her desk. “Please, have a seat first.” she offered, pushing her glasses further up her nose as she opened her database of S-ranks, After all, them being only 17, they were not hard to keep track of.

“Nothing in particular, aaaah, there, 8-Ranked Zombieman.” she said, opening up his file and inspecting it. Indeed, no record of any injury that he needed to visit the hospital, despite the tasks he was present at. “Allowing me to be honest with you, curiosity, as to never having seen you around the hospital.” she admitted, shoulders lifting up idly as she looked at him, elbows now resting onto the desk.

“Do you mind telling me about your… hm, how to address this… What makes you a ‘hero’?”

[sample66-blog]

He seated himself at her request, the chair giving a light creak in response to his weight. The hero sat respectfully, one hand draped flat against each leg, and his posture straighter than usual, as he wondered what it was she could want. He watched her skim through some information and he had to admit he was a bit curious as to what this was about... but kept his thoughts to himself as he waited for her to explain what she wanted.

One fine black eyebrow arched upwards in response to her admission. He hadn’t been expecting any personal questions, to be honest, and it took him a bit by surprise. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, rather casually now.

So the woman was just curious about him? There was no harm in telling her, she was a doctor after all.

“I don’t need medical treatment. There’s nothing capable of killing me, at least that I’m aware of. So there’s no need for hospitals.”

Well, he had been carted to a hospital on one occasion, in a different city. Once, he’d sustained such serious injuries that there was hardly anything left of him and he was brought to the morgue in pieces in a body bag. Needless to say they weren’t too happy when a few hours later he threw himself, bag and all, off a table in his attempt to free himself.

But regarding the woman’s other question, he wondered what kind of answer the blonde expected from him. 

“What makes me a hero? I’m guessing you mean my abilities and not my moral standards?”