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A Colorful Month

Part 2

For Taiko

By Draconicon

A night over with Choin made a world of difference to the mule, even with the effort of staying as Denith rather than as Nor. The weakness of being in his civilian form always made him feel a little out of sorts, but being with the panda made it better. Not because he believed that Choin could protect him, but because it was one of those places where it felt alright to be vulnerable. He could be pretty much anything with his partner, and it would still be okay.

They shared a quick breakfast - a simple eggs and pancake thing, stuffing themselves as fast as possible - and then shared a more leisurely coffee. Choin kept looking at the clock, though, and Nor sighed.

"Another meeting today?" he asked.

"Well, three, actually, but they're asking me a favor rather than the other way around."

"So, you can stand them up a bit?"

"Just a bit, but yeah. Heh. Sometimes it's nice to make them sweat for a change."

He smiled, shaking his head. That wasn't the case at all, he knew. Choin didn't like to be late for his 'meetings,' and from what little the panda told him about them, he could understand that. They always involved some negotiation or other, and he knew that his boyfriend had to get in the right mindset and role for them to bring home a good paycheck. Considering that super-hero stuff didn't pay all that well, Choin was the one that tended to pay for any of the bills that spiked for Nor, while Nor did his best to ensure that Choin didn't run into anything too serious that the panda couldn't handle.

It worked for them, but it was chaotic. Chaotic as everything always was in Novus Ager, he supposed.

Sipping at his own cup, he tried to imagine what it would be like if he didn't have a super-style lifestyle. It was hard to even visualize, let alone think of what the consequences would be. He'd probably be working in an office somewhere, trying to get by with the tedium of the various annoyances he always heard about, but he and Choin probably would have more time together. Something that they had in short supply, these days.

Really should do something about that, he thought. There's gotta be a way to find more time off rather than being on patrol all the time...

Shaking his head, he put down his coffee cup. Choin arched an eyebrow.

"Going so soon?"

"Well -"

Ring ring, ring ring. Nor groaned, rubbing his forehead as he turned to the kitchen counter, where his phone was already trying to vibrate right off the ledge. He was half-tempted to let it.

"..."

"Better get that before it flies away without you," Choin said.

"It doesn't have that power."

"You never know. All those techno-villains could have tweaked it."

"Oh, please don't joke about that."

Ring ring, ring ring.

"Are you gonna let it ring, hun?"

"...Sorry."

"You do what you have to do."

Shaking his head, the brown-furred mule got up and made his way to the counter. Pulling his robe half-closed with one hand, he picked the phone up and answered it with the other.

"Hello?"

"'Ey, kid. Got a second?"

"How the hell did you get my number?"

"Please, you think that's some kind of accomplishment? I swear, half the tech nerds and all the spinny-eyed guys in the city have it."

"..."

"Ha! They do, don't they? Oh man, I was just kidding."

"What do you want, Baron?" he muttered, rubbing his head. "I was just having breakfast here."

"Nothing wrong with that. You finish that up, but when you're done, bring your butt down to the park from last night." There was a pause. "Least, I think it's the park from last night. I had to chase that thing down for a while, and I still ain't sure I have the right one."

"Does it have one or three ponds in the middle?"

"Two, actually."

"That's a new one, then."

"Ah, fuck. Well, come down to the one with two ponds, then. It's on the waterfront right now, I think. Was when I was up a tree, anyway."

"..."

"Yeah, finish your breakfast first, I gotta - hey! You! Get your fucking hands off the popcorn cart! And you! Ya ain't here to sell muscle bread!"

"...Baron?"

"I gotta go. These fucking amateurs...See ya when you get here, kid."

The line went dead, and he stared at his phone. Amateurs? Muscle bread? What the hell was going on out there? And more to the point, being told that he could finish breakfast before coming down to deal with the guy that was already impossible to deal with?

Who the hell is this guy? What the hell is he?

"Baron?" Choin asked, arching an eyebrow. "When did you start associating with the upper crust?"

"I'm not."

"Is that his villain name, then?"

"You know, I really don't know what's going on with this one. He's...different to the others."

And that was putting it mildly. Someone that didn't really want to beat him down? Someone that had stopped with the impossible-to-win fight as soon as he started finding it funny? Someone that was apparently gathering others for some unknown event in a public park?

Nor had no idea what was going on, and he was starting to get the feeling that was going to be a consistent feature of his time dealing with Salla's friends. He rubbed his forehead again, sliding his robe off. He could feel Choin staring at him from behind, and he threw in a little hip-wiggle for the panda, showing off his ass for a few seconds before walking down to the bedroom to find his gear.

Well, 'gear' was a bit flattering. A fresh jockstrap rather than the one that he had been wearing for a while, something that supported him a little better, that kind of thing. It was a proper blue rather than the dusty thing that he had been dealing with for a while, and it would make it easier to make his butt the same color so it filled out the back and kept him from looking quite so naked. He slid into it, cupping his dick for a moment to ensure that it fit properly, and then let the shift take place.

His brown coat was displaced with striations of red and blue, spreading across him and growing stronger and brighter, more vivid in the case of the red, deeper and more eye-catching in the case of the blue. The only place where the blue was markedly stronger and solid was right across his rump, where it matched the fabric of the jockstrap that he actually wore. He rolled his neck around his shoulders as his back cracked and popped, his hips and his spine growing a bit bigger and longer to accommodate the greater height that his hero-form had.

Nor was bigger than Denith, after all, though not massively so. It wasn't like his civilian shape was a midget and his hero form was an ogre in size. It was more like a foot or so of difference, but that still made a major change for the average body.

As his hooves split into hoof-toes, lifting him up a little higher, Choin stepped into the bedroom with him. The panda chuckled, leaning against the doorframe.

"Oh, my god, the hero, Nor? In my bedroom? Why are you here, and not getting railed by one of the supers out there?" Choin teased.

"Give it a rest, huh?"

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing." The panda leaned in, hugging him from behind, warm coffee cup and hands pressed against the mule's stomach. "I know what you're doing, and I know why it keeps happening. Doesn't bother me."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. You're still mine, and I'm still yours."

"Glad we both feel that."

He leaned his head back, giving the panda's cheek a little nuzzle, before stepping out of the hug. Much as he would have enjoyed having some time to himself and his boyfriend, he knew that there was more to take care of.

And there was a meeting with the Shore Guardian, after. He was supposed to take the orca for a run around the city, just to give him the lay of the land, and he didn't want to be late for that.

It was weird thinking of the orca all of a sudden, and he put that out of his mind. He had the Baron to deal with, and whoever else he'd pulled along to the park.

Nor had barely reached the park when the ground started shaking. He wobbled forward for a step at the first shockwave, then stood up straight, waiting for the next one. If he was guessing right -

BOOM!

Yep, he was. Stepping out of the trees further towards the center of the park was a T-Rex, and one of the bigger members of the species, for that matter. He glanced at the green spandex that spread across the large dinosaur, and blinked. There was something almost familiar about it, something that -

"Sizemograph?" he called, blinking. "What the hell are you doing here? You're on parole, aren't you?"

"Don't ask, Nor. Let's just get this over with."

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute." Nor held up his hands at the advancing T-Rex. Sizemograph was fairly tall normally, standing just over six feet, but now, he was nearly twenty feet tall, and more than three times as strong as normal from what he remembered of the dinosaur's powers. "This is going on your record if you start a fight. Remember? You're out of the super-villain game."

"Nor. Just...go with it for now, okay? It's a 'purple' matter, okay?"

Purple. Oh. Then this was something that the T-Rex was being pushed through. That made more sense.

And he'd mentioned other amateurs. He looked around the park, seeing if there was anything else that stood out. There was a popcorn cart mentioned, and some muscle-bread. And - where were the people?

There weren't any other people in the park, he realized. They'd all disappeared, almost as if they'd been cleared out, or as if something had been done to keep them from getting to the park. If that was intentional on the part of the Baron, then he was almost thankful; Novus Ager was good at keeping civilians from getting hurt by the super-fights, but it wasn't infallible. Not having to worry about that was a huge boost.

And it meant that there were two people that stood out in a way that they probably wouldn't have, otherwise. A jaguar and a puma, both of them standing at their own carts. They weren't doing what street-sellers would have been doing, though. They weren't packing up and running at the sight of Sizemograph, nor were they trying to sell their wares as if they were unaware of the T-Rex. Instead, they were staring right at Nor...and it didn't help that they were in super-suits, too.

The puma was dressed in an apron, shirt, and shorts, but there were little belts here and there around his chest and waist. Not the sort that would be there just for change, either, but the sort that was meant to carry extra tools, and who knew what was in the chef's hat he wore? The jaguar was even worse, considering that he was wearing a cape to go with all the bandoliers and baggies for his goodies. The crown he wore was utterly silly, and the scepter that went with it only confirmed he wasn't a cart-pusher, really.

Sour Dough and Sweet Thang? Nor groaned. Two more super-villains, and possibly one more somewhere elsewhere in the park. That was three on one, then four on one, and possibly five on one if the Baron decided to get involved personally again. This was definitely more than he was ready to handle on his own.

"Size -"

"Sorry, Nor. Try to make this quick, eh?"

Sizemograph winked at him, and then, the T-Rex was charging. A loud roar split the air, and he realized that there was no getting out of the fight.

Well...if that's what it's going to be...

He remembered the documents that had been passed among the other heroes after Sizemograph's capture and trial. Everything that they had learned about how to take him down had been in there, and thankfully, it wasn't going to be that hard. Sizemograph was big, but that didn't mean that he was as strong as someone naturally that size was. If you could take him down, there were weak points in the neck that could act as pressure points, stunning him over and over again until you could call back-up.

Of course, that was assuming you could knock the big guy down. And that wasn't happening out in the open, so Nor needed a better arena for this fight.

Rather than staying where he was, he charged forward. He slid between Sizemograph's legs as the T-Rex leaned down to try and swat him, barely avoiding the clawed hands and zipping between the clawed feet. He ran for the forest, and the stumbling T-Rex took just long enough to turn around to give him the time to get under the sheltering boughs of the trees. He panted for breath as he looked behind him, seeing the cart-villains moving around, shifting their position.

Okay, so they've got a plan, too. That's worth knowing.

Nor ran further into the small stand of trees as Sizemograph chased him down. The T-Rex was running at less than full speed, and he knew that it was intentional. If the big guy really wanted to catch up, he'd have done it already. Encouraging, in some respects; it meant that the former villain really was keeping to the 'former' part of that description, even with whatever had happened to get him here.

The other two, however -

Thunk. He heard something that sounded almost like a catapult being fired from a movie, and on instinct, Nor slowed down. A whistling sound followed, and suddenly, a large hunk of dough splattered against the ground just in front of him. It didn't bounce, didn't roll, just splatted and stuck to it. He blinked.

That'll be Sour Dough...and that means Sweet Thang will be -

SPLAT. A wetter splat hit the ground not much further up, and the smell of sweet candy rose to match the smell of the savory dough not that far away. He groaned, feeling his mouth watering already, and knew that it was one big trap. He covered his nose and kept moving, particularly as he could hear Sizemograph coming up right behind him.

The rain of dough and candy got thicker and faster, forcing him to look up and back as well as forward. He had to keep an eye on his own passage as well as the villains behind him, knowing that if he made one wrong move, he'd get caught in the bombardment, or be snapped up and held aloft by the much-stronger dinosaur.

What the hell is this about, Baron? What the hell is this about?

Nor took a sudden turn to the left to avoid the next bombardment of dough, and then -

The city changed. The trees disappeared, and he was running along the edge of an elaborate fountain rather than along the dusty trails of the wooded part of the park. Sizemograph was likewise suspended on the edge of a pathway, one that was almost too slight and narrow to support his massive size. He swayed, swinging back and forth as he windmilled his arms like some kind of cartoon.

It was the perfect opportunity, and Nor wasn't going to waste it. He turned his own wobble into a jump, leaping straight for the barely-balanced T-Rex, and body-slammed Sizemograph right in the lower leg. The T-Rex lost his balance and went over backwards, slamming down onto a public square of cobblestones that definitely hadn't been there before. Nor followed that up with a leap in the air, followed by an arm-chop down on the dinosaur's neck. He was big enough, Nor knew. He could take the hit without getting hurt too bad.

As he came down, Sizemograph grunted, but those big eyes still followed him. Nor blinked.

"Uh...wasn't that the spot?"

"A little up and to the right."

"Oh. Right."

THUMP!

And with that, Sizemograph stiffened, hissing through clenched teeth. His muscles were stiff and hard as if going through a cramp, but he wasn't getting back to his feet anytime soon. Nor shook his head, stood up -

"MMMPH!"

Only for a sudden blast of sourdough to hit him in the face. His mouth had been closed, thankfully, but it was gummy and blinding and kept him from seeing what the hell was going on around him. He flailed randomly, grabbing at the dough over his face and trying to pull it off as he stumbled blindly.

He had just managed to get it off his cheeks and started to uncover his mouth when the back of his knee hit the ridge of the fountain again. The mule yelped as he went over backwards, landing in the water with a splash.

Luckily, that made the dough let go. He yanked it off his face and started swimming, even as more candy blobs started landing over him, hitting the water and floating all around him. Some started glowing as he got close, and he treated them like mines or depth charges, ensuring that he didn't get anywhere near them. The mule dragged himself along the bottom of the water, swimming, swimming -

Another change. The fountain was gone, and he was in a tree. He blinked at the suddenness and the sheer randomness of the change, but he took it happily, particularly as the candy charges fell to the ground below and shattered on impact.

I'll take that. I'll take that.

Sweet Thang and Sour Dough had likewise lost their carts, and were desperately clinging to their own trees as the small wood of the park had grown to expand across the entire green space. Nor managed to climb to one of the sturdier branches near the top of the tree, only to hear a great belly laugh echoing through the air. It was the same one that he'd heard the night before.

Okay, Baron, if you're enjoying this show, hope you like seeing me take care of the other two...

He leaped off the branch, leaping from tree to tree the way that he would normally leap from building to building. By the time that Sour Dough got his chubby legs onto a branch, Nor was there to knock him off it again. The well-padded villain fell with a scream, banging around like a pinball between the branches of the tree down to the earth below. The padded suit would keep him safe, Nor knew; the baker brothers were quite good at taking the blunt hits, but even they didn't stay conscious after a fall like that.

The puma had managed to get his footing by the time that Nor reached him, and that fight was a little more tricky, but just as quick. He avoided the spiked candies that were being jabbed towards his face, kept from being shared by a few sugar drops on the branch, and then sideswiped the cat's legs out from under him. Down he went, hitting the ground and conking out with a goofy sort of yell on the way down.

Nor breathed a sigh of relief. That had been way, way, way too close, and he had gotten through that by luck more than any other way.

Then the city shifted again, and he was falling. He fell quickly, too, and it was interrupted by -

"Ooof!"

By something big, something padded, and something not entirely happy with him, judging by the grumbling immediately under him. Nor looked down at the gray-skinned form supporting him, and groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

"What...the hell...Nor?!"

They rolled apart, the mule getting back to his feet as the elephant scrambled to do the same. Terror Trunk was another villain, mostly backed by super-strength as a viable power, but not much besides that. However, the elephant honestly didn't need much more than that. Nor held up his hands, trying to defuse things -

Only to get a fist right to the nose. His head jerked back, and the sudden ache that came from something that had almost broken but not quite took all his attention. He stumbled backwards, only for another fist to go for his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

"You asshole! Land on me, will ya? I'll teach you to disrespect me like that again!"

"Terror, it's not -"

Another punch, though this one was less bad as he managed to weaken it a bit before it landed. The blow went right to his ribs, though, and made it harder for him to breathe. The elephant had always had an anger problem, and it was coming out in full force right at that moment. He groaned with each blow, barely able to fend off the worst of them, too tired to really get a good comeback.

Then he stumbled on a loose stone. He fell backwards, and had to choose whether to break his fall to keep from cracking his skull and blocking the next blow. Nor chose the former, watching as the fist came down at his face -

Then watched as the elephant went flying sideways. One moment, Terror Trunk was there, and the next, he wasn't. Instead, there was a cartoonish blur of an elephant smoke cloud, followed by it dissipating as a familiar boar waved the smoke away.

"Okay, that's enough. 'Ey, kid? You doing alright?"

"Ribs. Ow."

"Yeah, didn't think that one through. My bad on that one. Need a hand up?"

Nor shook his head.

"Just wanna lay down for a bit?"

He nodded.

"Heh, go right ahead, then. Looks like ya earned that rest."

The boar sat down beside him, crossing his legs as he got comfortable at the edge of the fountain again. He noticed that the boar's legs ended in boots rather than trotters, but that was just an idle observation as he waited for his breath to come back. None of the blows had been bad enough to do permanent damage by any stretch of the imagination, but it was never a good feeling to be an elephant's punching bag. Even without super-strength, they tended to hit pretty damn hard, and he didn't need to go through that more than once.

Glancing off in the direction Terror Trunk had been sent flying, he managed to nod his head questioningly at it. The boar nodded.

"Yeah, I wanted someone with super-strength for this, but, uh, didn't really do much background checks. Heh. Never have to, usually. Throw enough muscle at the problem, and it breaks."

"Or...the muscle...does," Nor wheezed.

"Yeah, that happens. Took it like a champ, though. Kid, dunno what got LiL so pissed off with you, but I like ya."

"Thanks...I...Think."

"Ya ever want to try something besides super-heroing, you give me a call, ya got that?"

Nor laughed. Not much, not for long and not very loudly, but he laughed. A job offer from one council member, and now from another? What was the world coming to when criminals started trying to hire heroes?

Yet, even as he laughed, the boar did the same. His was deeper and louder, however, a great big belly laugh that echoed through the air. Thankfully, there were no crater-creating punches or kicks, but he still laughed a lot.

"Heh, man. I gotta come here more often," the Baron said, shaking his head as he looked around. "This place is nuts. I love it."

"Mmmph...why?"

"Because it's funny. It's completely fucking random, and you don't know what kind of random bullshit is gonna happen next. But it fucking loves its people, that's for damn sure."

"Doesn't seem...like it loves me...very much..."

"Hey, kid, it gave you the perfect shot to take down the T-Rex. It took away the other guys' catapults, didn't it?"

"And it dropped me on Terror Trunk...don't forget that..."

"What'd you think got me involved?"

"..."

"Yeah. I just wanted to watch the show, kid, but I don't let assholes ruin it. If it ain't something worth watching for a good reason, I ain't letting it go on. He was gonna take it way, way too far for me."

"I thought...you were Assault?"

"Yeah, Assault. I ain't about murder, or putting someone in a goddamn coma. Hell, I can't kill anyone."

"Nnngh...I bet you could. You're too strong...you could do it...easy."

"Heh, it ain't about strength, kid. It's about hurt, with my power. Ya can hurt someone a lot, ya know. Hurt 'em enough that they break and never come back together. But my stuff doesn't let me kill. That's someone else's department."

Someone that literally couldn't kill? It sounded like something impossible, but the boar had the upper hand. He didn't need to lie. For that matter, Nor was increasingly coming to the conclusion that the boar didn't want to. There was something in that strength that made it seem like the big pig just didn't have it in him to bother wasting that time and effort, particularly when he was strong enough that he honestly didn't need to.

"Ya want to sit up now, kid?"

Nor nodded, and the boar leaned down, lifting him upright. His ribs didn't complain - much - but his nose still felt a bit sore. That would be fixed in a few minutes, he knew, but it was still not the most comfortable. He rubbed his muzzle a bit as the boar patted his back.

"Hey, kid, I'm gonna have to go. But if LiL starts talking shit, tell him that the Baron in Purple tells him to eat shit. You're a good guy."

"Mmmph...do you have an actual name?"

"Heh, nothing that I'm passing out, kid. All of us keep that part to ourselves."

Except Salla, he thought. Then again, maybe he only tells that one because it's fake, too? Or...

It was a minefield of misinformation that he didn't want to get into. But he did chuckle to himself.

"What?" the boar asked, smiling. "Ain't right to keep a joke to yourself. What's so funny?"

"Just thinking, with the names."

"Yeah?"

"The lavender one's called LiL, and the mouse is called MiR. Does that mean that you're called BiP?"

"Heh...kid, I'll let ya say it once, but you ever call me that, I'll send ya flying."

"Might be worth it."

"...Ha! You got some guts, too. But seriously, kid, don't. That's a friendly request here, ya got that?"

"Yeah...yeah, I got that." He shook his head, slowly pulling himself the rest of the way up. "So...you're leaving?"

"Yeah, I got what I wanted. With all the fuss LiL was making about you, I needed to see if there'd be a problem later. I doubt it."

"I'm just a hero here."

"Yeah, but ya let yourself get used, kid. That's what happens when ya don't look at the big picture. Take it from someone that had it happen to them; learn to look at the big picture, or you'll just keep bouncing from one crazy-stupid plan to another. It's hilarious, but...well, luck can't hold out forever."

Nor didn't deny that, but there was only so much that he could handle at once. He wasn't a super that could fly, nor did he have that much in the way of extra strength. Sure, his endurance was better than a lot of other supers, and he could shift his shape - kinda - but that was only a small power compared to what everyone else had to deal with.

But he knew that wasn't exactly what the Baron meant. Ever since that trip to the other universe, he'd been confronted with the reminder that the world was more than black and white. He'd been forced to see that sometimes, in the right situations, villains could have the right ideas. And now, the Baron was reminding him that sometimes the villains could be a hell of a lot better than the heroes in some respects.

If he kept living his life the same, then eventually, something was going to come and change it without him knowing. The more static his point of view, the easier it was for someone to surprise him and take him unawares.

Which wasn't fair, in a lot of ways, because he liked his life and he liked his way of thinking about it. Changing it felt like he was getting some treat taken away, and he didn't like that.

Later. I can still do that later.

"So, you gonna be okay, kid?"

"Yeah...I think so."

"Just to let ya know, I had to twist that T-Rex's arm pretty damn hard to get him to agree to this. I needed to see how you'd handle this kind of stuff, see how far this city'd go to protect people. Turns out, pretty damn far." The boar chuckled. "Makes me wonder if there's someone in charge of it...but I'm not one of those brainy guys. I don't have any real plans for the place, so it doesn't matter to me."

"I'm glad Sizemograph's still on the side of good...mostly."

"Yeah, well, the other three were eager enough to make up for that."

"I'm sure." He shook his head. "Well...see you around, Baron...and try not to break too much more."

"Heh, you saying that because you know you can't stop me, or because you're starting to like me?"

"...I'm not going to answer that."

The boar winked, getting to his feet and walking off. He made it halfway out of the park before stomping his foot, breaking through the ground and just disappearing. Nor wondered how that worked, but decided that he didn't need to hurt his brain trying to figure that one out. It was hard enough just keeping track of everything else that was going on.

Shaking his head, he walked over to Sizemograph's stunned body. He'd need to go meet up with Shore Guardian before too much longer, but for now, he was just grateful to see an old friend still keeping up with his attempts to be better. He'd dated a T-Rex for quite a while, and while he didn't necessarily have proof that Sizemograph was that old flame...well, it was hard to deny that it was possible.

And it was fun to imagine that the grumpy grouch from back then was actually doing better for himself.

The End

Summary: Nor gets called out to deal with some villains, and the Baron watches with some amusement.

Tags: No sex, mild nudity, mule, puma, jaguar, t-rex, growth, fight, fighting, comedy, series, boar, novus ager, supers, superhero, supervillain,