Secondrate Heroes - Restart

Set in a combined comics world, where DC, Marvel, and independent characters mingle.

Tired of continuous defeat, several major villains teamed up to bring down all of their enemies once and for all. They managed to locate an incredibly powerful telepath, and get their hands on Cerebro. They forced the telepath to link to the minds of every major hero around the world, then with a single dose of fear toxin drew every one of them into an endless nightmare. With all the major heroes incapacitated, they were free to claim control. The world quickly descended into chaos. However, the villains weren't counting on the Second-rate Heroes.

With big-time heroes always saving the world, the lesser ones faded into the background, ignored by the people they protected, other heroes, and the big villains. Overlooked in the attack, it's their time to shine.

Major Villains:
The Joker rules Gotham, with several minor villains in power but all answering to him. He has hired several bounty hunters and assassins to locate the Batfamily, who are being hidden by their allies.
Lex Luthor has become President but doesn't care about the country, simply using his power to do whatever he pleases. Superman is being held in the White House so Luthor can torture him whenever he pleases.
Kingpin's crime empire covers the entire eastern half of America. He runs New York, and has most of the city's unconscious heroes locked up on display in front of his mansion.
Magneto seized control of Canada and declared it a mutant-only land. Normal humans are being rounded up and expelled from the country. He protects the X-Men from their other enemies but doesn't want them to be freed..
Doctor Doom controls most of Europe, and is extending his reach into Asia.
The Mandarin controls Eastern Asia.
Loki was given Australia in return for keeping the gods from finding out what's going on.

Bev stared up at the home of Doctor Stephen Strange. "It's smaller than I expected."
"Maybe it's bigger on the inside?" Jasper suggested.
"Like a TARDIS?" Skepticism and a geeky desire for all things to be a little more like Doctor Who warred within her. "Well, I guess we'll find out." They approached the front door, hopeful that they'd soon have a true Hero to help them.

Strange's voice came on over a speaker

Bev answered. "We are Hobachi and Malachite. We need to speak to you."

Strange replied sharply

Bev and Jasper stared at each other for a moment. This was not what they had expected. Bev rattled the locked door. "We've come this far to find you, we're not just going to leave!" She looked at Jasper, who nodded. "We're coming in!" A green glow rose from Jasper's palm and a moment later the door fell to the ground.

A freezing wind blew past the duo as a wall of ice blocked their way

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Bev muttered, as Jasper cut through the ice as well. She called out "Look, we're sorry about the door, but you're kind of needed out there, so whatever your problem is suck it up and come talk to us face-to-face!" Jasper's weapon passed through the ice wall and cut a statue in half. "It's your place that'll be trashed if we have to keep this up."

Strange's voice rang out, but something was wrong...

"Stay ou-out! Leeeave... I have no time t-t-t-to-- approaches?-- guests BZZT Damn, the voice matrix gave out. Stupid patch-work system! ... ACK, THE SPEAKERS!"

"... What?" Bev was confused for a moment; then she got pissed. "I don't know who you are, but what the hell gives you the right to impersonate a hero?!" She ran off down the corridor. Jasper chased after her. "Hobachi! Take it easy, girl!"

"I-I can't let you in! I can't let the city down!" The highly altered voice replied with conviction as a multitude of traps armed and thick ice walls formed at intervals in every hall and doorway.

Jasper looked at Bev "Are we going up or down?" She considered. "I can't picture Strange with a basement stronghold. Up." A blast from Jasper's palm blew a hole in the ceiling. ""If we ever do meet Strange he's going to kill us, Bev muttered as they climbed up to the inner sanctum.

"Not so fast!" The voice warned as yet more ice walls formed with robotic guards between each wall "I'm not so cocky as to think one hallway would keep threats out"

Jasper could cut through anything put in front of him, but it was wearing him down, especially the effort needed to hit the moving robots. Bev couldn't do much to help; she didn't carry weapons.

There was one robot that stood out among the rest. It was patchwork, but there was no mistaking...

THE DALEK!

Jasper wearily pointed his palm at it, but Bev stopped him. "Ok, you have to let me take this one. When else am I going to get this chance?" From her pocket, she drew a handy device that disrupted electronic signals - which just happened to look just like a sonic screwdriver.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'this could be a little more sonic'?"

Bev couldn't resist. She had to complete the quote, as she shut down the Dalek. "What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

As the defenses went down the voice chuckled "Alright, I think that's enough fighting. C'mon up"

Bev looked at her partner. "He's a geek. I've never heard of a geeky villain. We may have screwed this one up." Jasper took two steps and promptly fell over. "Do you think you could come to us?" he called - rather pathetically - to the mystery voice.

"I can't leave the security unattended, but we can compromise" The voice replied as two balloon-bodied med-bots came and took them to their creator.

In a room barely visible beneath the wires and cables was a man in a ratty lab coat. The man turned to the duo and said "Gabriel Gomez. At your service""

"Hobachi." Bev pointed to herself, then at Jasper, who was moping in the arms of one of the med bots. "That's Malachite. Hey!" She elbowed him in the ribs. "Quit sulking."
"Well this isn't very dignified," he complained.
"Would crawling here have been better? How about forcing yourself to walk and throwing up from the strain?" She shook her head in exasperation and turned back to Gabriel. "Don't mind him. He worries too much about his image."

Keeping an eye on his many monitors Gabriel smiled warmly as he replied "don't worry, I don't put much stock in first impressions when the person seems exhausted." Crossing his arms casually he continued "as you can guess from my presence: Strange is gone. I tried to make it seem like he was still around, give people hope and the villains reason to pause, but you can imagine the... difficulty one would face trying to emulate mystic forces with robotics and such"

Bev found a clear spot and sat down, feeling suddenly worn out. They'd been so hopeful that Strange could help them. She looked at Jasper. "What do we do now?" He just shrugged. "Well, sorry to have trashed your defenses. As soon as he can move we'll get out of your hair."

Gabriel thought carefully before replying "Well, I may not be who you wanted but... perhaps I can help you. At least you wouldn't leave empty-handed"