The Pollyannaish-Jabez

Issue 172# "??"

{UK}

They were no longer at L.A, they lived in the UK for a change. 'The people here aren't so different from the people back at L.A,' Jabez leaped away from the hateful threats and objects were thrown at him. 'Go to a different country, it'd be a second chance. Not that aah believe in second chances, people know enough of me just to throw me out the window!' Jabez lands on a rooftop, he almost flinched at the cardboard cutouts of his arch-enemies. "Ha- gotcha, didn't I?" Oriel bends her head out of one of them, giggling at his reaction. 

"Yeah, you, uh got me." Jabez just played along as she stepped out of it, dressed up like the usual but this time she walked towards the edge of the building. He followed along, she felt hands wrapped around her waist, cheeks fluttering scarlet red. "Do you remember how we met? Love?" Oriel held his hands around her, it's odd how he was shorter than her. "Yeah--" He was cut off when a troubling alarm ran around his mind. 

'What izzat indicative of danger??' Jabez had been sensing something, it's just as Oriel turned to face him. There were eyes of lust, her lips pressed against his. "Don't fret," Oriel proceeds to get on with the nooky with her lover. 

The two were at home afterward hours, lying dormant on their bed. "Oh, so, aah'm no longer--" Jabez woke up first, he had no clothes on while Oriel kept her arms wrapped around his nape. The troubling alarm hit inside him, so it wasn't what Oriel did to him. "Hey, you've guys taken a long time to--" Orphelia stepped in the room, it was a mess and the two of them were naked. "Eugh, you guys are salubrious!" She stepped out of the scene, unable to unsee that. 

"He doesn't know that I have followed him." A silhouetted figure from a building had tailed that superhero. "If you do not recall who I am, readers, it is *I* Tessa!" Tessa flicked her attention to the audience for a brief moment. "He will be alarmed all the time, he will grow paranoid of his surroundings unless I decide to show myself. It's to cripple him!" Tessa explained her whole plan via the fourth wall. 

As the hero redressed himself, before deciding to leave, he'd kiss his lover on the cheek. He left through the window, narrowing his eyes at what was outside. 'Aah caint apply the law like aah used to,  this isn't my city and people hate me.' Jabez concentrated at whatever was around the area, he was beginning to become wary. 'Yes! Just as I planned for it to happen to him! Unlike the other supervillains, I've found out where that superhero had hidden!' Tessa avoided the field of observation, she had melded herself to the world itself to keep herself out of his range. 

Usually, it's a physical approach to superheroes. "Don't think you can fool me!" Shan sunk her fist into the earth, hoisting up Tessa from the concrete floor. "What--?" Jabez had his attention to the streets, there were two figures in there. "Unhand me you, overrated superhero!" Tessa demanded, Shan wasn't shown that often due to being an omnipotent being. "Don't think you could beat me, Tessa!" Shan hurtled the being to a building. 

"Why did I have to run into that Shan like a month ago?! I thought I lost her!" Tessa exclaimed, she burst through the walls. Lying on the floor for a few moments as the entity walked to the gaping hole in the building. "Justice will prevail! You weren't given permission to leave L.A either!" Shan toppled the brunette, pummeling on her remorselessly. Someone grabbed her wrist to prevent her from continuing, she was too late to realize there were blood stains on her fisticuffs. 

"Have you gone mad?! You shouldn't have gone that far!" Jabez exclaimed. "She wasn't allowed to leave L.A, none of the supervillains were allowed to. They're too dangerous for anybody!" Shan detailed the whole thing to him after yoinking her arm back from him. "Do you think murder is going to solve it? You are a hero of justice, that aah'm no longer. Just a vigilante." Jabez responded to the other. "I could endow you the previous job that you've lost," Shan added, extending her hand out to him. 

He smacked her hand away. " Aah works alone and not for anybody, pray tell." Jabez turned his back on the other. "If you ever commit a crime, I will not hesitate to strike you down. Understand?" Shan threatens the figure in the distance. "Yeah, pray tell." Jabez shrugged his shoulders as the body of Tessa has vanished. 

'I lost her, that's going to be problematic on my side. I need to influence Jabez somehow to join!' Shan briefly gazed at the spot and turned her head to -- Jabez? He wasn't in plain sight or anywhere, like a ghost. 

"Become a hero again? Aah wouldn't call that a hero's work, a dictator aah'd say." Jabez was at the park. There was a familiar figure standing in the distance, like an old man dressed up in gold relics. "You, I recognize." Sinbahd pointed his finger at Jabez, the hero walked towards the old man in the distance. 

"Yeah, you tried to kill me." Jabez reminded him of their previous encounter. "I was under the influence of that wench," Sinbahd rubbed his eyes in annoyance. "But, you may consider me your ally, Jabez. Do not mistake my age for weakness, I'm very much capable." Sinbahd draped his arm over Jabez's shoulder, while the albino looked up at the other silently. 

"You're... Sinbahd, right? From AT?" Jabez asked. "Yes, how did you know that?" Sinbahd asked. "I know some of them," Jabez says as Sinbahd then nodded and left the albino to mind his own business. There was a gold shiny ancient like device for calling, it had a hole at the head and along its form. "All right. . . life as a vigilante for me is going to be tough." He says.