Snippet #1209461

(Joseph "Cocoon" Orson, 2nd District, Random street)

Cocoon released his grasp, entangled in the matted blonde that sat upon the now deceased hero's severed head, and let it drop to the tarmac. Eyes still wide open in shock, with an expression that resembled that which one may have when he or she discovers that his friends and family have thrown him a surprise birthday party but without the smile, it rolled slowly until it stopped in the water stream of the gutter. Behind the Cocoon Suit's mask and with an artificial tone Cocoon made a sound that could be interpreted as a sigh. He was disappointed. Years ago, killing a valuable sidekick would have brought the attention of a number of heroes. The spotlight would have swiveled around and focused on him. Now, however, because of those damned Levani, it seemed one could murder a defender of justice publicly without a single one of their allies bursting onto the scene. Fighters of virtue? They were all too afraid to come out of hiding. Super-powered turtle's too frightened to come out of their protective shell.

Originally, Cocoon had dropped the head to leave. There was nothing more for him in this district, at least for now, but he had been completely mistaken. He was powerful, yes, without a doubt, but there were others, so he always kept constantly alert. In his peripheral vision he had captured sight of a single figure, still quite a distance away but a possible threat nonetheless, who seemed to be, in his own little world of distraction, strolling along. At first he had been discarded from warranting constant attention, he was just a kid, at that hadn't changed, but what was about to happen would surely be entertaining. Cocoon didn't consider himself to be a sadist, but his mind was just about human, and scenes of interest were just as deserving of a few seconds of his life as much as they were to others. He passed his sword through two of his fingers, cleaning the neck blood from it's gleaming surface, and sheathed it on his back as he waited for the spectacle.

The boy, absentmindedly, was just waiting to be killed, or so it seemed. From the pavement he had stepped directly onto the road without even flicking his vision once from side to side to assure his safety. Looking before crossing wasn't some sort of pointless advice overprotective parents gave to their children, it was a basic principle of survival for the fleshy and fragile human in a world that includes hunks of metal on wheels hurtling around without instant brakes. As luck would have it, the boy was just about to find out how useful following that advice would have been, but too late. A fair distance away, but at a speed that was closing that gap rapidly, there was a vehicle of the large and heavy but fast variety. An SUV to be precise. It showed no sign of politely stopping, an judging by the kid's unaltered speed and degree of worry neither did he. What would in seconds follow would be, more than likely, a bloody mess, and Cocoon found it rather ironic that the event would probably wind up attracting more of the public eye than his recent attempt. This wasn't the funny, ha ha, sort of irony, however. Cocoon, for a moment, considered saving the boy, just for the sake of basking in the glory of it for a moment, but that contradicted his entire villainous reputation. No, the boy could die as he saw fit.

No more than a second passed and impact was imminent. The boy, still distracted by imaginative anxiety, failed to register the war cry of the vehicle's engine and now the predator was upon him. It roared ferociously until the end, but unlike Cocoon had expected based on experience, there was no horrible crunch and the sight of a young body being crumpled by an SUV's weight. Something else entirely happened. Just as the car was about to hit there was an unexpected turn of events. A final twist to the short play that had been acted out in those past seconds. The kid's arm began to change, and not because it was being crushed by tonnes of metal. The mutation was inhuman, a morphing of some sort. It grew in length and width. The shape appeared to sharpen, and flesh and bone became a reflecting materiel similar to common metal. As far as Cocoon knew, this was not a regular occurrence in people, and he had been a person as well as an observer of the species for quite a while. However, Cocoon was used to the abnormal in person's. He could generate potent electricity for crying out loud. This just meant that another super had appeared in the mess that was the Levani dominated city. Whether he was good enough to survive, though, was something that was about to be seen.

It seemed the boy hadn't even realized what was happening to him. This was a level of distraction that could possibly reach a superhuman level, but what was most interesting about him was, for now, the metal that had shifted around him arm into the form of a dangerous blade. A slash later and everything changed. There was no way of knowing just how sharp or powerful the blade was, but it managed to slice through the vehicle as if it was a slice of sponge cake. It began to open as the edge guided it's way through, separating the left side from the right with such ease Cocoon was also surprised. Of course, it had been traveling at such a speed that it hadn't simply stopped upon contact. No matter how divided it was there was always the factor that it still weighed the same and was still flying towards the kid at a dangerous velocity. So, when both halves were then behind the boy and the arm reverted to it's former, meaty state as if nothing had happened, Cocoon was ready to admit the only then was he shocked. In the chaos he had failed to see the halves cut at such an angle that they both glided past him before skidding to a halt. The young super then didn't even stop to admire his handiwork. In silence, and apparently now seeing just how much power he possessed if his expression was anything to go by, he turned and ran.

Idiot.
No-one with such capabilities needed to run from anything, let alone the smoldering remains of a decimated vehicle, owned by none other than a cursing member of some sort gang that was now shouting obscenities to the heavens. Watching as the super youth darted into a nearby alleyway, Cocoon approached what remained of the SUV and knelt at one of the pieces' sides. A clean cut, he discovered as he ran a single finger across one of the split surfaces. Only a few feet away it seemed the gangster type had taken notice of the strangely clad stranger examining the car remains that were still officially his, and began to unleash fury in Cocoon's direction.

“Who the fuck are you? What the fuck do you think you're doing here? Get out of here, man!”
Useless obscenities thrown in for effect. To really make use of them you had to first possess power, or at least appear to.
Cocoon looked from the vehicle to man's face, burning money floating down from the sky behind him. It seemed he had been carrying, or perhaps delivering would be a better a word, a large sum of cash. Far too much to be the amount one keeps in their wallet. Cocoon was no detective, but he could put the details together. This man was involved in some sort of illegal activity, and had been given a job upon which rested more than a little importance. Now, he had failed. The money was no more and his vehicle had been destroyed. Still, this wasn't the reaction of someone who had just seen a youth morph his arm into a blade. It didn't mean much, but Cocoon could still take credit for this. Once again he saw something in the corner of his vision; leaking petrol and fire nearby, and an angered gangster drawing a handgun.
“Yo, man. Don't you know who the fuck I am? I'm fucking Peanut! Listen to me when I am directing my voice to you motherfu-”
“Cocoon,” Cocoon said, in response to the man's first question. “Remember it!”
In a flash of movement he drew the blade from his back and swung for Peanut's arm. Peanut's finger pressed against the weapon's trigger, but no bullet emerged. The gun fell to the floor, half an arm still holding onto it, and as it came into contact with the ground it fired. During it's descent Cocoon had brought his sword back to his side before lunging forwards with the hilt and driving it into the now armless man's torso with such strength his feet had left the ground and his body had been sent through the air. Before gravity could do what gravity did best the gun with the rest of his arm let loose the bullet that had been planned for Cocoon, and immediately one of the car halves detonated, followed by the other. Peanut was skidding across the tarmac when he saw Cocoon enveloped in the following explosion, and when he finally came to a halt the flames were dying down. Panting with his arm injury and shattered ribs he clambered to his feet as another chemical reaction set off a third explosion. If the first two hadn't taken his attacker's life, then the final one that sent shards of heated metal in all directions like some sort of massive grenade definitely did.

As the flames died down and smoke began to rise along with the smell of burning rubber, Peanut approached in a desperate attempt to recover some of his precious cash, his still attached hand attempting to block the blood loss from the stump on the other side. To his surprise, there was no sign of the attacker anywhere. Only a tingle of static energy in their air that raised his air, and a sudden electrical shock that lurched out from the surrounding metal, causing him to shake violently and topple over.

On a nearby roof there was a brief moment of electrical cackling before Cocoon appeared in a flash of blue light. From his high, advantageous for observation, position he watched as Peanut received the shocking surprise he had left behind in his wake. That was one man that wouldn't be forgetting his name any time soon. But, as comical as recent events had been, there was something much more interesting to be taken care of. With a single turn of the head he saw the transforming boy running through a nearby alleyway. He had covered quite a bit of distance, but nothing that Cocoon's lighting fast speed couldn't cover. For a second or tow he charged himself with pulsating energy before taking off and leaping to the next building in pursuit.