Halloween was a popular holiday around Viridian City. Many of the younger ‘mon looked forward to it as a reason to dress up and get loads of free candy. Several of their older brothers and sisters loved it as an excuse to do the same while they escorted their younger sibling around. Parties were also the norm as many older students and adults planned bashes to celebrate and enjoy themselves. Many looked forward to the chilled nights that fully heralded the return of autumn complete with falling leaves and windy days that were part and parcel to it. Many of the stores in and around the city got into the act as they decorated themselves for the occasion; or to get their Christmas decorations out to be ready to sell them. Halloween was an enjoyable time for many in the world, but for two souls it was another night out.

“This is going to be kind of weird being out tonight,” the Manectric said. Above the city atop a multi-story building stood two individuals who looked out over the main business district of the city, something the duo had done more nights than not of late. For the lady it was something she’d done for a while now, but for the other it was a new experience he was still adjusting to.

“Yeah, Halloween gets a little strange,” Diamondback, hero of Viridian, admitted as she watched several children scamper from store front to store front along the lines of a planned trick-or-treat route. She smiled a bit at the sight and thought about her youngest sibling who was probably out taking advantage of her small height to get some goodies without any guilt.

“Ever had any extra trouble with masked guys on it before?” Stormfist, her hero-in-training, asked as he glanced towards the kids as well. He wondered if any of his students were down there as well.

“There was one robbery actually,” she mentioned before she shot a line towards a taller building nearby to swing over towards it. Stormfist reached up with his metal hands to grab onto a power line to zip himself along after her thanks to a trick he’d recently picked up.

“Three guys decided they’d take advantage of an old folks home that was giving out candy by bringing a couple of kids in and then sneaking into the rooms of the elderly folks,”

“How’d you find out about it?” He asked while he settled on the rooftop next to her to look out over the bustling city.

“One of the old folks who hated kids refused to give out candy,” she admitted, “Caused a ruckus and the thugs tried to hold some of them hostage to run. I was able to sneak in disguised as a parent that was dressed up and beat them up before they could hurt anyone,”

“Shame you can’t use that tactic every day,” Stormfist said as he barked out a laugh of amusement. Diamondback just grinned as she looked down.

“Rather not have to do it every day,” She told him. It’d been a little while since she’d gotten a real break from fighting crime and she looked forward to getting Stormfist trained enough he could go out on his own so she could get a decent nights sleep, maybe go out to a club to do some dancing.

“Would be nice to be able to get away in the evening, yeah,” Stormfist admitted. He’d been busting his rear end to try and keep up with his classes, grading and learning everything he could from his hero instructor.

“Why?” she started to tease, “You got someone you want to ask out or something?” the Manectric just shrugged in response as he tried to brush it off.

“Well, you know, in general,” He tried to brush it off. Diamondback was too observant to just brush something off like that; and teasing her cohort amused her on the chill night.

“Sure, just in general,” She poked him, “Who is it?” Stormfist turned away from her to try and look down at the streets below in order to not look her in the eyes. He tilted his head to either side in debate if he should say anything or not.

“It’s…a colleague of mine,” he finally said, “Another teacher,” Stormfist almost hated the fact that she knew who he was but he had no clue who she was; but she knew his identity and there was nothing he could do to change that. Diamondback tilted her head a bit and was a little surprised to hear it was a teacher, but a little relieved for her own reasons.

“Why haven’t you asked her out yet?” She poked him verbally. He squirmed a bit under the interrogation.

“Well,” he thought about blaming it on his schedule of late, but realized that was a cop out and wasn’t something she’d probably accept, “It’s…kind of hard to go out on dates when you have top secret mechanical arms, you know?” She stopped and blinked as he admitted to it since she hadn’t thought that far about the negatives of his condition. Sure, the cybernetic arms he had were a huge boon as far as fighting crime was concerned, but when it came to his personal life there were only so many ways he could hide them.

“Do you think she’d understand?” Diamondback asked him as she rested a gloved hand on his shoulder. Stormfist shrugged lightly as he glanced over to her.

“I…” but before he could answer an alert came to the Glaceon’s fantastical watch on her wrist. It was from Magnum, the professor involved in their endeavor who helped to direct them to where the trouble is.

“Yes, Professor?” Diamondback quickly answered as she brought her wrist device up to her mouth.

“There’s been a break in at a biochemical firm about two miles west of your current position,” the Magnemite’s voice echoed from the speaker in the device, “The police have been alerted but it looks like it’s more than just common thieves,”

“Wait, biochemical,” something dawned on the Glaceon, “You don’t think…”

“I was worried about that too, Diamondback,” Magnum admitted.

“Some super villain of yours?” Stormfist asked his mentor. She nodded her head once and looked towards the west.

“If its who we think it is, its Vinewhip,” she informed him before she talked into her device, “We’re on our way, Professor,” without hesitation the super-heroine sprung into action and launched her line for a nearby building that’d get her moving in the right direction. Stormfist blinked a moment before he reached up to grab a power line as his hands glowed with electric energy and started moving him along the steel cable.

“Who’s Vinewhip?” He asked, still not familiar with the entirety of her rogues’ gallery.

“She’s a crazy former botanist who’s got a serious thing against mechanical stuff,” Diamondback quickly explained as they sped for the building in question. Stormfist just frowned as he moved after her.

“So she’s really gonna love me isn’t she!” He called out as they landed on a rooftop just on the other side of the street from their goal. The Glaceon just grinned at her cohort and patted him on a cybernetic shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him, “We should be able to handle this without too much trouble,” He certainly hoped so as he looked down to where a whole had been ripped into the side of the building. The police hadn’t shown up yet though both of them imagined they couldn’t be very far behind.

“Okay, follow my lead,” She told him as she launched another zipline towards the biotech firm’s building and swung down. The Manectric started and realized he wasn’t going to be getting in the same way she did; instead he reached for a nearby storm drain and charged his hand to magnetically grip onto it so he could slide down. He quickly caught up with her at the gaping entrance as the two started to sneak into the building.

An alarm could be heard in the distance as they made their way through the halls. No guards seemed to be present along the path of destruction, which was hopefully a good sign they called the cops on this one instead of trying to play hero. What lights that hadn’t been destroyed flickered about them and offered a soft glow to make their way along. Strange marks scoured the walls which left them a nice trail to follow; one they hoped wasn’t a trap. Soon they saw a light on in a lab that also had its door ripped off the hinge. The two heroes quickly moved to either side of the door and peered in to see what was going on.

Just beyond the edge of a table Stormfist got his first glance at the villainess Vinewhip. He recoiled a bit when he saw the grotesque mouth and row of teeth of the Victreebel morph and couldn’t help but be a little disappointed his first female bad guy wasn’t hotter. He shrugged a shoulder to himself and looked over to Diamondback to see what she wanted to do. The Heroine motioned for him to move into one side on her signal and motioned that she’d be going the other way. The Manectric nodded and crouched in preparation to pounce.

A cry caught both of them off guard as some things suddenly sprung out through the tiled floor and at the two heroes. Stormfist brought his arms up instinctively as he tried to keep whatever they were from getting at Diamondback and to keep them from doing too much damage. It was almost unnecessary on his part as the Glaceon gracefully rolled into the room so she could get away from the creatures and face the true threat. Stormfist gritted his teeth as he felt a sudden twinge of pain and glanced down only to blink in surprised at what it was that was gripping onto him tightly.

“I see you’ve met my pets,” Vinewhip said as she grinned manically at the two heroes. Stormfist shook his arms a few times to try and shake off the mutated Belsprouts that clung fiercly to him. Their mouths were filled with rows of razor sharp teeth that snapped and tried to eat away at the hero.

“You’re as messed up as they are, Vinewhip,” Diamondback declared before she pointed at the villainess, “Surrender now and we can make this easy on everyone,” the Victreebel just laughed and motioned to her pets.

“You’re going to have to worry about them first,” she cackled with glee, “They despise the horror of mechanical things as much as I do,” Stormfist managed to rip one of the creatures off his arms but as if on cue the other two quickly struck and sunk their razor-sharp jaws into his cybernetic arms. The limbs were tied into his nervous system which allowed him to feel what happened to them so he could do have a sense of touch; but it also meant he felt when painful things happened. The hero let out a sharp cry of pain before Diamondback suddenly charged at the creatures and wrapped her hands around them to shoot them full of Ice energy and freeze them. From there she was able to snap them off and hurl the things away before she looked down to her fallen comrade.

“Stormfist!” she cried out as she kneeled at his side, “Are you okay?” the Manectric sucked in a breath as he felt the torn circuits and servos that were tied into his very person.

“No,” He admitted as he started to pull himself up, “My arms are damaged and are probably going to need some repairs,” He paused and looked into the lab, “Wait…where’s Vinewhip?”

“Gone,” Diamondback admitted as she helped him to a standing position, “We’ll have to get you fixed up then go after her,” She settled his arm around her shoulders and started back for the entrance as she hoped she’d beat the cops there so they wouldn’t have to answer any questions.

“You’re going to have to tell me where to go to get you help though,” Diamondback admitted as they walked along. Stormfist’s mind raced as he tried to think about his options; he couldn’t go back to the company that had put the arms on him in the first place because then it’d be revealed he was using them to hero and that could land him in trouble. He didn’t think that Magnum would be able to handle the level of tech that they were. Eventually his mind settled on one name, someone he knew that was heavily into robotics and might be able to do something for him.

“I think know just the place,”



Miss Raine Cameroon wasn’t one to normally deal much with people she didn’t have to. It wasn’t that she was anti-social or that she didn’t know how to interact with people it’s that she usually found herself busy with the several projects she was working on at once that kept her from spending a lot of time amongst her fellow pokemorphs. Her mind raced with ideas constantly, or how she could help certain students who took a great deal of interest in the areas of mechanics and robotics and loved to help them out. In the end her greatest joy was what her newest project was and whatever robot it was she was creating. It was on this chilly Halloween that the PCA robotics teacher found herself in the basement once again, though dressed as a witch to try and get into the mood, but distracted by her latest creation. Instead the passing out of candy had come to her prized creation, Lil’ Handy the robot.

“Miss?” the voice box of the creation spoke up from the doorway that lead down to her basement. The lovely Wartortle looked up towards the opened portal as she lifted goggles from her eyes.

“Yes?” She asked, “What is it? Are we out of candy?”

“No Miss,” Lil’ Handy responded, “You have visitors,”

“Visitors?” She blinked her eyes, she didn’t normally have visitors. Raine settled down her wrench and started up the stairs, “Who’s here to visit me?”

“I’m sorry for bothering you, Miss Cameroon,” Diamondback suddenly spoke up from behind the robot, “But there’s been an emergency,”

“Oh my,” Raine said as she stopped and looked at the two heroes. Her attention was immediately grabbed by the exposed circuits and occasional electrical discharge that came from the arms of Stormfist. He tried to stand up straight at the sight of her and cleared his throat.

“Miss Cameroon I’m sorry to bother you,” He said. Diamondback glanced over towards him a bit startled at the suddenly serious nature of her cohort, “But…there’s something I need your help with…”

“Well I can see that,” she said as she made her way quickly over to the Manectric’s arms and looked them over, “It looks like something took a nasty bite out of you,”

“Mutated Belsprouts,” Diamondback explained as she looked over the scene. She thought she could almost see Stormfist blush at the touch of Cameroon. She brushed it aside for the moment, though, “Do you think you can help, Miss Cameroon?”

“I might be able to do something here,” she said as she looked even closer. Stormfist looked down and caught a nice shot of her suddenly exposed cleavage as her top fell a bit away from her chest. He cleared his throat as he tried to focus himself.

“I should warn you this is top secret level technology,” He warned her, “So I’d have to ask you to keep anything you see quiet…”

“Oh don’t worry yourself about that,” Cameroon answered, “I probably have enough clearance to look at stuff like this,” the two heroes looked at her a bit stunned she’d have such high military clearance. She just smiled at them and shrugged, “I do some work for the military on occasion. It has its benefits!” She pointed down the stairs, “I need to get something from my bathroom, don’t ask, you two head down there and I’ll be with you in a moment,” The Wartortle headed off to a backroom in her house as the duo watched stunned for a moment. They quickly snapped themselves out of it and headed down into her cellar.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Diamondback suddenly asked.

“Wait, what?” He stammered in response, “What do you mean?”

“She’s the one you’ve got a thing for,” she grinned at him, “So why don’t you ask her out,”

“Like I said,” He responded, “My arms aren’t exactly a great conversational piece,”

“I dunno,” she said as Stormfist settled into a chair to wait, “I think you might actually have something in common with her considering,”

“What if she only likes me for my arms?” he blurted out. Diamondback just gave him a look that said it all as he backed off from the absurd statement. He sighed and settled in against the chair.

“I just…I’m scared to do it, okay?” he stated to her as he looked around for a moment, “It’s been a while and everything that’s going on…”

“Sometimes…sometimes you have to take a risk on things,” she told him, “Just like you and I take a risk on being heroes,” He sat there silently as he absorbed her words. It’d be a huge risk to do it, he couldn’t do it now either that was for sure, but her words did ring with truth to them. They both stopped talking as Raine walked back into the room.

“Okay, this shouldn’t take too long and you both should be back out again,” she said as she took one of his mechanical hands and turned his arm. Stormfist blushed a bit again at it and tried to relax as she started to work on him.

“And Miss Cameroon,” He said without the pomp and seriousness he did earlier, “Thank you, for helping me with this,” The Wartortle just smiled and waved it off, she again gave him a wonderful view down her shirt as she leaned over.

“I’m glad to help out someone who’s trying to make a difference in the city,” she said as she started to mend the horrendous bite marks on his arm. Stormfist calmed himself best he could while he waited for her to finish. Diamondback watched on, somewhat anxiously as she wanted to get back out there to stop the villainess who was still at large. Silence hung through the air for the most part though on occasion the hero and the mechanic fixing his arm chatted back and forth. It seemed to soothe both of them as she worked quickly on the cybernetics; though she wished she could spend more time on them to get a feel for the robotics involved. Eventually she finished up as he flexed his hands and arms to test them out.

“Wow, they feel even better than before they were damaged,” He said as he moved them about in measured swings. Raine smiled at the compliment as she set her tools down.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said before she looked at the hero, “Just go out and stop whoever did this. They sound like a nasty character,”

“Oh she is, trust me,” Diamondback answered.

“I’m in your debt, Miss Cameroon. If there’s anything I can ever do to repay you, please let me know,”

“I’ll keep that in mind in case I’m ever bored and want a better look at those arms of yours,” she teased him though she blushed a bit. Stormfist coughed and nodded.

“Yes, well, I’ll see what I can do,” He responded as Diamondback stifled a giggle, “Until next time, Miss Raine! Thank you,”

“You two take care,” she smiled at them. Quickly the two heroes headed out to track down Vinewhip and take her down before she could ruin Halloween for the kids. They had a fairly good idea where they might be able to find her…



“It’s good to see that Diamondback and Stormfist stopped that odd womon before she was able to turn the pumpkin patch into a living army,” Raine Cameroon and Jason Blaze walked down the hallway after school and towards the parking lot like they often did.

“No kidding,” Jason responded, “it was pretty quick thinking on their part to freeze the shared vine and electrocuted it to cut off the chemical,” Raine glanced up at him with some amusement.

“How do you know so much about what they did,” she asked him. The Manectric cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m a big fan of theirs,” He said quickly, “Of anyone that tries to help people selflessly,” the Wartortle giggled a bit as the turned a corner.

“I’d love to get a chance to look at Stormfist’s arms, that’s for sure,” she said with a brief, dreamy look of someone enamored with something, and given her love of robotics it’s understandable. Jason cleared his throat briefly and looked around. He blinked as he snagged a glance of Vanilla Swirl, Professor Magnum’s secretary. She caught sight of the two teachers and gave them a friendly little wave which they returned before she disappeared into a room. Jason suddenly thought back to something another Glaceon he knew had told him.

“Say…Raine,” He suddenly said, “Would you…like to go get dinner with me sometime? Maybe a walk throught he park?”

“You mean as colleagues or…?” She asked to clarify the question a bit. Jason nodded his head as he steeled himself and thought about Diamondback’s words.

“As in a date,” He quickly responded, “If you’d like,” Cameroon stopped and looked up at her colleague before she gave a little smile.

“I’d like that,” she answered, “This Friday?”

“Sounds good to me,” Blaze quickly said, “Pick you up at seven?” she nodded in approval at that.

“That sounds good,” she answered, “But you know…I could go for some coffee right now,” Jason blinked a bit in surprise but just smiled.

“My treat then,” he said as the two continued towards the parking lot to grab their cars. Jason “Stormfist” Blaze was taking a lot of risks these days, but it’s like Diamondback said, sometimes you just have to take risks.

The romance story lover in me is happy, the action story lover in me is happy, and the comic book superhero lover in me died with sheer joy... ^w^ Great work!!

... oddly enough though the one comment that sticks with me the most is "She smiled a bit at the sight and thought about her youngest sibling who was probably out taking advantage of her small height to get some goodies without any guilt."

XD It just brings to mind Cinny having to suffer through those little old ladies that have too coo and praise how cute EVERY poor kid who comes to their door looks before they actually give them candy. X3

Well worth it to get a bunch of free candy!

True, so very true... *sighs and reminisces about the good old days when I was small enough to do that...*

Hmm...a terrific story, but I have a professor that will be terribly heartbroken when he hears that someone has beat him to Miss Cameroon.

Although...perhaps there are still avenues yet uncharted, hmm? *scurries to his drawing board*

No! They're going for coffee and dinner! It means they're married and serious and already planning kids and a future! You'd be heartless to try and break that up!

In all seriousness, he did just ask her out on a date.